Connecting a 2.5" drive to Amiga 1200

[Viper]

Hi all,

  I have 2 2.5" Hard Drives for my Amiga 1200 and I did have the original IDE 44 pin cable to connect it. However I was working on my Amiga the other day and Left th cable on the floor and now it has lovely teeth mark in it from my dog!!! :pissed:  :lol:

  My question is has anyone tried using a normal PC IDE cable to connect the Hard Drive to the Amiga with and does it work, or am I going to have to go on Ebay and buy a new 44 Pin cable?

Cheers
    :-P

[leofoe]

I'm afraid you have...

[Viper]

DOH the cables on there are so expensive, I wonder if there is anywhere in the UK that sells a small drum of 44 Pin Ribbon cable and the connectors so I could make my own cable.

[leofoe]

Yeah, cheap is different...
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=101&osCsid=531c53570d48c30d71edbd2f2818acf4

[Viper]

£5.99 !!!!! WOW

I have found 1 site whre I can buy 1 foot of 44 Pin cable and 1 set of femail 44 Pin connectors for $1.50 however P&P is $22 LOL

I think they must post it a gold plated envelope!

There are times I hate living in the UK as some of the stuff I want is only available in the states and Postage is way too expensive.

[Cyberus]

A lot of their stuff is overpriced - and there's some guy on ebay who's been selling those cables for like 6 quid each or something for about two years now. Welcome to the world of Amiga.
[I know a lot of people will say that prices are higher because its a smaller market, but I seem to have seen a lot of people ripping off Amiga users)

Quite often, I find that someone will sell some generic part with the word 'Amiga' beside it, and expect to command 4 times the price. I thought Amiga users were computer-savvy; if so, why do people buy a hard drive with 'Amiga' written next to it for more? A hard drive is a bleedin' hard drive.

[Viper]

Yeah I have been noticing that, Just because the word AMIGA is beside it the price goes up  and up and up!!!

This is why I was looking to see if I can build my own IDE cable for my Amiga so I can hook up my Hard Drive again.

I don't like the idea of paying like £5 and upwards for a 5cm cable!

[avanham]

I got a 12" 44-pin cable from these guys:
http://store.yahoo.com/cablesonline/102driv44pin.html

It lets you connect two 2.5" hard drives at the same time (assuming at least one of them has a jumper to set it to SLAVE mode)

CablesOnline were very fast and they are pretty cheap too.

[Hyperspeed]

Amiga hardware isn't always the same. A hard drive is not always an
Amiga hard drive.

I once bought a Quantum Daytona 2.5" hard disk from Anal-Logic
computers but it turns out that even this Amiga dealer had sold me a
drive which had technology only a PC could talk to - thus the drive
wouldn't work on PIO Mode-1 that the A1200's internal IDE header has.

Also, the A1200's PCMCIA port is Rev-1 standard whereas today's
laptops have Rev-3 or something.

Another variant is memory. Amigas won't like a lot of EDO SIMMs or
server intended memory modules - whereas you can virtually guarantee
that a zero '0' before the nanosecond rating will guarantee you a
fully compatible FPM SIMM.

I would pay a higher price for something that had been proven to work
with an Amiga (with a tech explanation) than some generic, unbranded
PC part. I would also pay a higher price for service and guarantee
from a trusted Amiga specific company.

Bare in mind with IDE cables though that the A1200's IDE header isn't
very well labelled and the cable can be inserted in the wrong way
around. This can kill hardware.

Also - the unbuffered IDE interface of the stock A1200 really should
have a short (2-4") cable.

[leofoe]

http://cgi.ebay.nl/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=8142&item=5216943297&rd=1