Replace HD with CompactFlash memorycard

[Teho]

Anyone else tried this? All you need is an IDE44 to CF adapter such as this one, and a CF (CompactFlash) memorycard, and you can use it as a HD in your Amiga.

I'd at least never heard of this solution, and was really surprised when I came across an auction on the norwegian auction site QXL, offering an adapter and a 1GB card. The guy offered this specifically for Amigas, he'd even preinstall the correct workbench for you based on whether you have a 600 or a 1200. I did some searching on the net, but I couldn't find much information at all about anyone actually trying this. But the bids were low, and the HD in my 600 has been on it's last legs for quite a while, so I figured what the hell.

And some bids and a woohoo later, I've now recieved this and tested it in my 600. And it really works like a charm. I have to say this is really an excellent solution, it's completely silent of course, being just a chip. And while the card I got isn't lightning fast, it is a lot faster compared to the old HD. And it's not an expensive solution either, the sites I've found that sells the adapter lists it at $20-25 USD. Didn't see a UK site that sells one but I didn't look that hard, you can probably find one. And memorycards aren't expensive either, here you can get a 4GB one at around £30. Definitely the solution for future Amiga HD purchases if you ask me.

[Harrison]

That is very interesting. Using flash memory instead of an HD has been gaining interest on the PC for a few years now, and some manufacturers are now making special cards for servers that can hold 4GB+ for very fast Linux booting and operation.

I haven't however thought of using this method on an Amiga, and as you say, it is quite a good solution, especially as you verify it works.

[Puni/Void]

Cool, Teho! Do you know if this guy has any more of those for sale? I would be interested in buying it in Norway.

[Submeg]

That is quite awesome. The perfect example of emulation lol

[Teho]

I haven't however thought of using this method on an Amiga, and as you say, it is quite a good solution, especially as you verify it works.

I tested it some more yesterday, as I noticed the guy I bought it from had also put some WHDLoad games on it. I ran into problems trying to run those, but I think I was just running out of memory. Of the ones I tried, The Superfrog intro got halfway and then crashed, the main Superfrog flat out stated 'not enough memory' and didn't run, Cannon Fodder hung while loading the second mission, Buggy Boy (heh) hung almost immediately while loading, Project-X worked.

So I want to test it some more to see if this is actually a stable solution. Will move some files onto it and basically use it for a bit and see how it runs.

Another thing is that this is a little more expensive than getting an actual 4GB HD, if you can find one. I said Flash cards were cheap, but on closer inspection the cheap ones are also the really slow ones. Faster cards are more expensive. Then again, there's no point in getting a card that's faster than what the Amiga can handle, and according to Wikipedia the ATA controller in the Amigas supports PIO Mode 2, which means around 8MB/s. The more expensive cards are way faster than that, while the cheaper ones are down in the 6-10MB/s range.

The one I got is one of the faster ones, I wonder if that could be causing instability?

Do you know if this guy has any more of those for sale? I would be interested in buying it in Norway.

No idea. I checked if he had other auctions on QXL and he doesn't. I guess I could e-mail him and ask, maybe also ask where he got them.

I looked on Komplett.no, and they're selling a different type of the card there. It isn't the right one, that one is for IDE40 ports and the Amiga uses IDE44. But if they have that one, they can probably get the other one too if you contact them. Or there may be some other place in Norway that sells them if you look around.

[Stephen Coates]

I wanted to do this, but decided that as I already had a working HD I might as well use that.

Someone on amiga.org posted about compact flash cards a while ago and said that it worked but you can have some problems.

CF cards are definately good. I installed MacOS 7 on one and used it in my PowerBook 1400 and it worked really quickly. Only real problem was that it was a 32MB card so had only enough room for a basic install of OS7 and ClarisWorks.

[Harrison]

32MB So a retro card for a retro OS!

[Submeg]

lol, perfect logic there....

[TiredOfLife]

ATA has upto PIO5 mode.
Don't see the point as flash cards only go up to 4gig at the mo.
HDs are cheaper, faster and have a bigger capacity.
There do seem to be a few people around using this method though.

[Submeg]

But for am Amiga, not based as your main PC, how big of a harddrive would you need?