[LGSilva]

Hello!
While I wait for my mini 9 and for my runcore 32 I was searching for specs on the mini pcie slot/pata connections so maybe I could make a home-made adapter for mini pcie/1.8" hdd...

While searching for that I've found this mini pcie/sdhc adapter: http://hwtools.net/Card%20Reader/MR_04.html
It cost $15 and can use cards up to 32gb. I know the card speed would be slow but the main question is: would the mini 9 recognize it as a ssd?

NICE FIND!!! :ugeek:

I can't find any specs on the page if it is 50mm or 70mm. It does look 50mm to me. It might just work. Oh man too bad we can't use the extra WWAN slot with this. Actually that site has a lot of cool stuff. Book marking that one.

Actually this thing is giving me a b0nner! I wish I could find more specs for it. Or even a picture of the other side. I'm pretty sure that the WWAN port will not take a SSD card, but this looks like it's a dumb interface for USB. As some know mini PCIe also has USB specs. If people are using the WWAN port to get to the USB hub then this might just work? But if thats true then it probably won't work on the SSD slot.

[somms]

The pinout differences between the WLAN/WWAN slots and SSD are documented elsewhere in these forums. Basically, the SSD won't be recognized if stuck into either the WLAN or WWAN slots. Whether this adapter has the required pinouts to be used in the SSD slot instead of the WLAN/WWAN slot would be interesting to know!

EDIT: Since the picture you posted above clearly shows the adapter sitting in either a WLAN/WWAN slot of another notebook, I don't believe it could be used in the SSD slot of the Mini.

[Zion]

That would make a very cheap 16GB internal unit.... $15 for the adapter plus some $30 for a 16GB SDHC card....

[pr6srm]

I concur with previous comments that this device won't allow you to use an SD card as if it was an SSD (ie primary hard disk) due to the way Dell has *******ised the pin-outs. Also, it's worth noting that apart from the way Dell and Asus use mini-PCI-E ports for primary hard disk devices, most (I'm struggling to find exceptions) mini-PCI-E cards simply use a USB controller to connect to the device. This device appears to function likewise.

Therefore, if you had a spare WWAN or LAN mini-PCI-E socket, you would be able to use this device in there, it would show as a USB drive so if you had an SD card fast enough, you could use it as a data storage device. It is unlikely you would be able to run an OS directly from it unless you had a bootloader that recognised the onboard USB controller.

[drizek]

Thats a good point. What is the actual purpose of this if it is just a glorified USB card reader. We can already boot off of USB card readers

[cgiacca]

So am I correct in thinking that the only real use for this would be to add a secondary internal 'hard drive' to our minis?

A 16/32GB storage drive for my media? I could live with that

I wouldn't mind trying one, but I don't think they are even shipping yet. Says Engineering sample avail March 25? And they are in Taiwan. Maybe I'll look at this again in a few months.

[teeth_03]

Originally Posted by cgiacca

So am I correct in thinking that the only real use for this would be to add a secondary internal 'hard drive' to our minis?

A 16/32GB storage drive for my media? I could live with that

the only way to add another SSD (or other storage device),would be to solder the USB connection (of a RunCore drive) to the USB pins on the WWAN slot. I could be wrong,but doubtful

I already use the SD card reader as a permanent storage tied to my XP install (16 + 16)

[davico_rosello]

the wwan slot has only 3 volts right? is not a 5v normal usb.