SCSI Controller for A4000

[mazdaboi]

What's everyones recommendations for adding a SCSI controller to an A4000? It's a standard A4000, so it doesnt have any special backplane installed...

I just want to hook up a Zip drive or an external hard drive to back up some stuff. I made ADF files out of the diskettes I got with my Amiga's. Need to move them onto some sort of backup media...

Any recommendations would be appreciated

Thanks,
Brad

[Castellen]

One of the best SCSI controller cards I've used is the Fastlane Z3.  Supports Zorro 3 DMA SCSI, plus the addition of fast memory (32 bit access), providing you can find 30 pin SIMMs.  :-)
Unfortunately these cards are quite rare and expensive.

You can get those IDE to SCSI converting things.  Haven't used them before though.  They're possibly a bit pricey.

If you want to back some stuff up to a 2nd computer with a minimal cost, either use a cheap P2P network, like some form of parallel or serial soloution.  Slow and nasty, but works OK if you've got the time.

Another option is just buy a new IDE hard drive.  Even 20Gb drives are almost giveaway items now.
Format it with a decent file system like PFS3-DS so you won't have disk size problems.
Add it to your internal IDE controller and copy your stuff accross.

[mazdaboi]

Regarding using another IDE hard drive. Good idea. I can probably find one laying around at the shop.

How large of an IDE hard drive can a A4000 support? I know on PC's there are various stepping stones of size limitations... 512MB, 8GB, 40GB, etc... where the firmware cant handle larger drives... Is this a problem on an A4000?

Also, I have seen several mentions of using ATAPI Iomega Zip drives... Is it as easy as plugging it in and *poof* it works?

Thanks,
Brad

[Kronos]

Well, the Fastlane is good, but it is also rare and expensive. And it is surely overkill for what you plan  :-D

Options:

a:Get an accelrator, most of them have a controller onboard, and even one with only a 40MHz 68040 will drasticly improve speed compared too the stock 25MHz (mainly due to the accels having RAM onboard).

b:Get a Zorro2 card for the A2000, those are cheap and more than fast enough for a ZIP. But stay away from C=2091 and GVP unless they have the "GURU-ROM". Also make sure that you get an RDB-compatible one, meaning get one produced in the 90's. An A.L.F3 or Oktagon would be my prefered choice.

AFAIK there is no limit on what size the A4000-IDE will take HW-wise, but you will need special SW (as included in OS3.5/9, or available on Aminet), to make use of anything beyond 4GB.

[adolescent]

I can recommend the A4091.  I have the Commodore version, although the DKB is just as good.  Works with everything I've thrown at it so far (CD-RW, Zip, a bunch of HDs ranging from ancient to modern, etc.).  You do need a rev.11 Super Buster to use it though, and it doesn't have RAM slots.

Best solution as said is the accellerator with onboard SCSI.  I'm swapping the A4091 + CSMk2-060/66MHz for a CSMk3-060/50MHz just for the SCSI.  I figure whatever speed I lose on the processor I'll make up for on the file I/O.