How to rescue a LifeDrive by replacing a dead MicroDrive

06.05.2022

The Palm LifeDrive as known as "Mobile Manager" is the only Palm PDA with an actual hard disk drive. This has the advantage of (for the time) massive storage capacity, but also some downsides. The drive is very slow and since also the OS itself is stored on the drive, every task (e.g. staring an application) can take quite some time. Also, the drive as moving parts, so over time, it can crash.

A broken MicroDrive does not mean a dead LifeDrive. Of course the data is lost, if no backup was created, but the device itself can be repaired.

A LifeDrive can be equipped with a CF-Card. This tutorial describes how to this, with a working LifeDrive. But this tutorial is about a broken one.

For the repair are some parts necessary:

You can find a list with card, which are working here.

If you know how to use "dd", you can save some time and continue with the "short version" of the tutorial. Otherwise, the short version is followed by a longer version with more steps.

Short version

  1. Unzip the file from the link above and run these commands:
  2. dd if=table.sct of=/dev/sdc conv=notrunc
  3. dd if=rom-partition of=/dev/sdc seek=134079 bs=512

(Replace “/dev/sdc” with your CF-Device.)
Place the newly flashed CF-Card in your device and, you are done.

Long version

  1. Boot up your favorite Linux distribution e.g. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 64Bit. (A VM should work, too.)
  2. Insert your CF-Card, you want to flash, into your Computer.
  3. Find the CF-Card-device with the "lsblk" command (just run it in a terminal – the easiest way to identify the CF--device in the "lsblk"-list, is to compare the size. The name is e.g. "sdc", but we need the complete path, which is always "/dev/sdc". (It can be "/dev/sdb", "/dev/sdd" etc. in your case.)
  4. Unzip the file from palmdb.net and navigate in the terminal to it. (e.g. "cd ~/Downloads/ && unzip lifedrive_rescure_for_crashed_MicroDrive.zip && cd lifedrive_rescure_for_crashed_MicroDrive" – Maybe you need to change the "Downloads" dir to "Desktop" or something else, depending on where you downloaded the zip-file. The “~” is a shortcut for your home-directory: “/home//”, where your Desktop-, Downloads-, Documents-folder etc. are stored.
  5. Now, run "ls -la" to make sure, that the files "rom-partition" and "table.sct" are shown.
  6. Run this command first: dd if=table.sct of=/dev/sda conv=notrunc replace "/dev/sdc" with your CF-Card-/Microdrive-device from step 3. If the command does not work, write "sudo" before it: "sudo dd if ..." and enter your root-password, which you defined during the Linux-installation.
  7. Wait until the command has finished.
  8. Run this command next: dd if=rom-partition of=/dev/sda seek=134079 bs=512 again replace "/dev/sdc" with your CF-Card-/Microdrive-device from step 3. If the command does not work, write "sudo" before it: "sudo dd if ..." and enter your root-password, which you defined during the Linux-installation.
  9. Wait until the command has finished.
  10. Shutdown your Linux machine with sudo shutdown -h now(It is easier than unmounting and ejecting the CF-Card ;-) )
  11. Or you can execute "sync" in the terminal, wait for the prompt to return and remove then the CF-Card. (Thanks to FennecTECH form Discord for this hint.)
  12. Connect the CF-Card to your LifeDrive and be careful with the MD-Connector in the LifeDrive, it can be very fragile!
  13. The last step is, of course, to power the LifeDrive on. It should boot without problems. If not, check if the CF-Card is supported and the connector-cable is not damaged.

In the end, you should have a working LifeDrive. Since the CF-Card as no moving parts, it should last longer than the MicroDrive. Also, it provides better performance and consumes less power, which means better battery life.

This article is also hosted on PalmDB. Big thanks to PalmDB for hosting the needed files and a copy of this article!

Misc