Compact Flash cards are no good

[phiwer]

@phiwer

extensively tested -

card has received several formats from FFS / SFS
card has received several formats from FAT32 / NTFS
card has undergone large bock read / write tests under Amiga (Native)
card has undergone large bock read / write tests under Amiga (CyberSCSI II)
card has undergone large bock read / write tests under Amiga (GVP - IOData R/SCSI IDE Bidge)
card has undergone large bock read / write tests under PC (various software)
device has been confirmed Healthy in Parition Magic 8.1

Some manufactures also provide testing software for their products, I use SanDisk's software, for their CF cards, however I beleive that both Kingston and Transcend offer some software to test their cards.

Most of the testing above was done some years ago, before the big splash of CF cards being used as Harddisks in Amiga's hadn't been done, a fellow EAB'er "Shrub" got the idea and we started testing a load out as CF cards / adapter and IDE / SCSI devices.

we found that the big factors in the day were CF cards ATA IDE MODE and CF card to IDE Adapters - there were a few cheap (and expensive) adapters that wouldn't allow the CF Card into IDE mode

Well this kind of testing is what I was looking for. I just had to make sure given that CF cards and retrogaming with an amiga 1200 sort of comes hand in hand in some of these threads.

In regards to anything reliable - as you know, if its mission critical - no matter the media you save it to... back it up! =)

Very true!

And now to the question of backup. Any good software on the amiga for this task? I intend on having my amiga connected to my *nix network at home, so maybe I'll just use rsync for the task of wiring the file(s) to another system. What I need is a scheduler on the amiga, which would do daily backups to an lzx/lha file, this would in turn would be wired using rsync.

 

[thgill]

as Zetr0 has mentioned, Sandisk seems to be overall the most compatible and most reliable CF cards you can buy. I have bought several ranging from 2GB to 8GB and haven't seen any issues with them. Kingston and PNY cards are a different story...



One thing to note is that Sandisk are the most bootlegged cards sold on eBay. If you see one selling for far too cheap, most likely its a bootleg. Lots of bootleg/fake media being sold on eBay. I buy all my CF and now SHDC cards from local brick and mortar stores that way I know (hopefully) that they are legit.

 

[Xanxi]

Indeed, the CF IDE adapter quality migh interfere with the result.
I have 4 of them.
2 are from ebay, bought several years ago: one 44 pins and one 40 pins
1 is from Cosmos: one 40 pins
1 is the special triangular shaped CF adapter from the finnish fellow who made them for A1200 and A600 users.

Only the association with this last one has been flawless until then, but again, my A600 is barely used.

However, we must keep in mind that those adapters don't have any electronic. This is plain IDE wiring with sometimes a few access LED or Master/Slave jumpers.

 

[phiwer]

Indeed, the CF IDE adapter quality migh interfere with the result.
I have 4 of them.
2 are from ebay, bought several years ago: one 44 pins and one 40 pins
1 is from Cosmos: one 40 pins
1 is the special triangular shaped CF adapter from the finnish fellow who made them for A1200 and A600 users.

Only the association with this last one has been flawless until then, but again, my A600 is barely used.

However, we must keep in mind that those adapters don't have any electronic. This is plain IDE wiring with sometimes a few access LED or Master/Slave jumpers.

What do you use your amigas for? Games, or more "serious" stuff?

 

[robinsonb5]

Indeed, the CF IDE adapter quality migh interfere with the result.

For what it's worth I've killed two CF cards by not being careful enough about where I put the IDE/CF adapter - ended up shorting on the casework and frying the cards.

 

[Arnie]

As I know, if you're using HDD's, the only wayt to select different OS's is in the early Boot Menu and selecting the proper boot partition.

Sorry for being OT.

@merlinkv

You can use a dedicated boot partition and a startup-sequence with requestchoice.

The dedicated boot partition is the only mounted and bootable partition.

Another partition can be mounted at startup on request, and the dedicated boot partition can be hidden.

End of OT...

 

[Xanxi]

Very serious stuff :-D

Internet browsing, FTP, Emulation of old computers (PCTask, Bridgeboard, Shapeshifter, AmiCPC, AmiMasterGear, etc), music (Mods and mp3), tweaking, WHDLoad, etc

 

[pinchez]

Just out of interest what CF cards do Amigakit use with the IDE/CF 4GB kits?

 

[thgill]

At one time I believe they were using Kingston.

Not sure if they still are.

 

[Harrison]

I tried a few different makes a couple of years ago, but had limited success with unbranded, transdisk and Kingston. All unreliable. As others have said only sandisk have worked well and been reliable.

And these days I only use SanDisk for all types of flash memory as it is the most reliable. Even class 10 in my dslr.

 

[merlinkv]

As I know, if you're using HDD's, the only wayt to select different OS's is in the early Boot Menu and selecting the proper boot partition.

Sorry for being OT.

@merlinkv

You can use a dedicated boot partition and a startup-sequence with requestchoice.

The dedicated boot partition is the only mounted and bootable partition.

Another partition can be mounted at startup on request, and the dedicated boot partition can be hidden.

End of OT...

Hi mate

Any help will be much appreciated.

Because I don't want to hijack this "CF's Thread" you can send me by PM an startup example?

Thanks in advance

 

[QuillOmega0]

I'm running Kingston 16gb card, I tested it both with SFS and PFS, both work like a champ.

I should note that I initially had issues with one card reader when building a card.

How I build my Compact Flash Cards is I mount them into WinUAE and setup the image in there, setup RDB and partition, format and install. I had I/O errors on my card reader built in my computer (with no prior issues during normal usage) after copying files for a while. I used an external USB card reader and no issues whatsoever during setup.

Compact Flash cards can be fickle at times and it requires experimentation. If you get so many "Bad" cards, it might not be the cards but just the reader.

 

[Damion]

Been using flash media with my Amigas for about 8 years without a single issue. CF cards are Sandisk, adapters are Addonics or Mesa, and always PFS3. Some of them have taken heavy abuse and still keep on truckin'.

 

[droopy]

Hello.

I know that a lot of amiga users these days like to use Compact Flash cards instead of real hard drives, either IDE or SCSI.

I always strongly disagree with that because i do believe that CF are unreliable.

I agree and many of the card readers are the root of the problem as well.
I quit using CF and SD Now I am using a DOM driver 16Gb (Disk On Module SSD drive) The one I use is 44 Pin and fits directly on the amiga cable and have worked verry nicely since day one.. Also verry small and easy to put away inside my A1200, MUCH smaller than any CF+CFard combination. About the size of an 44 Pin IDE contact.

The DOM drive I use is a drive I got from Work mounted at a siemens controller board for ventilation systems (ordinary IDE interface).

I can not say if the drives at Ebay from china works the same way but they are cheap and about the same size.. Will get some and try that as well in the future..

 

[phiwer]

Hello.

I know that a lot of amiga users these days like to use Compact Flash cards instead of real hard drives, either IDE or SCSI.

I always strongly disagree with that because i do believe that CF are unreliable.

I agree and many of the card readers are the root of the problem as well.
I quit using CF and SD Now I am using a DOM driver 16Gb (Disk On Module SSD drive) The one I use is 44 Pin and fits directly on the amiga cable and have worked verry nicely since day one.. Also verry small and easy to put away inside my A1200, MUCH smaller than any CF+CFard combination. About the size of an 44 Pin IDE contact.

The DOM drive I use is a drive I got from Work mounted at a siemens controller board for ventilation systems (ordinary IDE interface).

I can not say if the drives at Ebay from china works the same way but they are cheap and about the same size.. Will get some and try that as well in the future..

Could you give me the specs fo the DOM drive and adapter(brand and model)?

I'd be interested in trying this solution.

What does the whole kit cost (drive + adapter)?

 

[rkauer]

I had nothing but headaches with unbranded/Transcend/Kingston CF on IDE mode inside the Amiga. Most of the times the cards died at once with no reason at all. Yes, I checked the max_transfer!

For transfers via PCMCIA all but Transcend/Kingston are perfect. I still prefer a bit of noise and LARGE available space on my Amigas. Lol, the tinniest HD I have in use inside an Amiga is 2Gb SCSI on one of mine A500.

All others have 9Gb and more (9Gb on mint A2000, 18Gb on another, 37Gb on A3000, 40Gb IDE on A600, 80Gb IDE on A1200).

Choices: mine is lots of space to use as I wish. No problem with a bit of noise, as my pc is louder any time of the day.