CD-ROM in Amiga 1200 help

[Tiago]

Hi,
i dont know if there is a similar topic, if so, tell me were, and close this one.

How can i put a CD-ROM (read/write) in A1200?

By IDE cable? If i have a HD there? Dos it have more then 1 ide slots like pc?
By PCMCIA?
By Serial?
By parallel?

Thanks

[Harrison]

There are two main ways. By IDE or by SCSI. The easiest solution if you can find the hardware is to use a Squirrel PCMCIA SCSI interface, which connects to the PCMCIA slot on the side of the A1200 and can then be connected to an external SCSI CD drive. The Squirrel comes with all the drivers and CD devices needed to get everything working, and even includes CD32 emulation to run CD32 games.

The alternative is an IDE CD drive, but as standard the A1200 only comes with a single device IDE port for one IDE harddrive. To fix this problem you can buy a buffered IDE interface which you connect to the original A1200's IDE interface. This allows you to connect 4 IDE devices to the Amiga just like you would on a PC. You can then connect up a HD and CD drive at the same time. Many people even cut a whole in the side or back of their A1200's and mount an internal laptop cd drive inside the A1200 to make everything nice and neat and tidy.

The buffered IDE interface can be found here. (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=194)

[Harrison]

BTW, was this the other tread you were thinking of?

http://forum.classicamiga.com/showthread.php?t=1011

[Tiago]

Yes it was.
Thanks

[FOL]

Yes it was.
Thanks

I think Harrison linked to the wrong buffered ide connector. Using the 1 he posted will result in you NOT being able to stick a CD-ROM / DVD-ROM drive in there.

This would be the best board --->HERE!!!! (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=532&osCsid=35b36c3789605503245f114670127bbb)<---

[Harrison]

Really? What would prevent the 4xEIDE'99 Buffered Interface I linked to from working? It is a bit more expensive, but is newer and directly supports CD-Rom/CD-R drives and even comes with the drivers.

What about the IDE-Fix Express Buffered IDE adaptor (http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=425)?

[FOL]

Are you sure? The one you linked to is a cheaper product and would probably do the job OK, but the 4xEIDE'99 Buffered Interface I linked to is a bit more expensive, but is newer and directly supports CD-Rom/CD-R, HD etc... Also unlike some other buffered IDE devices it is meant to be compatible with all accelerator cards too. What would prevent that one from working?

Nothing to stop it working, apart from its mounted vertical, ;). Which means you will never be able to mount CDROM, as best place for it is over IDE socket.

I bought the 1 i linked to, which worked great.

Only had problems when i upgraded to IDEFIX Express, wish i had stuck with my old buffered idefix. To be honest, is there any need for 5.1MB/sec, I got caught in the I want faster access bug. Ended spending loads and wasting hours. I got IDEFIX Express working once, after my Micro Drive fried, :(.

So I dumped the Express connector and kept the buffered interface. Manual installed the atapi driver and all is working fine now, with my Compact Flash setup. I would say as a starting point, get the buffered IDEFIX board i linked to, as i never had 1 problem with that board.

[Harrison]

OK. Cool. So the one I linked to is only any good if doing a tower conversion or using an external CD drive.

[FOL]

OK. Cool. So the one I linked to is only any good if doing a tower conversion or using an external CD drive.

Deffo tower only i would say.

Also, I edited my post below and explained more.

[Harrison]

The one you linked too is also much cheaper so is ideal for anyone just wanting to connect a CD drive and HD at the same time. The more expensive ones are more about speeding up the interface and transfer speeds too which isn't really needed for standard CD and HD operations. Although if intending to use a CD-RW and HD together then I think one of the more expensive ones is probably worth the price.