Help with installation of Amigakit's SCSI2SD micro SD adapter in A3000

[Matt_H]

Basically, you just replace the existing hard drive with the adapter. Power and SCSI cables all line up.

But before that, you should plug it into a PC via USB (it's port-powered) to configure it (SCSI ID and a few other settings). No USB needed for regular operation.

When mounting in the 3000, the only complicated thing is that you'll need some screws AND nuts to secure it to the drive mounting bracket. With a traditional hard drive you just need screws, but since the adapter is just a thin board there's nothing for the screws to lock onto. Hence the need for nuts. I think I ended up using a few extras to raise the board from the bracket as well.

[Matt_H]

Unfortunately I don't have good advice on specific screws to use. The ones mounted to my 3000's old hard drive (not sure if they are original since the machine is second-hand) are too wide for the adapter. In situations like these I usually just grab a few different kinds from the hardware store - they're cheap enough that I'm willing to sacrifice a few cents on some superfluous ones (can't remember exactly what I bought in this case). Also: while the original drive used 4 mounting holes, the adapter only needs 2.

I ended up backing up the whole drive to another Amiga, prepping and copying to the adapter/SD card using that same other Amiga, and then just plugging it into the 3000. But you've got the right idea:
- disconnect your secondary drive,
- plug in the adapter,
- prep that new SD drive (make sure to set the "bootable" flag on the boot partition!),
- copy everything to the new SD drive,
- then replace your boot drive with the adapter and reconnect your secondary drive.

Before/during this process you'll want to make sure the SCSI ID of the adapter is set to not conflict with either of your existing drives - that's what the USB port (and associated configuration utility) is for. (see here)

I do wish these adapters had jumpers to set the SCSI ID - having to connect to another system to change the ID is a bit frustrating.

Now, if you want to get really fancy, these adapters actually allow you to emulate multiple SCSI devices. For instance: you've got a 16GB SD card and don't want to deal with all of the >4GB issues on a default OS2.x or 3.x system. The config utility can have the adapter present that one 16GB card as four 4GB devices using four different SCSI IDs (say, 0-3). You can also "hide" data beyond a certain point, i.e., presenting one 16GB card as one 4GB card.

If you want to get rid of your secondary hard drive, you could either copy/move its contents to another partition that you create on the SD card with HDToolbox, or you could copy/move its contents to another virtual device that you create with the USB config utility.