Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: RMC64 on May 09, 2004, 12:50:41 PM
-
I have an old conner pc formatted drive. what would it take to get it connected to an Amiga 500?
-
You cannot connect a HDD directly to an A500, you need a HDD controller first. Software to install a HDD usually comes with the controller.
Bye,
Thomas
-
I think most HD controllers for the A500 were SCSI
although some were IDE.
I assume the drive you are talking about is IDE, so
when looking for a controller make sure its compatable
with your drive.
It should work fine then.
-
I seem to remember the TrumpCard being the most popular IDE solution at the time; that let you install the IDE drive in place of the floppy, and switch to an external floppy...
Not sure what was available in the sidecar category, there were a few as well.
Eaaaarly Conners had a reputation for being fiddly in master-slave relationships; by the 540MB era this was solved, or at least, I never had any problems on my PC equipment.
-
In my opinion, it would be a fatal mistake to even install a conner harddrive. I dont know of that company still exists, but the harddrives are crap. My brother had a 800mb harddrive at the time, and it died on him easily within a year or so. I had another onewhich just never booted up ever again. Why not replace the harddrive with a Seagate or even a Western Digital? Maxtors.... They are faulty too. I had to get rid of the 40gig i had of a Maxtor because it kept making clicking sounds and wouldnt start up somtimes.... My 60gig UATA133 I bought a few months ago makes clicking sounds for no reason. Not sure if there is a fix to this, but I would like to know if there ever is a fix for late harddrive loadups n all of that.
But if anything, just replace that conner with another harddrive.
-
Western Digital, Seagate and Fujitsu have all made faulty batches of drives in the past, which have failed after 1 - 2 years of use. Quantum used to have problems with the spin-up speed in A600s & 1200s.
Choice of a hard disk is going to be on what interface can be found (chances are an old interface will come with a drive anyway), and no one manufacturer is perfect! I've replaced about 200 Fujitsu 10Gb IDE HDDs with Maxtor 20Gb ones in this last year (supplied under warranty).
-
Clicks can vary; sometimes it's just safe thermal compensation or even failed-sector remapping (a good thing, at today's densities)... other times, it's varying degrees of horror. I had a problem with a clicky WD semirecently (80gb WD800AB), and the best theory I could come up with was that power supply voltage was sagging enough to kick in an overly-aggressive protective-parking feature... Had to RMA the first one, and the second behaved the same but without data loss; never did test it by installing a higher-wattage supply, and theoretically I was within spec (just like the 6000RPM-to-goose-the-benchmarks drive was theoretically a low-power 5400RPM)...
Er, back to how much Conner did/didn't suck, I was running a 'naturally selected' one (800-something MB, made right before they were bought up by... who bought them up, Quantum?) that had been in use for about 8 years, with no trouble. As ever, when a drive does start to go, nothing to do but replace it and hope you have better luck the next go-'round.
-
Conner now owned by Seagate :-)
-
I found a Conner hard drive in the the dumpster that's called "lounge" in my house, the other day. I was desperately looking for a medium to keep some 30 gig back-up on... too bad it was only 540 mb! I'll keep on searching in my lounge tonight... who knows, I might come up with a server!
-
Thank you Thomas you seem to know a lot.
I will follow your advice