Thread: Anyone gotten an SSD working on the G4?

It looks like the Intel X25 just has horrible compatibility. It would have been really nice if any of the many reviews I read before ordering it had mentioned that.

It also is not detected by my main desktop computer (Asus A8N-SLI motherboard), and I've found that other users with that same motherboard have the same problem.

It is detected by my other PC, which has an Intel motherboard.

I just don't understand why the SSD won't even be detected when both my G4 and desktop PC have other SATA drives which work fine. (And the tech "support" at Intel didn't know either.)


I'm ordering a 7200RPM HD to replace my existing corrupted 5400RPM HD, but still I'll be stuck with having to wait 40+ seconds to come out of hibernation each time (can't use standby since the G4 goes completely off overnight so often, even with a new car battery).

Wondering your initial question, if anyone is using SSD succesfully. My HD crashed and I'm looking for a replacement; I want to avoid this happening again, so if SSD is more reliable, I'll buy it. But don't wanna buy it if there's any chance I'll run into any issues, its $250 for a Patriot 128GB SATA SSD at frys and that's a lot more expensive than regular 2.5" hdd... I wrote mp3store (they dont have phone support anymore) and they said "You could replace that with any laptop hard drive (either disk or ssd)." so I guess they think it'll work.... but I dont really trust whoever wrote me that email cuz s/he also said "The hard drive is either sata or IDE." which is a pretty obvious, I dont think their were any other 160gb drives ever made besides IDE or SATA, it's not like MFM or anything else ever got that big, and since I bought it with the 160gb drive originally, and they installed it, you'd think they'd know which it was (and who made it, which I also asked but they ignored) without telling me to open it up and look... .anyways I'm rambling now...

But the OP question is my question - Anyone gotten an SSD working on the G4?

If you havent bought your drives yet, check out the automotive grade Hitachi drives. I dont know if they are "G4 Compatible" but they are just normal drives, but much much much more rugged and have better controllers to limit the head movement. Pricy in terms of Gb/$ but still cheaper than an SSD and better life than a normal HDD.

I found this very informative article that is very useful for anyone else considering SSDs:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

It seems to rate those Intel's X25 as the fastest by a wide margin, but if they're incompatible with G4, that defeats my purpose. There are a couple others besides the Intel that are still as fast (or faster) than hard drives (after initial write) to avoid those freezeups, like OCZ Vertex... unfortunately the one I was considering from Frys isn't one of them, it appears to be based on the worst controller of them all. And that OCZ Vertex is even costlier ($415 for 120GB).

So thanks for the info 2k1Toaster, I'm now going to look into the Hitachi drives you suggested. I just really don't want to have to go thru this again.

thanks for that article

I have Infill G4 with sata, and I get it running with ssd drive. I don't know is there any better way, but I did it like this:
I downloaded drivers from VIA: http://www.via.com.tw/en/support/drivers.jsp installed the VIA Hyperion Pro Driver Package and then VIA IDE Falcon Storage Device driver. (cx700) Then I cloned the old drive to SSD. Installed it in G4, and now everything is working.

> I have Infill G4 with sata, and I get it running with ssd drive.

Maybe it is the brand of drive you got.

After the X25 failed, I later tried a Super Talent 32GB. That also failed: Prevents the computer from even getting past the POST screen; can't even get into the BIOS setup - so it's not a driver issue for me since I'm not even getting to Windows.

I've completely given up on that, and the G4. I'm mostly finished with building my new car PC (now have to do a bunch of work on getting it mounted in the car with the standalone monitor and all).

Originally Posted by johnk

>I've completely given up on that, and the G4.

Did you give up on the G4 because it gave up on you or were you looking for an upgrade? I still have my G4 on my workbench trying to revive it.

Infill G4 not powering up but not booting up.

http://forums.streetdeck.com/forum/v...hp?f=30&t=1900

I just got tired of the slowness, the inability to upgrade it, the fact that it's run my car battery down many times over the last year since it's auto-shut-off feature apparently died, the GPS frequently failing to initialize (and usually taking a long time when it does work) and updating slowly (the original internal GPS died, so I had to use a USB one), the fact that my HD Radio often failed to initialize in Centrafuse after standby/hibernate (though this still happens sometimes even on my new PC using the direct serial port connection, but not as much), the unusably garbled Bluetooth audio which I thought might be due to the slow CPU (though with my new PC, BlueSoleil is currently unable to connect to my phone for some reason, even though it did at first, so I haven't been able to test the phone functionality yet), and other annoyances. I also wanted to run Windows 7 (though I hate the UI) so that I can use the Hybrid Sleep feature introduced in Vista, where the PC state is saved to a hibernation file when it goes to standby, so that if all power is cut it can still resume (which is still quite fast with the faster PC and using an SSD)

It was very nice (for installation ease) having the screen attached though. I currently have a jury-rigged setup with my new PC and have a lot of work to do to make it nice.

After a while I may sell my G4. Too much other stuff to think about right now though.