SSD head / cylinder / cluster details

Solution 1:

I would use an industrial IDE SSD...(another option). It doesn't sound like you need much space, and there are SSDs made specifically for this purpose. I would NOT bother with IDE adapters and consumer-level SSDs for this application. If you do go for compact flash, again, try something that's purpose-built for the application.

Solution 2:

Does it have to be a SATA SSD? CompactFlash cards are pin-for-pin compatible with the ATA standard 1.

Which means you can use a passive electrical adapter to connect one to an IDE cable (or two!). Would this give you enough space (I've seen some mahoosive CF cards...), I wonder.

It'd give you the reliability of solid state memory, and the oldness of IDE/ATA.

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Solution 3:

I use an IDE SSD in one of my older laptops* (not from the 1990s, its from 2005). It works completely flawless so far. I chose the Super Talent DuraDrive ET2 with 128GB which was about 140€ (seems to be much higher on amazon.com). If you are aiming for industrial machines, I don't think you should care about a few hundred dollars and go for drives made for that environment (see ewwhite's answer). Even if the hardware could be identical, the support surely isn't.

*Did it mostly out of curiosity, and it did give a nice responsiveness boost (not that hard ... the laptop wasn't build for Win8 back then). The laptop is mostly used for in-the-field audio recording, the reduced noise and increased shock resistance helped to somewhat "justify" the "investment", mostly curiosity though ;)