Solid State HD for A1200 project

[ckillerh3]

Good Evening - it has been 10 years!! since I last did hobby computing with my amiga computers.  My A1200 and A4000 boot up just fine but was intrigued by the possibility of replacing the old HD with a solid state drive / flash card?   There seem to be kits to do this.  How hard would it be to install one of these inside the machine but more importantly, get all the contents of the old drive (drivers and directories etc) back onto the memory card?   Has anybody done this, and what bumps in the road might I encounter?

[Doppie1200]

I don't think you should encounter many bumps providing you follow the guidelines that are around.

The easy way is to get a kit like this: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=883

Alternatively you could get a separate compact flash and adapter.
This is a handy thread on eab to look at:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=61666

I would take the following approach
1) Get yourself a CF to use as backup/transfer disk (like this: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=440)
2) Get yourself a CF and adapter to use the CF as harddisk
3) First lha your harddisk contents to the backup CF using the PCMCIA->CF solution.
4) Hook up a CF to USB adapter to your PC.
5) Install the CF to use as SSD using WinUAE.
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=68315
6) Extract the backup lha to the newly created CF harddisk (using winuae)
7) Put the CF harddisk in the A1200

That's about it.

I know this is not a step by step for dummies. It just gives you a direction. Google around. This has been done many times. I'm using a 4G CF in my A600 as harddrive. Works like a charm. In case of trouble, just ask.

[spudje]

Or, if you are able to hook up your Amiga HDD and CF card prepared as Amiga drive as in Doppie's step 5 to a PC at the same time, you can directly copy the contents from within WinUAE.

[Lizard]

Another option would be to install a 2.5" ide ssd, Transcend sell these.

[ciVic]

Would that be faster? I think IDE is the bottle neck here.

[Doppie1200]

True, IDE is the bottleneck. The A1200 IDE is some old PIO mode. So any compact flash will saturate that on read. Modern compact flashes even write faster than the A1200 can push the CF. I'd always go for the cheapest option. CF's are dirt cheap. My 4G CF in the A600 cost me 10 euro. But you'll have to add an adapter.

[Jiffy]

More expensive, but even more compact than CF plus adapter is this. I have them in both my 600 & 1200. Connects directly to the IDE-connector, extremely compact, no adapters or cables required.

[Zardoz]

I use a IDE2SD reader with a 4GB SD card. sure there is some conversion going on but it is plenty fast and give you the opportunity to use SD cards.

here is the adapter.

http://www.amazon.com/Optimal-Shop-D.../dp/B00DGNYXQ0

I want to get one of theses adaptors from krashan:

http://krashan.ppa.pl/articles/hardw..._view1_576.jpg
http://krashan.ppa.pl/articles/hardw..._view1_576.jpg

http://krashan.ppa.pl/articles/hardware/index_en.html

[XDelusion]

Or use msatat ssd too ide 44 pin.

[LoadWB]

I have on-hand about 10 8GB 44-pin DoM.  The problem is the orientation puts the board up against two large capacitors on the 1200 motherboard.  I planned originally on swapping the connector to the other side of the board, but I also have some "socket extenders) which sit on the header and gives the DoM enough height.

Had these damned things for two years and haven't had time to do anything with them.  I'm hoping this summer I'll put them up for sale, cheap.

[ckillerh3]

Good Morning Folks!  Wow thank you 100% for the detailed answers.  I think investing the time to go from the old HD to a solid state one will be worthwhile both for the A1200 and the A4000.  Making the ADF files for the while disk will be important for me.  Back when I was Amiga savvy I slaved configuring the different directories with the bits and pieces to properly configure all my expansion cards.  There is NOW WAY I could do that now.  It seems like all my floppy drives are suffering from bit rot as well so trying to run the installation macros will probably not work.  So . . . moving boldly forward!  I'll gather the hardware and give this a whirl.  Again many thanks !