>> Certificate of Excellence said:

SSDs and cubes remind me of the old (yet very, very true) saying - It doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to work. The solution above is what I use in one of my MDDs. View attachment 2621 With adapter, you're looking at 5x3.25 inches all in, so 12.7 x 8.255 centimeters - cube owners can measure the drive space and see if that solution will fit. Click to expand...

Looking at the solder on your adapter makes me realize why mine was so cheap...

>> wottle said:

Looking at the solder on your adapter makes me realize why mine was so cheap... Click to expand...

I think they contracted that solder work out to Drake. [disguised-face]

Hi there I have to try another thing on my G4-Cube. My adapter-solution with m-sata-ssd works only on coldboot, every reboot leads to "?"
That is very annoying when you have a multi-boot-machine with yaboot and OS9-9.0.3/OSX-10.2.8/YDL3 (beside YDL3 should work on R128pro accelerated (old threads on google show that is supported) but I have not figured it out yet. Now I am thinking about a DOM for my G4-Cube in order to get an always booting solution on every restart. But (industrial) DOM's are expensive...I still want the full 120GB that are supported on the cube.

USED SSD: https://www.amazon.de/Transcend-TS128GMSA230S-interne-mSATA-128GB/dp/B07GMD5R7M/ref=sr_1_3?
USED CASE: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B083LXPF91/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
USED ADAPTER: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07ZNKPHNP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Someone said the reboot-problems come from the master/slave detection. I can't figure out how to change this on G4-cube, beside that warm-reboot "?" problem everything is working fine with my solution.

>> drzeissler said:

Hi there I have to try another thing on my G4-Cube. My adapter-solution with m-sata-ssd works only on coldboot, every reboot leads to "?" That is very annoying when you have a multi-boot-machine with yaboot and OS9-9.0.3/OSX-10.2.8/YDL3 (beside YDL3 should work on R128pro accelerated (old threads on google show that is supported) but I have not figured it out yet. Now I am thinking about a DOM for my G4-Cube in order to get an always booting solution on every restart. But (industrial) DOM's are expensive...I still want the full 120GB that are supported on the cube. USED SSD: https://www.amazon.de/Transcend-TS128GMSA230S-interne-mSATA-128GB/dp/B07GMD5R7M/ref=sr_1_3? USED CASE: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B083LXPF91/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 USED ADAPTER: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07ZNKPHNP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Someone said the reboot-problems come from the master/slave detection. I can't figure out how to change this on G4-cube, beside that warm-reboot "?" problem everything is working fine with my solution. Click to expand...

If you go back to my earlier post, I have that in my Cube and don't have the issue you are seeing. Not sure if it's your case, adapter, or SSD, but it's not a problem with using an SSD. Although I have two cubes and I think one is using this adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HJBEUY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It can't be the 40/44pin adapter because there is no logic in that thing. It can only be the SSD itself or the case with the transfer m2-sata to IDE44 logic. Some other people have exact the same issue with thiere solution and that is different from mine. They said it's the master/slave logic witch seems to be " cable selected" and therefore breaks on a warm-reboot. On cold reboot it's fine. Don't know if you drive multiboot with yaboot at startup, perhaps this is also a problem...but I don't think so.

>> drzeissler said:

It can't be the 40/44pin adapter because there is no logic in that thing. It can only be the SSD itself or the case with the transfer m2-sata to IDE44 logic. Some other people have exact the same issue with thiere solution and that is different from mine. They said it's the master/slave logic witch seems to be " cable selected" and therefore breaks on a warm-reboot. On cold reboot it's fine. Don't know if you drive multiboot with yaboot at startup, perhaps this is also a problem...but I don't think so. Click to expand...

If it is an issue with the master/slave identification, that would point to a problem with the case, as it is responsible for controlling the master / slave / cable select behavior for IDE, as the mSATA drive doesn't support that natively for an IDE connection. If you look at my case, the seller states that is only supports master, which may be why mine works on cold / warm reboots. I'd look to change out the mSATA to IDE case for the one I'm using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GRMUQRG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Would be interesting how Master/Slave detection is different on cold/warm reboot.

True. It could have nothing to do with the master / slave config and something with you using multiboot. The master/slave config and the multi-boot feel like the two most likely candidates.

Here's the solution I use:

Mounting bracket

Adapter

The bottom bracket is a MFJ 3D printed custom design, perfect replacement for the standard one (which went missing).

I had to mount the SSD with some offset in order to allow sufficient front clearance for the adapter.

>> Paolo B said:

Here's the solution I use: Mounting bracket Adapter The bottom bracket is a MFJ 3D printed custom design, perfect replacement for the standard one (which went missing). I had to mount the SSD with some offset in order to allow sufficient front clearance for the adapter. Click to expand...

I clicked the "Adapter" link you provided, but I am not seeing that in your photo. Your photo shows the bare SSD in the bracket. Do you have a photo of how the adapter looks? It seems the SSD is supposed to mount inside that Adapter, or am I just totally misreading what you've done?

Yes, I only took the active part of the adapter and ditched the plastic case, replacing it with the metal one of the second link. Probably totally unnecessary, but I didn't like the idea of having the SSD shrouded in plastic frame in a machine cooled only by natural convection.

Here's another one

Okay, so basically you did this...

1. Your earlier post shows the standard G4 Cube plastic mounting side rails, but you had to 3D print one because you seem to have lost one of the originals.

2. You purchased the Mounting Bracket only for the purpose of better cooling the SSD, even though the Adapter frame would have worked fine with the side rails as is.

3. The SSD could not be directly mounted into the Mounting Bracket though because that wouldn't allow enough space for the Adapter's PCB, so it seems you sliced up some metal, screwed it into the sides of the SSD, then affixed the metal pieces to the Mounting Bracket somehow.

Did I get all of that correct?

1. Your earlier post shows the standard G4 Cube plastic mounting side rails, but you had to 3D print one because you seem to have lost one of the originals. Click to expand...

The unit came w/o HD, seller only included the heat sink, so I had to source the HD (SSD), the mounting bracket and the plastic rail, which serves the two fold purpose of guiding the unit and locking it to the chassis.
I decided to reproduce the rail, the master sample is of course from another cube.

2. You purchased the Mounting Bracket only for the purpose of better cooling the SSD, even though the Adapter frame would have worked fine with the side rails as is. Click to expand...

You can buy the adapter with or without frame, which is made of very cheap plastic.
Pricing delta is totally negligible, say thousand yen.

3. The SSD could not be directly mounted into the Mounting Bracket though because that wouldn't allow enough space for the Adapter's PCB, so it seems you sliced up some metal, screwed it into the sides of the SSD, then affixed the metal pieces to the Mounting Bracket somehow. Click to expand...

No metal butchering whatsoever. The silver stuff is the EMS that came with the SSD. Necessary? Probably not. Harmful? Surely not.

As a mechanical engineer I sometimes tend to overdo these kind of things...

All in all a decent project, with right balance of fun, time spent and squandered money.

I plead not guilty, your Honor.

Thanks for the details. As you can tell from my Avatar, I tend to like my G4 Cubes. :) Currently, all have spinner drives in them.

So basically, if someone wants to follow in your footsteps with a G4 Cube that already has a hard drive and the side rails, all they would need to do is just buy a 128GB SSD in a 2.5" size, then buy that Adapter you kindly linked for us, ignore better cooling and just mount the SSD in the adapter, and then the adapter frame would, without modification, allow the side rails to screw onto it just fine so it could then me rather easily mounted into the Cube?

I must be honest, I didn't check if the plastic frame the adapter came with was fitting or not.
But the selling point of the assembly is to fit a 2.5" SATA SSD drive in the boundary volume of a 3.5" IDE spinner drive.
Dimensions are standardized, so, yes, I assume everything would fit off the shelf.
By the way, on Amazon there is more than one option for the converter. I preferred to stick to the linked one (SUGOI), since it was documented as working on the Cube by some Japanese blogger.
And, yes, I totally agree on your admiration for the Cube, it was love at first sight... A 500 MHz served me and my family without missing a beat for many years!

I have installed a SSD in one of my Cubes. I used a cheap metal bracket intended to mount a 2.5" SATA drive in a 3.5" bay:



Because of the IDE-SATA adapter, the SSD will not align with the mounting holes: I just used double sided tape to mount it!

The assembly can then be used like any 3.5" drive in the Cube.

Same issue here, the three holes for the heat sink dictate the orientation of the bracket. Which unfortunately is not offering enough clearance for the adapter, since the position of the connectors is fixed. That's the reason why I had to offset the SSD.

Orico (edited) brand 128MB MSATA SSD on sale at Newegg for $10 through 4/01/23. I've never tried it myself. Limit 1 to customer.

This adapter is pricey, but has an actual jumper for setting Master/Slave/CS: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017VQT5YW/?coliid=I1MVZPP46HRRUG

For adapters which are based off of the Jmicron JM20330, it should be possible to change the setting with a bit of soldering. Pin 33 controls it according to the datasheet, and 0 is master and 1 is slave. Presumably that's GND and 3.3V.

The older Marvell PATA/SATA chip is also switchable, but the newer ones are fixed. They sell a chip which is always Master and they sell a chip which is always Slave. I've never seen the latter in the wild.

Finally, I think there's a long thread about this in the forums on OS9 Forever or OS9 LIves? Can't remember.

Later Edit: https://www.newegg.com/orico-m200-128gb/p/2CR-000K-00004?Item=9SIA1DS9WA5540

Oh by the way, if you want to use a larger drive, everything is explained here: Using 128 GiB or Larger ATA Hard Drives (and it even works with a SATA converter)