Replace HD with CompactFlash memorycard

[Demon Cleaner]

The old Catweasel (MkIII) drivers (DOS) were always started when you booted your PC, so your PC floppy drive (the one plugged to the CW) never stopped clicking. With the new Catweasel (MkIV), the drivers (Windows) are only started when you launch the program, so no more clicking when working with the PC.

[FOL]

Ive had my ups and downs with using CF. I have finally sorted it. If any of you have read my posts over at English Amiga Board, you will see the problems I had.

If your going down this route, you need a patched FFS, to handle 4GB+ and 2GB+ partitions. Im currently using OS3.9 as that does everything I need.

The best thing about CF is, you can now stick them in your PC CF reader, and set it all up using WinUAE (set to JIT, for extra speed). Once all setup, just slap it back in your Miggy and away you go, .

If you going to buy a buffered 4 Way IDE, then weigh up your options. Do you need speed? then get an IDEFIX EXPRESS (I personally had murder with this). Im not worried about transfer speed? then buy normal IDEFIX board (I had no problems with this board, wish i stuck to it).

You just need to decide what you actually want to do, before buying all the stuff. Also just using CF as HD (without any mods etc etc.), has worked fine in all tests I have tried.

[Harrison]

The best thing about CF is, you can now stick them in your PC CF reader, and set it all up using WinUAE

I actually hadn't thought about that benefit. That makes it much more appealing, because at the moment I tend to mirror my A4000 HD onto a Zip disk and then copy that onto my PC to use with WinUAE. Being about to just setup the actual Amiga and then access the same media easily on the PC using a CF card would be so much easier.

BTW, do you know anything about A4000 IDE? Does that also benefit form a buffered IDE interface? Can a CF card be used with it as easily as the A1200?

I tend to be more clued up regarding Amiga emulation than real Amigas these days as I don't have the room to have them setup all of the time, but I would really like to use my A4000 more often.

[FOL]

The best thing about CF is, you can now stick them in your PC CF reader, and set it all up using WinUAE

I actually hadn't thought about that benefit. That makes it much more appealing, because at the moment I tend to mirror my A4000 HD onto a Zip disk and then copy that onto my PC to use with WinUAE. Being about to just setup the actual Amiga and then access the same media easily on the PC using a CF card would be so much easier.

BTW, do you know anything about A4000 IDE? Does that also benefit form a buffered IDE interface? Can a CF card be used with it as easily as the A1200?

I tend to be more clued up regarding Amiga emulation than real Amigas these days as I don't have the room to have them setup all of the time, but I would really like to use my A4000 more often.

Hmmmm, not sure on A4000. You can get a variation on the IDEFIX for A4000, take a look at amigakit.com. They list the buffered IDE connectors there, then its best to have a search around, to see what others have done with IDE on A4000.

[Harrison]

It definitely would be easier if I can do this on the A4000. I'm going to have a look into this and see what's available and what others have done. I remember reading in magazines years ago that other A4000 owners had installed internal IDE/ATAPI drives, but I'm not sure how they did it. Might have been using a second zorro ide controller.

At the moment I have an external SCSI CD drive connected to it, but if I can connect an internal IDE drive that would reduce clutter no end.

[FOL]

It definitely would be easier if I can do this on the A4000. I'm going to have a look into this and see what's available and what others have done. I remember reading in magazines years ago that other A4000 owners had installed internal IDE/ATAPI drives, but I'm not sure how they did it. Might have been using a second zorro ide controller.

At the moment I have an external SCSI CD drive connected to it, but if I can connect an internal IDE drive that would reduce clutter no end.

Ah, it will definately be A4000 Buffered IDEFIX connector. It lets you split the IDE port, so you can connect an ATAPI drive when you install IDEFIX97. I used the A1200 version to jam a Slim CDROM into my A1200, and IDEFIX97 gives you CD32 Emulator, .

[Harrison]

I used to use a CD32 emulator with my Squirrel SCSI interface on the A1200 and that worked quite well. It only seemed to have a bit of trouble with the ram save feature of the CD32 games. But then I bought a CD32 so that wasn't needed any longer.

Would be good to see how much smoother the CD32 version of Wing Commander plays on an A4000 though. That was a bit too jerky on the CD32 to be fully playable.