CF Card as a method of transfer?

[Tupin]

Is using a CF card with one of those CF-IDE adapters a good method of transferring disk images and other stuff to and from an Amiga?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-4000-IDE-INTERNAL-CF-5-25-DRIVE-BAY-/220695755112?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33627df968

I've heard you can also format a hard drive in WinUAE? How would that work? What program would you use to unpack an .adf file, by the way? I'm guessing WHDLoad would be easy after that?

[orange]

Is using a CF card with one of those CF-IDE adapters a good method of transferring disk images and other stuff to and from an Amiga?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-4000-IDE-INTERNAL-CF-5-25-DRIVE-BAY-/220695755112?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33627df968

I've heard you can also format a hard drive in WinUAE? How would that work? What program would you use to unpack an .adf file, by the way? I'm guessing WHDLoad would be easy after that?

I don't think CF is a good choice, because it doesn't support hot-swap. I prefer cable, network/serial/parallel.

For .adf I use excellent TSGUI by Thomas.
yes, WinUAE can use the CF just like real Amiga.

[fitzsteve]

Also to mention how outrageously priced that is, cheap 99p CF-IDE reader with a plastic chassis relabled Amiga and price inflated :griping:

You could get one that sits on a rear backplace for a couple of bucks:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/40-Pin-IDE-CF-Compact-Flash-Card-Adapter-Bootable-/110529162403?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19bc0d2ca3

As Orange has said they ate not hot swappable so you will need to remove/insert CF with the Amiga switched off and you would need to use an Amiga file system on the CF card so would need to use WinUAE to move the files to the CF on the PC.

If you have lots of money you could look at a USB solution like the Deneb (if you can find one) or a networking option.

This is all assuming you have an A4000, if you have a 1200/600 you can use PCMCIA/CF

All the best,

Steve.

[José Manuel]

If you have amiga 600 or 1200 use PCMCIA/CF and download this software:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/cfd
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95

read here:
http://www.vesalia.de/e_amigapcmciacf%5B7125%5D.htm

Regards
Jose

[runequester]

I use a CF adapter and its easy as pie. Also doubles as cheap additional storage.

[Tupin]

Cool, sounds like CF is the way to go. As for the disk program, I want to take .adf files and unpack them on the Amiga and copy them back onto the CF card or a floppy.

Also, a newbie question: how do I check the specs of my machine? Like RAM, hard drive space, etc. Thanks.

[desiv]

I actually just recently got an adapter for my Amiga 1000 that is a DUAL CF card.
The MASTER card is currently 2 AmigaDOS partitions, but the SLAVE is a standard FAT card.

True, there's no hot swap, but it's nice if I want/need to transfer larger files (or a large amount of files) or for a backup of his main partitions...

I like the flexibility there...

desiv

[pyrre]

Not exactly an answer to your question.
But
Id like to revive this little devil. looks like a neat peace of kit.
details

I use a zip drive for filetransfering. i have one IDE in my pc and one SCSI in my amiga. Allthough i only have a zipdrive in one of my amigas. its still better than nothing. But a network solution would be best.

[Bigbronc]

Not exactly an answer to your question.
But
Id like to revive this little devil. looks like a neat peace of kit.
details
 
I use a zip drive for filetransfering. i have one IDE in my pc and one SCSI in my amiga. Allthough i only have a zipdrive in one of my amigas. its still better than nothing. But a network solution would be best.

 
what program do you use to get the zip drive to work on the amiga, could I get a copy of it? I have a few zip drives and would like to try transfering that way too.

[stefcep2]

what program do you use to get the zip drive to work on the amiga, could I get a copy of it? I have a few zip drives and would like to try transfering that way too.

Didn't 3.5+ have zip support built in to the OS?

[pyrre]

what program do you use to get the zip drive to work on the amiga, could I get a copy of it? I have a few zip drives and would like to try transfering that way too.

I use OS3.9 and i have a SCSI controller on my PPC board. appart from hardware i only use dosdrivers to access my zip drive. even fat formated disks. (but remember; FAT is unable to maintain some of amiga file properties. Allways transfer files compressed. LHA and UAE works nice.)

My A1200 is currently unavailable. but as soon as i get it up and running i will copy the dosdrivers and mail it to you.
I got mine from "A4000_mad" some years ago.

[pyrre]

Didn't 3.5+ have zip support built in to the OS?

Zip disks (amiga RDB formatted) pops ut by them selves. Bootable zips, just works...
FAT formatted zips need a dos driver. I initially had trouble getting it to work. But got some dos drivers from "A4000_mad" and they works just fine.

The only problem with os older than 3.5 is to format disks. 3.5 and 3.9 have zip tools by default. (if i am not mistaken, and if I'm not completely mistaken they are written by iomega themselves.)
Zip tools are available at Aminet

[Tupin]

I just want to put .adf on the card, unpack them, and use WHDLoad or write them. Is there anything like that?

[pyrre]

I just want to put .adf on the card, unpack them, and use WHDLoad or write them. Is there anything like that?

I dont know how WHDload works. And i cant help there.
But for your purpose of copying .adf files to a Cf card and put it in the amiga. it should work just fine.
But it is a rather cumbersome prosess to swap the CF card between the pc and the amiga. like stated before in the tread, they are not hotswappable without special hardware. like usb card reader or alike...

@Bigbronc
A little update on amiga zip drive prepping.
Try following these instructions.

[runequester]

I dont know if its that bothersome. Put the CF card in a normal card reader, like what you'd use for SD cards and whatnot, then put it in the PCMCIA adapter on the amiga and boot it up.

It's no worse than swapping a USB stick between two computers.