PCMCIA Flash Cards

Smiley · 01 March 2005, 20:49

If i had some compact flash on my amiga by using an ide to cf or a pcmcia to cf, would i be able to use it like a hard drive. i.e auto boots workbench and can use WHDLoad and Games etc?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: I see that using an IDE to CF adapter will amke it act like an IDE HD. Is this true?

Amiga1992 · 01 March 2005, 21:01

Yes. Yes.... and YEs.

In that order

Keep in mind CF cards have a finite number of writes possible, so dont use it for writing, but for reading, changing its contents only evry once in a while to extend CF card lifetime.

DopPie · 01 March 2005, 22:25

An Amiga (A600 or A1200) cannot autoboot compact flash from it's PCMCIA slot.
You can, if you have a harddisk, use startup scripts to start software on the compact flash. If you connect the CF ot the IDE you can autoboot it. But I'm pretty sure it will only act as amiga harddrive then. That means you will not get much out of it on your PC. Thats why I prefer the PCMCIA solution. It allows you to use FAT95 and you can exchange files between your amiga and PC.

alexh · 02 March 2005, 09:50

Quote:

If you connect the CF to the IDE you can autoboot it.

What? Yeah right.

I would have imagined the best thing is to put the drivers on a floppy disk, take the hit of loading the CF drivers and then load everything else off CF.

DopPie · 02 March 2005, 12:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by DopPie

Thats why I prefer the PCMCIA solution. It allows you to use FAT95 and you can exchange files between your amiga and PC.

Exactly as I said

I have CF drivers installed and when I insert the CF the drive icon pops up on my workbench. It uses the fat95 filesystem so it can read the CF disk I formatted using my PC.

But if you connect the CF to your IDE it acts like a harddrive. All CF cards implement the IDE interface. That is specified by the CF standard. If a CF card does not implement the IDE interface it is not a true CF card.

So a CF connected to IDE (with the right adapter because the form factor is different) it acts like a harddisk and you could autoboot it. All you need to do is partition it and format it like it's a real harddrive. The format on the disk will be an Amiga filesystem and therfore you will not be able to read the CF disk when you put it back in your PC.

alexh · 02 March 2005, 15:17

Hmm... very interesting.

http://www.pcengines.ch/cflash.htm

DopPie · 02 March 2005, 20:03

Thats what I was talking about. I remember seing a photo somewhere of an A600 where such a device was mounted inside while the CF was sticking through the back of the computer. That way a removable harddisk was acheived. I doubt it is hot pluggable but removable none the less

Smiley · 02 March 2005, 20:21

ok, thansk for your help, i think ill stick to getting a regular HD :-)

01 March 2005, 20:49	#1
Smiley Amiga-less! Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: UK Posts: 1,350	PCMCIA Flash Cards If i had some compact flash on my amiga by using an ide to cf or a pcmcia to cf, would i be able to use it like a hard drive. i.e auto boots workbench and can use WHDLoad and Games etc? Thanks in advance EDIT: I see that using an IDE to CF adapter will amke it act like an IDE HD. Is this true?

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01 March 2005, 21:01	#2
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Yes. Yes.... and YEs. In that order Keep in mind CF cards have a finite number of writes possible, so dont use it for writing, but for reading, changing its contents only evry once in a while to extend CF card lifetime.

01 March 2005, 22:25	#3
DopPie Zone Friend Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Den Hoorn, NL Age: 44 Posts: 259	An Amiga (A600 or A1200) cannot autoboot compact flash from it's PCMCIA slot. You can, if you have a harddisk, use startup scripts to start software on the compact flash. If you connect the CF ot the IDE you can autoboot it. But I'm pretty sure it will only act as amiga harddrive then. That means you will not get much out of it on your PC. Thats why I prefer the PCMCIA solution. It allows you to use FAT95 and you can exchange files between your amiga and PC.

02 March 2005, 15:17	#6
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	Hmm... very interesting. http://www.pcengines.ch/cflash.htm

02 March 2005, 20:03	#7
DopPie Zone Friend Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Den Hoorn, NL Age: 44 Posts: 259	Thats what I was talking about. I remember seing a photo somewhere of an A600 where such a device was mounted inside while the CF was sticking through the back of the computer. That way a removable harddisk was acheived. I doubt it is hot pluggable but removable none the less

02 March 2005, 20:21	#8
Smiley Amiga-less! Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: UK Posts: 1,350	ok, thansk for your help, i think ill stick to getting a regular HD :-)

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