I have an affection for the 640H since buying one cheap on Ebay many years back, since then I've bought a few more, usually not working and have enjoyed managing (usually!) to fix them. Unfortunately I guess they were slightly ahead of the game as far as what they were trying to achieve, and had a few problems, and by the time they had sorted them out, technology overtook them. Still a lovely engineered piece of kit.
I posted a few months back offering copies of the software used to reinstall the operating software and since posting have had half a dozen request for copies, so I guess some people are still using them. As these are only the ones having problems with their 640 H's, I guess others are still using??
If there are users out there, thought I'd post a guide as to how to convert to a SSD which will lengthen the life, improve performance and also reduce noise, all for less than about £40.
Kit needed
1) SSD..... these are getting ridiculously cheap. You should be able to pick up a 240 GB named brand off Amazon for about £25 (keep an eye open for offers).
2) IDE to SSD converter.
I've used these by Cerrxian which are £10 on Amazon
CERRXIAN SSD/SATA to IDE Bridge Board Adapter, SATA to PATA IDE Converter Adapter Plug&Play 7+15 Pin 3.5/2.5 SATA HDD DVD Adapter: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
3) If you want to make a neat job of the conversion them buy a SSD mounting bracket to fit it into the hard disk drive caddy of the 640H. Just be aware that you will need to slightly modify the mounting bracket because of the off centre way the converter fits to the SSD - see photo
Then all you need to do is to connect the hard drive to a normal PC using an external caddy or an "all in one" adapter such as this.
UGREEN SATA IDE to USB 3.0 Adapter Converter External Hard Drive Cable Docking Station Disk Reader Caddy for 2.5/3.5 HDD SSD,CD-ROM,CD-RW,DVD-RW,Windows,Mac OS,Linux,PS4,Xbox One, 12V 2A Power Supply: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
Make an image of the 640H hard drive using Macrium Reflect or similar, (there are two partitions, one a very small one which contains the operating software, and the other which is the music storing partition. When this is done (it can take quite a while if the hard drive contains a lot of music!), connect up the new SSD to the adapter and restore the image to the SSD.
Job done. Any queries please PM me.
regards
Alchad
I posted a few months back offering copies of the software used to reinstall the operating software and since posting have had half a dozen request for copies, so I guess some people are still using them. As these are only the ones having problems with their 640 H's, I guess others are still using??
If there are users out there, thought I'd post a guide as to how to convert to a SSD which will lengthen the life, improve performance and also reduce noise, all for less than about £40.
Kit needed
1) SSD..... these are getting ridiculously cheap. You should be able to pick up a 240 GB named brand off Amazon for about £25 (keep an eye open for offers).
2) IDE to SSD converter.
I've used these by Cerrxian which are £10 on Amazon
CERRXIAN SSD/SATA to IDE Bridge Board Adapter, SATA to PATA IDE Converter Adapter Plug&Play 7+15 Pin 3.5/2.5 SATA HDD DVD Adapter: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
3) If you want to make a neat job of the conversion them buy a SSD mounting bracket to fit it into the hard disk drive caddy of the 640H. Just be aware that you will need to slightly modify the mounting bracket because of the off centre way the converter fits to the SSD - see photo
Then all you need to do is to connect the hard drive to a normal PC using an external caddy or an "all in one" adapter such as this.
UGREEN SATA IDE to USB 3.0 Adapter Converter External Hard Drive Cable Docking Station Disk Reader Caddy for 2.5/3.5 HDD SSD,CD-ROM,CD-RW,DVD-RW,Windows,Mac OS,Linux,PS4,Xbox One, 12V 2A Power Supply: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
Make an image of the 640H hard drive using Macrium Reflect or similar, (there are two partitions, one a very small one which contains the operating software, and the other which is the music storing partition. When this is done (it can take quite a while if the hard drive contains a lot of music!), connect up the new SSD to the adapter and restore the image to the SSD.
Job done. Any queries please PM me.
regards
Alchad
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Hi Alchad.
Greetings from Athens Greece.
I followed every single step, used Cerrxian adapter,created an img of the factory hd, restored image with the mentioned program....but my Azur denies to boot from my WD 250gb ssd.
I would appreciate any help.
All the best!
Greetings from Athens Greece.
I followed every single step, used Cerrxian adapter,created an img of the factory hd, restored image with the mentioned program....but my Azur denies to boot from my WD 250gb ssd.
I would appreciate any help.
All the best!
I don't know how these adapters work, but PATA disks are usually configured as masters, slaves or older cable select. Check jumpers.
Thanks mate.
Not any luck. SSD is not visible by bios at all.
Maybe this cerrxian ssd adapter is chinese **** and not supported by system.
Not any luck. SSD is not visible by bios at all.
Maybe this cerrxian ssd adapter is chinese **** and not supported by system.
Hello All,
My 640H doesnt boot anymore!!! Have you a ISO of the operating system to copy on my HDD , Thanks very much !!
My best regards, Luca
My 640H doesnt boot anymore!!! Have you a ISO of the operating system to copy on my HDD , Thanks very much !!
My best regards, Luca
Hi Alchad,
it´s an interesting article- so i want to upgrade to SSD too. Is there anything you have done before with the SSD? Preformatted? Is there anything i have to do for a bit by bit copy? If it fails, it will run with the original drive i hope... Do you have the Software CD for this unit: 02.01.50 blaster ISO? And the last question... i have seen that some has tried to upgrade RAM. Do you know what kind of RAM is used there? ECC? or a special type?
Some have written that the base Software is Windows 98 or CE. Has anyone tried out to upgrade the base software to W7-32bit and ran the SW in W98 mode? Lot of questions, but it´s still a micro-PC with SW and some boards 🙂
Best regards - Tom
it´s an interesting article- so i want to upgrade to SSD too. Is there anything you have done before with the SSD? Preformatted? Is there anything i have to do for a bit by bit copy? If it fails, it will run with the original drive i hope... Do you have the Software CD for this unit: 02.01.50 blaster ISO? And the last question... i have seen that some has tried to upgrade RAM. Do you know what kind of RAM is used there? ECC? or a special type?
Some have written that the base Software is Windows 98 or CE. Has anyone tried out to upgrade the base software to W7-32bit and ran the SW in W98 mode? Lot of questions, but it´s still a micro-PC with SW and some boards 🙂
Best regards - Tom
Sorry for late reply, don't visit this site very often.
I don't think I ever bothered formatting the SSD, but it's a while since I did it but from memory it was fairly straightforward, and yes you can just swap the old HDD back in if things don't work out.
I have several blaster ISO's, send me your email to alan.chadwick@talk21.com and I will send copies.
Memory is ordinary DDR266 DIMM socket, you can install up to 1GB
Updating the software - beyond me, but yes it is Win CE. I did once read that someone had installed media player instead but no details.
Regards
Alan C