The most common reason why only one Compact Flash Card is usable when multiple Compact Flash Cards are connected is due to a device signature collision.
If you are dealing with bootable devices and seeing this problem, we are confident a collision is the issue. If you are not dealing with a bootable device, then our information below will, probably, not help.
What is a Compact Flash Card signature collision?
A signature collision can happen on any bootable device, so Compact Flash Card cards, SD cards, microSD cards and USB flash drives. A disk signature is a unique identifier number (UID). It is a unique identifier stored as part of the MBR (Master Boot Record) for an operating system loaded on the device. The operating system will use the UID to identify and distinguish between storage devices. It is commonly made up of eight alphanumeric characters. A disk collision occurs when your operating system (Windows) detects that there are two disks with identical signatures.
For Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10, these versions of Windows will disable the second drive and will not allow that second volume to mount until the disk collision has been rectified. If you are reading this article, chances are, this is exactly what is happening to you.
The first thing to do is navigate to the Disk Management tool with in Windows. To do this, use the search tool and type in Disk Management. This will take you to the utility that Windows offers. Here you can see your multiple devices connected. If you click or hover over the device not working you will see one of two messages:
The Compact Flash Organization [site] released their new 5.0 specification earlier today. It just blew the cap off the lid of storage limits. The current specification for Compact Flash is 137GBs…now that is 144 Petabytes, or PBs.
Petabyte is a big number, and most people haven’t heard of it. Well, to break it down, a petabyte is [around] 150 million Gigabytes.
Look around your house for some Blu-ray discs, that would equal six million blu-ray titles on one Compact Flash card. I guess that means no more RAID boxes, right? I mean, what’s better than solid state memory and storage the size of Texas?
We started doing the math on the time it would take a CF Duplicator to copy a 5.0 Compact Flash card, laughed and stopped. There just isn’t technology out there for bulk data loading to a device like this…let alone finding a ligitimate use of putting that much information on the card anyway.
So we don’t see a practical use for the 5.0 spec yet, but there are other improvements we should get excited about. The CFA says Revision 5.0 brings an optional quality of service framework that guarantees a certain level of performance and prevents dropping frames, more efficient cleanup of unused space, a new electrical design that better complies with ATA standards.
There’s no mention of when CompactFlash 5.0 cards will ship, but if you are still interested you can read up on the new spec here [PDF], or download the official specification for a C note.
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Super Talent is pushing out a new line of Compact Flash cards, then CFast series. The CFast has a maximum bandwidth of 375MBs which is nearly four times faster than a traditional high end CF card at 90MBs.
The new CFast storage card breaks the speed bottleneck between the SSD and the device by using a SATA interface. Super Talent has clocked these CFast cards at up to 200MB/sec read speeds. With a Super Talent CFast storage card installed, there will be no waiting time for the camera to catch up, and it will be much swifter to view pictures on a camera or to copy them to computer.
Measuring 36.4 x 42.8 x 3.3mm for Type I CFast storage cards and 36.4 x 42.8 x 5.0mm for Type II, the same physical dimensions as the CompactFlash card, the CFast Storage Card has a single-chip controller and flash memory module. The SATA interface consists of a 7-pin signal connector and a 17-pin power and control connector. The card operates at 3.3V.
Super Talent is offering five different CFast storage cards, 8GB and 16GB based on SLC (Single Level Cell) flash and 8GB, 16GB and 32GB based on MLC (Multi Level Cell) flash. The first generation of CFast storage cards supports transfer speeds up to 200MB/s.
Source: SuperTalent.
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RiDATA introduces the ultra fast speed Compact Flash memory card at 300X normal data transfer speeds. The Supreme Compact Flash card is a 16GB haven for data storage. President Harvey Liu claims the CF card was designed for photographers needing high performance flash memory for those ultra large digital files the pros are taking, but he might be missing one critical target market – embedded designs.
As solid state memory is becoming cheaper and performs better, many embedded products are going the route of Compact Flash. These embedded designs and products need large capacity and high performance.
For example, did you know that most slot machines use either CF or SD solid state media to run the graphics you see when sitting at the slots? The display screen with graphics and information which come from your registration card are powered from a solid state drive. This is just one example of how embedded products are going more towards Flash Memory for data storage and processing.
RiDATA Supreme Compact Flash card is available through the retail channel with a 2 year warranty. Pricing is “competitive” but no price point was given in the press release or the RiDATA website.
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Not that a single rack mount unit which can record to CD or CF card is all that ground breaking, the conveninece of taking a live event and dumping to CF instantly is an interesting prospect. Once more, the TASCAM SS-CDR1 will convert CDDA audio from Compact Disc to Compact Flash.
The SS-CDR1 is designed for applications which previously used cassette or MiniDisc recording to transition those digital recordings the CD or Compact Flash cards. The SS-CDR1 records in WAVE or MP3 formats to Compact Flash media. A slot-loading CD transport is provided CD recording, MP3 conversion and audio transfer. The recorder includes balanced and unbalanced audio inputs and outputs, RS-232 and parallel control and a wired remote control.
Price for the SS-CDR1 is set at $599. WOW – that’s some serious hardware cost for a CF recorder.
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Sans Digital is delivering a dual Compact Flash design that might rival some solid state drives at half the cost and with significant benefits. What Sans Digital has come up with is putting two Compact Flash cards into a 2.5″ enclosure to make it look and feel like a SSD drive. Using two 16GB cards and some RAID configuration the dual flash memory becomes a 32GB hard drive. Although this isn’t the biggest drive size, it does rival entry level SSD storage devices.
So here’s the kicker; putting two high performance Sandisk Extreme III Compact Flash cards together would only cost a user about $360. Compare that cost outlay with a $860 SSD drive [of about the same storage size] and you’ve got yourself a clear winner on what direction to take.
“Unlike existing RAID units that employs hard drives for storage space, the CompactSTOR CS1T utilizes pocket-sized lightweight Compact Flash cards as storage memory for data safekeeping. Designed with the same size and connectors as a 2.5†SATA hard drive, the CS1T is compatible with the hard drive slot of laptops, industrial PCs (IPC), small form factor computers, and 2.5†hard drive enclosures.”
In addition, the Compact Flash configuration has lower power consumption and less noise and heat output. The only issue we see is the performance difference between the two. The entry level SSD storage units average [according to spec] about 90Mbytes/s write whereby the Sans Digital solution is about a 3rd less at 30Mbytes/s write speed.
The Sans Digital product is called the CompactSTOR and retails for about $45 for the dual bay Compact Flash base and enclosure, memory, of course, is sold seperately.
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The list is log on how many people have expressed interest in a CompactFlash down loading device for bulk data transfer (not!). But despite whatever circle I run in, Delkin came out with a 4 unit CompactFlash ImageRouter for concurrent transfer of data off CF to HHD.
I would imagine this product is geared towards the professional photographer who quickly fills CF media with high-res images and needs a clean off-loading device. The Delkin ImageRouter is UDMA and once four (or less) CF cards are loaded you start the process and walk away. With USB connectivity you can expect data transfer rates of 19MB/s and incase 4 ports isn’t enough, you can daisy chain the ImageRouter together for 8 port download. The built-in USB hub handles the rest.
ImageRouter can be purchased separately or with BackupandBurn software. BackupandBurn automatically renames files based on user-set parameters. Users can specify how the files are re-named and re-numbered and even have Jpeg and RAW files automatically sent to different folders. Images can also be copied to multiple locations and automatically burned to a CD or DVD.
