Speeding Up PCMCIA Ripping?

[jimmyjohn]

I was hoping to use my favorite old laptop, which has seen better days, as a field PC to rip P2 cards during ENG sessions. We're recording in SD, so have 32 minutes' recording time per card, but I'd like the rip speed to be under 16 minutes.

Unfortunately, in our first attempt using the PCMCIA slot, the rip was around 30-32 minutes, which is far too close for comfort in the first place and would also likely mean that the laptop's battery would become a much greater concern.

I'd already upgraded the hard drive to a 7200 rpm, 60gb version. Otherwise, everything on this that's relevant is pretty much as the manufacturer produced it.

Is that just the speed of the PCMCIA slot for the period in which it was manufactured? What speeds have others gotten? Would any relatively-cheap upgrades (from 512MB RAM to 1GB, for instance), make a lot of difference? Presumably, the HDD can't be the problem.

Are there any software or other solutions that could increase rip efficiency?

[Barry_Green]

Don't know. On my old Dell laptop it took 1 minute per gig; on my new Sony laptop it's :30 per gig. Could be better components in the Sony vs. the Dell, or it could just be the hard disk speed (old PATA in the Dell, new SATA in the Sony). But my Sony's drive is either 4200 or 5400 RPM (don't remember, but I know it's not 7200).

So it could be the HDD, and usually the slowest link in the chain *is* the hard disk drive. Try transferring to a modern fast external hard disk and see what type of speeds you get.