Question Convert a PCI RAMDISK to a Portable USB Drive ?

[Genralkidd]

I have an old Gigabyte GC-RAMDISK that I wanted to get some use out of again but since it uses legacy PCI instead of PCIe, I can't really use it on any modern PC I have. So I was wondering if it'd be possible to convert it into a portable USB drive?

The Ramdisk only uses the PCI slot for power and it actually just transfers data via an on board SATA port. So I was thinking of using a PCI Riser powered by an external power source and then a SATA to USB adapter. The question is though will that even work? I've used PCIe risers before on things like GPUs and they won't actually power on unless they're plugged into the PCIe slot of a PC that's also powered on and running. So even though the Gigabyte Ramdisk only uses PCI for power, I have no idea if it'll actually power on this way and get the power it needs from the PCI riser.

So any chance this will work or will I need to take another approach to getting it to work externally?

 

[TerryLaze]

PCI is well documented, if it only needs the power you can even wire the few leads yourself but it might also need the correct signal from activation line or the data transfer lines. I'm sure it came with software and we don't know what that was doing.

Power packs of big external harddrives will have both 12V and 3.3V that you will need.
I would keep it internal though just getting the voltages from a sata to molex adaptor.

The paths on the riser card should be visible on the PCB, if it connects the power lines then it will provide the power.

[Pinout] PCI Express x16 Pinout

PCI Express x16 슬롯의 Pinout은 아래와 같습니다. PCI-Express 16x PinOut Pin Side B Connector Side A Connector # Name Description Name Description 1 +12v +12 volt power PRSNT#1 Hot plug presence detect 2 +12v +12 volt power +12v +12 volt power 3 +12v +12 volt power +12v +12 volt power 4 GND Ground GND...

thisko.tistory.com

 

[BFG-9000]

Unless you still have your backup battery and want it to charge, only 5v and 3.3v is required.

Modding a Gigabyte i-RAM (GC-RAMDISK) to run without being plugged into a PCI slot...

This article describes the proceedure to make the iRAM RAMDISK run as a standalone board.

mattaw.blogspot.com

PCI I-RAM Working Without A PCI Slot

[Gnif] had a recent hard drive failure in his home server. When rebuilding his RAID array, he decided to update to the ZFS file system. While researching ZFS, [Gnif] learned that the file system al…

hackaday.com

https://xdevs.com/article/pci_iram/

Be aware that it takes a lot of power to operate, and when running on the battery circuit the SATA part isn't powered up and the RAM runs at a very low refresh rate

 

[Genralkidd]

PCI is well documented, if it only needs the power you can even wire the few leads yourself but it might also need the correct signal from activation line or the data transfer lines. I'm sure it came with software and we don't know what that was doing.

Power packs of big external harddrives will have both 12V and 3.3V that you will need.
I would keep it internal though just getting the voltages from a sata to molex adaptor.

The paths on the riser card should be visible on the PCB, if it connects the power lines then it will provide the power.

[Pinout] PCI Express x16 Pinout

PCI Express x16 슬롯의 Pinout은 아래와 같습니다. PCI-Express 16x PinOut Pin Side B Connector Side A Connector # Name Description Name Description 1 +12v +12 volt power PRSNT#1 Hot plug presence detect 2 +12v +12 volt power +12v +12 volt power 3 +12v +12 volt power +12v +12 volt power 4 GND Ground GND...

thisko.tistory.com

Yeah the PCI riser I was eyeing has a 12V barrel jack connector for the power source and the other connector is a USB 3 port to connect it to the PCIe adapter but hopefully I won't need to worry about that aspect. Unfortunately I don't have the PCI riser yet so I can't see if the PCB has the power lines connected, but I guess at this point the only way to find out is to get it and try it out and see if it'll just turn on with the power.

I don't think the Ramdisk had an special software that went along with it so it should hopefully function as a normal SATA drive. But speaking of SATA, the other uncertainty I have is that pretty much every SATA-USB adapter I can find is a SATA data/power combo connector, which if I recall is an SFF-8784 connector. I haven't found any direct SATA to USB adapter nor have I found a separate SATA data and power cables to a single SFF-8784 connector yet. But even if I do find one, what I'm uncertain about is whether a SATA-USB adapter will actually work despite not having a SATA power connection to the Ramdisk which is being powered by the PCI bus. I imagine it's going to have to be a bit of a DIY project to trick the USB adapter into thinking it has power as well...

Unless you still have your backup battery and want it to charge, only 5v and 3.3v is required.

Modding a Gigabyte i-RAM (GC-RAMDISK) to run without being plugged into a PCI slot...

This article describes the proceedure to make the iRAM RAMDISK run as a standalone board.

mattaw.blogspot.com

PCI I-RAM Working Without A PCI Slot

[Gnif] had a recent hard drive failure in his home server. When rebuilding his RAID array, he decided to update to the ZFS file system. While researching ZFS, [Gnif] learned that the file system al…

hackaday.com

https://xdevs.com/article/pci_iram/

Be aware that it takes a lot of power to operate, and when running on the battery circuit the SATA part isn't powered up and the RAM runs at a very low refresh rate

I do still have the backup battery actually but I'm probably going to order a new one soon since this battery doesn't seem to be able to hold a charge anymore. I have actually seen that article already that you linked and unfortunately I don't have any soldering experience to be able to wire the card like that. So that's why I was hoping it'd be possible to go the PCI riser and SATA-USB route. I could even make or reuse an external hard drive enclosure too if the whole setup works. But I just need to figure out first if the Ramdisk in a PCI riser will even power on once the riser is plugged into a power source. From my previous experiences with PCIe risers, the slot won't activate unless the PC it's plugged into is powered on. So I'm hoping I can work around that with a PCI riser.

 

[Genralkidd]

Ok just an update, I finally received my PCI riser and a 12V power adapter for it. So far it does indeed power on the PCI Ramdisk despite not being plugged into the PC! So next step is the SATA to USB adapter. I've tried plugging it directly into my PC's SATA port but the port on the Ramdisk appears to be a piece of plastic chipped off so the SATA cable does not stay in place. I've tried holding it in place and booting my PC but it just hangs on the UEFI boot screen and even if I try to enter the BIOS it takes several minutes before it finally enters. The BIOS says there's no SATA device plugged in after that, but I assume the SATA port isn't broken since every time I boot with it plugged in, it takes awhile to even enter the BIOS so it must be trying to identiy the device but maybe because I couldn't hold it in place perfectly the connection kept getting interrupted or something.

In any case, for the SATA-USB adapter, does there even exist an adapter that isn't an SFF-8784 connector and is instead 2 loose SATA data and power cables connecting to a single USB cable? This Ramdisk card only has a single SATA data port on it and is not like a hard drive form factor.

 

[TerryLaze]

In any case, for the SATA-USB adapter, does there even exist an adapter that isn't an SFF-8784 connector and is instead 2 loose SATA data and power cables connecting to a single USB cable? This Ramdisk card only has a single SATA data port on it and is not like a hard drive form factor.

Does the ram card have anything next to the sata port that would prevent the 8784 connector to connect?!

As I said previously, the PC might need to get or send some signal through the PCI lane to make it work.

 

[Genralkidd]

Does the ram card have anything next to the sata port that would prevent the 8784 connector to connect?!

As I said previously, the PC might need to get or send some signal through the PCI lane to make it work.

The card only has a single SATA data port that's meant to be plugged directly into the motherboard. There's no SATA power connector that an 8784 connector can connector to. So somehow we'd need a single SATA data cable to USB adapter if that even exists or at least some DIY way to plug just a single SATA data cable into a USB adapter.

I tried connecting the PCIe adapter into the motherboard's PCIe slot so that the card is directly connected to the PC now. It doesn't seem to make any difference, I even tried enabling Above 4G Decoding on my motherboard just in case. Basically the result is usually the same, once it's plugged in via the SATA port, my PC takes awhile to get past the BIOS screen and then when booting Windows, it takes awhile there too. But the OS does not see the drive still. It's not in device manager nor is there another drive in disk management. On some occasions during boot, I'd get a BSOD that says "Inaccessible Boot Device" so that suggests to me the RAM disk isn't dead. I'm not sure if it's just the SATA port going loose or something.

I'm not sure if it'd be any better with a USB adapter but that'd be something I'd like to try if it's possible to build such an adapter. I don't mind if I have to use multiple layers of adapters to get it to work, I'm just not sure what kind of combinations of adapters I'd need to link a single SATA cable to USB.