Tutorial: How to Install A Compact Flash Drive Into the A1200 And A600

[ZeBeeDee]

The tutorial has been removed for a complete re-write along with pictures for each step. It will reappear at a later date but if anybody has questions regarding the installation of a CF card in the meantime, please PM me.

[Homer]

Excellent  :-)  Thanks for that.

[InTheSand]

ZeBeeDee wrote:
Portions of this tutorial were taken from the excellent hard drive installation tutorial by 'InTheSand'. Hope I haven't stepped on your toes in using as it saved me alot of typing.  :-)

Hehe! No worries! I don't mind as long as I'm credited!

 - Ali

[A4000_Mad]

@ ZeBeeDee
A job well done  :pint:

@ InTheSand
You too :pint:


:cheers:


A4000 Mad

[ZeBeeDee]

A4000_Mad wrote:
@ ZeBeeDee
A job well done  :pint:

@ InTheSand
You too :pint:

/me takes a bow

[tom_a_spar]

I cant get any further than step number 6
my a1200 well not boot help?

[murple]

1 44pin Compact Flash adapter (Ebay is the best place for this - seller kitty.wun <-- name dropper hehehe).

I've been seeing these recently in large computer stores (Microcenter here in the US) for cheap. May be a good alternative to ebay if you can get it local.

I was all excited to try the Flash mod until I read that Compact Flash drives begin to get corrupted then completely fail after several hundred thousand write/erase operations. I'm not sure how that compares to a disk drive, but I have IDE drives that are over 15 years old and still work fine, and I'm pretty sure they've had more than a few hundred thousand writes or erases. Anyone have any more detailed info comparing the two options?

[tom_a_spar]

think of Compact Flash drive as a boot drive
something that well get you into the workbench

then you use a usb based hard drive to store all your other stuff

[tom_a_spar]

I have got my a1200 booting using install 3.1
on step 10:

click on the "Read Configuration" button.

I get "Unit is not a disk (type 7)"
the size is wrong 211Mb (got 256Mb card)

To commit your changes to the hard drive, click on "Save Changes to Drive"

I get "Error 3 on write"

what am I doing wrong?

[mrmkl]

If I remember correctly, I was able to fix that problem using this patch: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/HDToolBoxPatch (It required some program to apply the patch to HDToolBox.)

[tom_a_spar]

Gpatch is the program you need
tryed with uae patching worked but failed with media
about to try with real computer

[motorollin]

tom_a_spar wrote:
think of Compact Flash drive as a boot drive
something that well get you into the workbench

then you use a usb based hard drive to store all your other stuff

What's the point of that? A USB hard disk on an Amiga would be SO SLOW, would take up all the CPU time while being accessed, would not work in a lot of software (e.g. WHDLoad games which don't like the USB stack to be running) etc etc. If you don't want all your data stored on a CompactFlash card you might as well just use a hard drive inside your Amiga.

--
moto

[jj]

I would only look at CF adpater as an alternative to HDD if you use your miggy mainly for games.  There is alot less writes then.

As alwyas though HDD can fail suddenly just as easliy.  So you should alwyas back up important data regularly.

Most modern solid state memory actually has spare blocks(for want of the correct erminology) that are not used bu the controlling hardware until other start to fail

[tom_a_spar]

if you main goal is boot speed and hot swapable (not when powered on) OSes
witch is what I am looking at
not playing games but using the apps

[tom_a_spar]

tom_a_spar wrote:

Gpatch is the program you need
tryed with uae patching worked but failed with media
about to try with real computer

"error 3 on write" while saving changes to drive

I tryed HDIntslTools failed with error 1001

help