Wanted: buffered IDE interface

Merlin · 03 March 2008, 17:24

Over the weekend an old Fujitsu laptop hard drive died and killed my Eyetech EZ-IDE buffered interface

, it doesn't seem to work any more

....

Does anyone have a spare interface to sell, Eyetech, IDEFix 97, EIDE 99 or whatever, as long as it gets my A600 system back up and running I will be happy.

Please let me know how much inclusive of postage.

Thanks

Merlin

alexh · 03 March 2008, 17:58

If you want to send me the old one plus the return postage and packaging I could have a look at it. No promises on a quick turn around.

AmigaKit sell them new for £10.79 + P&P and you cant grumble at that price.

Merlin · 03 March 2008, 22:05

Thanks for that Alexh, I thought they were more expensive than that.

Merlin

nlandas · 08 March 2008, 02:26

I just bought one of these from Amigakit and it not only arrived quickly coming all the way from Europe but it works great. I don't have a way to measure drive speed currently but it sure as heck seems like the hard drive runs faster with it in place.

If it doesn't transfer faster than it sure transfers smoother. I do not regret this purchase. I'd say anyone with an A1200 should pick up one of these $20USD buffered IDE enhancers.

Easy to install and well worth the price.

blade002 · 08 March 2008, 03:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by nlandas

I just bought one of these from Amigakit and it not only arrived quickly coming all the way from Europe but it works great. I don't have a way to measure drive speed currently but it sure as heck seems like the hard drive runs faster with it in place.

If it doesn't transfer faster than it sure transfers smoother. I do not regret this purchase. I'd say anyone with an A1200 should pick up one of these $20USD buffered IDE enhancers.

Easy to install and well worth the price.

I bought one about 3 months ago and i STILL haven't installed into my A1200 yet !!.. lol... Been too busy, but will try and do so over this weekend.

keropi · 08 March 2008, 09:57

I chose the elbox EIDE'99 adapter for my A1200... costs a little more but has some nice features too (large disk support with it's driver)

alexh · 08 March 2008, 10:30

They both use the internal IDE so both have large disk support with the right software.

You paid extra for nothing, a brand name and some bundled freeware.

ppill · 08 March 2008, 10:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

They both use the internal IDE so both have large disk support with the right software.

You paid extra for nothing, a brand name and some bundled freeware.

Both eide.device and AllegroCDFS were not freeware last time I checked.

alexh · 08 March 2008, 12:54

Ok. I guess my post wasnt quite accurate, but you know what I meant.

You know with IDEFix97, an alternative to eide.device and AllegroCDFS you can get the same from both.

It has a nag screen you can get rid of if you register, but if you have one of those "Power Computing" buffered interfaces you can rid of it ;-)

If you are planning to use AmigaOS 3.9 (or 3.5?) it has everything you need already built in.

alexh · 08 March 2008, 13:05

There is a technically better buffered IDE interface by Jens Schoenfeld.

IDEFix Express but for 4x the price IMHO it is not worth it. You can get an Elbox FastATA (and much better performance) for 6x price

ppill · 08 March 2008, 13:14

If you look at it that way then you're probably right

Zetr0 · 08 March 2008, 13:17

don't fight it....

the amiga was made for SCSI!!!!

amigakit.com · 08 March 2008, 13:54

The EIDE'99 and FastATA are the only Amiga IDE interfaces that are LBA-48bit compliant - very important these days as we struggle to get *new* hard disks for the webstore under 127GB. Secondly, both Elbox products are uniquely supplied with Allegro which is a UDF filesystem. Useful if you wish to read data stored on DVD media.

keropi · 08 March 2008, 14:07

to my knowledge, as I was the owner of 2 FastATA's (mk1 & mk2) the fastata driver (and the eide'99 one) do update scsi.device without the need to install 2-3 patches... and from what I have understood, using the driver+pfs3 (or sfs) is enought for even 3.0/3.1 based system to work OK with disks larger than 4GB. please correct me if I am wrong on this one, as I plan to use CWB with 3.1wb on my A1200
on the other hand I prefer to pay for convenience than struggling with software...

amigakit.com · 08 March 2008, 14:24

Correct- FastATA and EIDE'99 software patches the scsi.device but you may optionally may want to use NSDPatch and it is mandatory to use a 64-bit FileSystem such as SmartFileSystem

keropi · 08 March 2008, 14:49

thanks! I will use PFS3 that I own, and NSDPatch then

amigakit.com · 08 March 2008, 15:01

Be careful - PFS3 is an old product that does not support LBA-48bit

It is better to use SFS as it is still actively developed, OS4/MorphOS cross-compatible and has recovery tools.

alexh · 08 March 2008, 15:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

The EIDE'99 and FastATA are the only Amiga IDE interfaces that are LBA-48bit compliant

BOLLOCKS. What you mean to say is these are the only two with 48-bit compliant drivers.

Any IDE interface (including Amiga's internal IDE) is 48-bit compliant.

It's a software limitation. The controller has to be programmed to issue PIO EXT (48-bit) commands.

Doesn't the 4xEIDE'99 interface plug into the Amiga's IDE port? I bet it's driver can be hacked to work with any buffered IDE interface.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

very important these days as we struggle to get *new* hard disks for the webstore under 127GB.

Again BOLLOCKS! It's not important at all. As long as the hard drive supports regular PIO commands (and they all do) it doesn't matter what capacity they are, they would work fine upto the 128 GiB limit.

I take it that IDEFix97 doesnt support PIO EXT commands?

FYI: Old PIO commands had 28-bit LBA, 2^28 sectors (512bytes / sector) = 128 GiB

alexh · 08 March 2008, 15:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by amigakit.com

Be careful - PFS3 is an old product that does not support LBA-48bit

Yes, PFS3 FileSystem only supports 32-bit LBA for disks upto a maximum of 2 Terabytes.

Why 32-bit? Because SCSI had 10-byte commands with 32-bit LBA's. Even the good old A590 supports 10-byte SCSI commands in later (v6.6?) ROMs.

So PFS3 is good for all current drives (at least for about a year).

P.S. One of my jobs is designing hardware for SATA controllers so I know a thing or two about hard drives

rare_j · 08 March 2008, 19:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

BOLLOCKS. What you mean to say is these are the only two with 48-bit compliant drivers.

Any IDE interface (including Amiga's internal IDE) is 48-bit compliant.

It's a software limitation. The controller has to be programmed to issue PIO EXT (48-bit) commands.

Doesn't the 4xEIDE'99 interface plug into the Amiga's IDE port? I bet it's driver can be hacked to work with any buffered IDE interface.

Splitting hairs a bit here aren't we alexh? I own the elbox ide splitter and their software is worth the extra money IMO. It can do useful, practical stuff that I couldn't find anywhere else.

And IDEFIX isn't free either...

03 March 2008, 17:24	#1
Merlin AmiBay MegaMod Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Manchester, UK Age: 62 Posts: 1,163	Wanted: buffered IDE interface Over the weekend an old Fujitsu laptop hard drive died and killed my Eyetech EZ-IDE buffered interface , it doesn't seem to work any more .... Does anyone have a spare interface to sell, Eyetech, IDEFix 97, EIDE 99 or whatever, as long as it gets my A600 system back up and running I will be happy. Please let me know how much inclusive of postage. Thanks Merlin

08 March 2008, 12:54	#9
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	Ok. I guess my post wasnt quite accurate, but you know what I meant. You know with IDEFix97, an alternative to eide.device and AllegroCDFS you can get the same from both. It has a nag screen you can get rid of if you register, but if you have one of those "Power Computing" buffered interfaces you can rid of it ;-) If you are planning to use AmigaOS 3.9 (or 3.5?) it has everything you need already built in. Last edited by alexh; 08 March 2008 at 13:10.

08 March 2008, 13:05	#10
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	There is a technically better buffered IDE interface by Jens Schoenfeld. IDEFix Express but for 4x the price IMHO it is not worth it. You can get an Elbox FastATA (and much better performance) for 6x price Last edited by alexh; 08 March 2008 at 13:13.

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03 March 2008, 17:58	#2
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	If you want to send me the old one plus the return postage and packaging I could have a look at it. No promises on a quick turn around. AmigaKit sell them new for £10.79 + P&P and you cant grumble at that price.

03 March 2008, 22:05	#3
Merlin AmiBay MegaMod Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Manchester, UK Age: 62 Posts: 1,163	Thanks for that Alexh, I thought they were more expensive than that. Merlin

08 March 2008, 02:26	#4
nlandas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Lacona, NY USA Posts: 34	I just bought one of these from Amigakit and it not only arrived quickly coming all the way from Europe but it works great. I don't have a way to measure drive speed currently but it sure as heck seems like the hard drive runs faster with it in place. If it doesn't transfer faster than it sure transfers smoother. I do not regret this purchase. I'd say anyone with an A1200 should pick up one of these $20USD buffered IDE enhancers. Easy to install and well worth the price.

08 March 2008, 09:57	#6
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	I chose the elbox EIDE'99 adapter for my A1200... costs a little more but has some nice features too (large disk support with it's driver)

08 March 2008, 10:30	#7
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	They both use the internal IDE so both have large disk support with the right software. You paid extra for nothing, a brand name and some bundled freeware.

08 March 2008, 13:14	#11
ppill CON: artist Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Poland Age: 43 Posts: 1,250	If you look at it that way then you're probably right

08 March 2008, 13:17	#12
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	don't fight it.... the amiga was made for SCSI!!!!

08 March 2008, 13:54	#13
amigakit.com Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: www.amigakit.com Posts: 2,026	The EIDE'99 and FastATA are the only Amiga IDE interfaces that are LBA-48bit compliant - very important these days as we struggle to get new hard disks for the webstore under 127GB. Secondly, both Elbox products are uniquely supplied with Allegro which is a UDF filesystem. Useful if you wish to read data stored on DVD media.

08 March 2008, 14:07	#14
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	to my knowledge, as I was the owner of 2 FastATA's (mk1 & mk2) the fastata driver (and the eide'99 one) do update scsi.device without the need to install 2-3 patches... and from what I have understood, using the driver+pfs3 (or sfs) is enought for even 3.0/3.1 based system to work OK with disks larger than 4GB. please correct me if I am wrong on this one, as I plan to use CWB with 3.1wb on my A1200 on the other hand I prefer to pay for convenience than struggling with software...

08 March 2008, 14:24	#15
amigakit.com Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: www.amigakit.com Posts: 2,026	Correct- FastATA and EIDE'99 software patches the scsi.device but you may optionally may want to use NSDPatch and it is mandatory to use a 64-bit FileSystem such as SmartFileSystem

08 March 2008, 14:49	#16
keropi . Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Ioannina/Greece Posts: 5,040	thanks! I will use PFS3 that I own, and NSDPatch then

08 March 2008, 15:01	#17
amigakit.com Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: www.amigakit.com Posts: 2,026	Be careful - PFS3 is an old product that does not support LBA-48bit It is better to use SFS as it is still actively developed, OS4/MorphOS cross-compatible and has recovery tools.

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