HD disks on Amiga 500 ?

[LeCaravage]

Hi,

Could it be safe and reliable to use HD disquettes with Amiga 500 ?

[Anubis]

disquettes?

There was A500 hard disk extension - A590. It also contained memory upgrade (up to 2MB or 4MB iirc) and you needed Kickstart 1.3 with workbench 1.3.3 at least to use it.

I had one and used it with Amiga 500+ and it worked great. I still have at least one A500+ emulated just for nostalgic reasons.

HD are safe and reliable, users, well, that is to be seen.

[d4rk3lf]

In addition to what Anubis mentioned, there's a lot's of new A500 accelerators that allows you to use CF (Compact Flash) card as HD... couple of GB's are more then enough for anything you want in your A500.

But really... HD disquettes? What do you mean by that?
Maybe we misunderstood you completely.

[gimbal]

What pops into my brain is Iomega zip disks when I read "HD disquettes".

[masteries]

Probably High Density disquettes, such 1.44 MB ones.

As far I know, these can be used if you taped the left hole, as 720 KB ones.

[jolly11]

I think he means high density floppy disks

[gimbal]

Aaaaaaah yes, jeepers it's so long ago that I forgot about that. I actually remember that I used HD floppies and a mate copied over some games to them, which failed to boot on his machine.

But then I popped them into mine and poof, they worked.

[Lord Aga]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

But really... HD disquettes? What do you mean by that?

Really?
Is "disquette" that much different from "diskete"?

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by Lord Aga

Really?
Is "disquette" that much different from "diskete"?

It's not, but I also never heard of " daj mi brate Hard Disk disketu"

I think Gimbal first guess is right... probably some Iomega zip.

[Lord Aga]

Nooo, he's talking about High Density floppy disks
"H-a D-e diskete, ne hard disk diskete"

He's French (speaking). Disquette is a floppy disk.

[phx]

I have mixed experiences with High Density disks in Amiga DD floppy disk drives. In the past it was usually no problem to use them instead. But I have the feeling that they are less reliable to store information over a long time (decades in our case ), because their surface is different and not ideal for DD drives.

[meynaf]

Last HD floppies were PC preformatted and were unreliable, with random errors. It seemed they never forgot their original format.

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

It's not, but I also never heard of " daj mi brate Hard Disk disketu"

You did not have a brother, you had sister??

Yep, most likely HD is for high density, not hard disk. My apologies for misunderstanding OP question.

[r.cade]

The coercivity is close, but not exactly right. DD writes with about 10% less strength than HD media is designed for.

For this reason, they will be somewhat unreliable as a DD storage medium. Add that to the unreliability of 3.5 media just from age (5.25 is more reliable, maybe due to more surface area and thickness of the cookie) and it will have errors.

[BigD]

You could hack a HD Chinon drive into the A500 I guess and actually use the extra space on those disks! Why we just stopped at 880kb I'll never know! Yes, the Amiga drives are half speed but they work. Probably rare as hens teeth these days so just stick to old stock DDs or get a Gotek.

[BigD]

... thread about the drives here:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=78302

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by BigD

You could hack a HD Chinon drive into the A500 I guess and actually use the extra space on those disks!

If you modify a standard HD drive for Amiga use using the common basic modifications, you still can't use HD disks. Those drives just act as a DD drive. You need to do an extensive modification with additional electronics to halve the drive speed, and find a drive with a motor that can still run at half speed within acceptable tolerances.

Why we just stopped at 880kb I'll never know!

Because Paula can't handle standard HD drives, and custom half-speed drive mechanisms were far more expensive than DD drives, and the wedge Amiga models were all about being as absolutely cheap as possible. The more expensive big-box Amigas didn't stop at 880kB for example...

[XPD]

Originally Posted by masteries

Probably High Density disquettes, such 1.44 MB ones.

As far I know, these can be used if you taped the left hole, as 720 KB ones.

Yup, however I always found they were not as reliable. So didn't use them for anything I wanted to keep long term.

[LeCaravage]

According to your answers, I decide to not purchase these high density disks.
@all : Thanks for infos.

[Zak]

I just want to mention there are actual high density floppy disk drives for Amiga. I have one internal in my A4000 and they were also available as external drive for other Amigas. Very useful when you want to exchange data with an older PC.