Hard Drive Installed Games

I like the idea of getting some hard drive installed games utilising WHLoad.

I had looked at buying one of the 'game' CFs from ebay but the downsides seem to be that they are designed to use the IDE connection currently used by my (admittedly limited and noisy) 540Mb harddrive, they have the OS preloaded (with Magic WB - which could be considered a good or bad thing depending on your point of view) and after the games have been loaded there appears to be only about 25Mb out of 4Gb left free.

My initial thoughts are that I would prefer to leave the 540Mb hard drive in place and buy a blank 4Gb CF to use via the PCMCIA slot - partitioned to look like 2 or 3 extra drives for whatever other uses I want, including hard drive installed games and for data transfer. I would hope to get most of the games I want from WHDownload.

I know it is also possible to split the existing IDE connection into two but that seems quite a bit more complicated / expensive and I don't want to sink too much money into this (I plan to send off the A1200 to AmigaKit to get the capacitors replaced as a precaution but that aside I will be looking to minimise hardware costs).

Can anyone see any shortcomings / flaws in my intended approach or offer any precuationary advice? I would also be keen to hear of alternative suggestions - what I want more than anything is as simple and robust a solution as possible.

Thanks in anticipation.

[davideo]

Stick a bigger harddrive in it.

It would cure the noise and give you more storage space

Dave G

Originally Posted by davideo

Stick a bigger harddrive in it.

It would cure the noise and give you more storage space

Dave G

Yes, that what I was thinking at first but I need something for data transfer anyway (if for nothing else than to get the games from WHDownload on to the Amiga) and thought that a CF card via PCMCIA slot would do the trick - and then I thought the CF card should also be able to double as an additional HD (still via PCMCIA).

Besides this I am happy that the current HD with OS partition works perfectly and I'm from the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' school of thought.

I know in theory that fitting a new CF HD using the IDE connection should be as simple as formatting it and copying my existing HD data on to it. Unfortunately, I have a track record of making simple things more difficult than they should be (i.e. making an ar$e of it) and so am naturally disinclined to go down this route.

However, I am also aware that my logic might well be flawed so am happy to be set right.

It really is so easy to fit a CF to the IDE of your Amiga. I am a noob and managed to get it all working in a couple of hours on my A600. The key is to use UAE to format/partition and install workbench to the CF using your PC. When that is all working and tested in UAE, its a matter of plugging in the CF and adapter into the connector of your Amiga. You can always keep your old harddrive in a drawer so you have a fallback. The CF has more space, is silent, gives off no heat and is much quicker than your 540mb drive. I paid around 20 quid for a 4GB CF and IDE adapter from ebay.

Then you should be looking to add a CF via PCMCIA to your Amiga as well. You dont need to run any thing off this, but its a perfect way to transfer files from your PC to your amiga. 12 quid off ebay. Search for "ADF-Transfer-Kit". Then get a small CF, eg 256mb and use this to transfer all the whdloads from your PC to the amiga.