Awol
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My A1200 is completely stock.



1) Will this PCMCIA adapter work in both my Amiga and my laptop running Windows XP?: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.23791

2) Will this IDE adapter work in my Amiga?: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10310

3) I only buy SanDisk cards because they seem to be the most reliable brand. What speed/size card do you recommend?
I have read that 4GB with 2GB partitions is the max for an HD replacement. Is that true? Is it the same for PCMCIA?

4) I already have an internal HD in my 1200. Is replacing it with a CF card really worth it?

5) Anything else I need to buy? Anything else I need to know?



Thanks in advance! smile

nitro2k01
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Sweeeeeeden

1) Funny thing is that I bought one of those PCMCIA CF adapters the other day. (That exact model.) What it does is more less connect the card as an IDE device. CF is supposed to be compatible with IDE. And sadly, some of the cheaper cards are not fully compatible and will not work. (They will just freeze the computer for as long as you have the card inserted.) It's a bit of a hit and miss. (However, cards that are not compatible with that adapter are likely not compatible with the Amiga either.)
But there's one more consideration. Since the card appears as an IDE device, DMA transfers might or might not work depending on the controller on your motherboard. If they don't, you're in for some slow transfers.
Conclusion: Get a USB->CF adapter.

2) Yes.

3) I can't judge what speed you need, but I can inform you that the speeds listed as "x" (133x, 266x etc) are read speeds compared to CD. In other words, number * 150 kBytes/s. So a 133x card, will give you about 20 MB/s under good conditions.

4),5) I'll leave these to someone else.
General comment, though: Hard disks fail based how long time they've been on and spinning. CF cards fail based on how many times you write to them. If you keep cycling the content on them, they'll wear out eventually, but if you mostly just read from them, they'll last forever, where a spinning disk would eventually fail.

Last edited by nitro2k01 (Sep 15, 2010 2:45 am)

PlainFlavored
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nitro2k01 wrote:

General comment, though: Hard disks fail based how long time they've been on and spinning. CF cards fail based on how many times you write to them. If you keep cycling the content on them, they'll wear out eventually, but if you mostly just read from them, they'll last forever, where a spinning disk would eventually fail.

However, hard disk failure is MUCH more based on chance than a finite amount of time, as they will fail, but it could be hours or decades.

Any flash memory you have will be discarded or lost or replaced long before it hits its write limit, and even then your data will still be readable/attainable.

Awol
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nitro2k01 wrote:

1) Funny thing is that I bought one of those PCMCIA CF adapters the other day. (That exact model.) What it does is more less connect the card as an IDE device. CF is supposed to be compatible with IDE. And sadly, some of the cheaper cards are not fully compatible and will not work. (They will just freeze the computer for as long as you have the card inserted.) It's a bit of a hit and miss. (However, cards that are not compatible with that adapter are likely not compatible with the Amiga either.)
But there's one more consideration. Since the card appears as an IDE device, DMA transfers might or might not work depending on the controller on your motherboard. If they don't, you're in for some slow transfers.
Conclusion: Get a USB->CF adapter.

Found this. I think I'll be safe with SanDisk cards.

Last edited by Awol (Sep 15, 2010 3:06 am)

nitro2k01
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Sweeeeeeden
PlainFlavored wrote:

However, hard disk failure is MUCH more based on chance than a finite amount of time, as they will fail, but it could be hours or decades.

Depends on how you look at it. As a probability function, based on the parameters build quality and load, the probability is very deterministic. So much in fact, that in a server environment where disks are put in RAID arrays, and for that reason have very similar loads, you can be almost sure that if one disk in a pair fails, the other one will fail too, within a month or two.

But seen from the perspective that you have a disk that you don't know how it's been used, if someone dropped the whole computer in the floor etc., you obviously have no clue as to the remaining lifetime.

PlainFlavored wrote:

Any flash memory you have will be discarded or lost or replaced long before it hits its write limit, and even then your data will still be readable/attainable.

Depends on what you do with it. If you for example install Windows on it, the wear will increase a whole lot. If you use it for an Amiga, you're probably safe.

Awol wrote:

Found this. I think I'll be safe with SanDisk cards.

OH! I didn't realize there's a PCMCIA slot on the Amiga. Now I see why you would want to buy that adapter. smile

boomlinde
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Sweden

I use this SD card adapter happily with my Amiga 1200 (by installing the same drivers etc. as for a CF card adapter). I also use a generic CF-IDE adapter like this. Together with a noclick utility, this makes a great quick-booting noiseless system not only for chip stuff but also for writing and shit.

For an old system that doesn't cache memory to disk, and for which the lowest common denominator in permanent storage is floppies, you don't have to worry about write wear, but you shouldn't believe that you are perfectly safe just because of that! There is a data retention time of something like 10 years on most cards, even if it's just laying around! It's probably a lot longer than that in real life, though, but it's good to keep in mind before you start relying on flash memory for backup.

motone
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Germany, near Berlin

1) Depends on model. I bought a so called "ADF Transfer Kit" on Ebay...

2) Yes!

3) it's no problem to make 2 or 3 partitions on the card. I have one small system partition, one data partition and another one for backup.

4) Yes! Less noise, less weight, and you can throw your amiga around without fear of data loss.

5) Nope. smile

BTW: There's a version of the internal CF>IDE adaptor that fits directly on the internal IDE port of the Amiga 600/1200. Looks like this:

Last edited by motone (Sep 15, 2010 1:34 pm)

akira^8GB
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New York City
Awol wrote:

1) Will this PCMCIA adapter work in both my Amiga and my laptop running Windows XP?: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.23791

LOOKS like it will but as said it's a bit hit and miss.
My suggestion: get a multicard adapter instead of a CF PCMCIA. SD cards are cheaper and more available. And they work on the Amiga with the same drivers. I have one and it works swell.

2) Will this IDE adapter work in my Amiga?: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10310

HIt and miss. I bought a bunch of tehse from Dealexttreme that don't work on my Amiga. I think they are so cheap and crap a lot of them are just faulty. But in theory it should work.

3) I only buy SanDisk cards because they seem to be the most reliable brand. What speed/size card do you recommend?

For the PCMCIA slot or IDE?
For PCMCIA use any shit. Some work some don't. Smaller size the better. Then again I have used MS Duo 4GB on my multicard reader wit hsuccess.

For the internal one, I usually buy TRASCEND 133x cards. They work superb.

4) I already have an internal HD in my 1200. Is replacing it with a CF card really worth it?

YES.
Less heat production, noiseless, more reliable specially on touring situations, lightweight.

Last edited by akira^8GB (Sep 15, 2010 3:18 pm)

Awol
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Thanks for the help guys!

motone wrote:

BTW: There's a version of the internal CF>IDE adaptor that fits directly on the internal IDE port of the Amiga 600/1200. Looks like this:

Someone on the English Amiga Board linked me to this one.

boomlinde wrote:

I use this SD card adapter happily with my Amiga 1200 (by installing the same drivers etc. as for a CF card adapter). I also use a generic CF-IDE adapter like this. Together with a noclick utility, this makes a great quick-booting noiseless system not only for chip stuff but also for writing and shit.

Oh! I would prefer SD! SD cards are cheaper and more convenient than CF cards. Are there any disadvantages to using SD rather than CF? I guess if I used SD for my PC/Amiga transfer card I would have to stick to 2GB, since Windows XP can only read the primary partition on split SD cards. I'm not sure how Windows reacts to partitioned CF cards, since I've never actually used a CF card before.

Is it possible to use an SD-IDE adapter to replace the hard drive? How does that compare to CF?

Awol
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Well, Akira answered my SD questions while I was posting! smile
Akira, are you using SD as a hard drive replacement too?

akira^8GB
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New York City

No, not as a hard drive replacement. Though I heard someone using it, I'd still recommend CF for that, it's wired to run as IDE de-facto and it's cheaper to sort out. SD-IDE boards are quite more expensive because it needs a lot more circuitry (whereas the CF-IDE adapters are just a switch and wiring).

SD on the PCMCIA port is awesome, though. Very cheap and available and the same speed. I got me a bunch of old cards to use now and I use them transparently between my PC, Mac, Amiga and C64.

athleos
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Seattle, WA
Awol wrote:

Someone on the English Amiga Board linked me to this one.

i bought that exact one and use a 4GB sandisk in my A1200 and it works perfectly...  for what it's worth.

Awol
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athleos wrote:
Awol wrote:

Someone on the English Amiga Board linked me to this one.

i bought that exact one and use a 4GB sandisk in my A1200 and it works perfectly...  for what it's worth.

What speed is your 4GB card? Just trying to figure out if I can get away with the slowest and cheapest one. XD

RG
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Milwaukee, WI

RG
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Milwaukee, WI

Please, everyone, for the love of data: use CF.

boomlinde
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Sweden
Awol wrote:
athleos wrote:

i bought that exact one and use a 4GB sandisk in my A1200 and it works perfectly...  for what it's worth.

What speed is your 4GB card? Just trying to figure out if I can get away with the slowest and cheapest one. XD

To be honest, the Amiga IDE interface is probably going to be the bottleneck when it comes to speed so just get the cheapest one, yeah.

Please, everyone, for the love of data: use CF.

For temporary storage, I agree, but if you truly love data and want to keep it readable for more than a few decades it'd better be burnt on a CD or DVD and stored safely.