How big is your compact flash?

[+Larry]

I'm curious as to what size CF cards folks are using as hard drives. Mine range from 256 MB to 512 MB. I use these with three different interfaces -- Black Box, KMK-JZ, and MyIDE. I think that 256 MB is plenty big for an Atari 8-bit, but they are quickly disappearing from the "popular sizes." The smallest popular size now seems to be 512 MB, and I suspect that it will be 1 GB very soon. I have not had any failures, likely because I use nothing but SanDisk cards (though I'm sure there are other good brands). There may be an advantage to using a larger size and rotating the partitions through the memory to even out usage, but I'm not sure if there is some "base memory" used in the CF for all of the addressable memory. (?) Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can comment on that.

 

I do backup the contents to an APE image at least once a month, but I'm in the process of purchasing some PC software that will sector-copy a hard drive (including CF as a mass storage device under USB). It should also copy proprietary formats such as an Atari -- no need for a FAT or FAT32 on the drive. After I get it, I'll post how well it does. Using a PC, it should take no more than a few minutes to copy a full Atari partition on a drive.

-Larry

[Noelio]

I'm curious as to what size CF cards folks are using as hard drives. Mine range from 256 MB to 512 MB. I use these with three different interfaces -- Black Box, KMK-JZ, and MyIDE. I think that 256 MB is plenty big for an Atari 8-bit, but they are quickly disappearing from the "popular sizes." The smallest popular size now seems to be 512 MB, and I suspect that it will be 1 GB very soon. I have not had any failures, likely because I use nothing but SanDisk cards (though I'm sure there are other good brands). There may be an advantage to using a larger size and rotating the partitions through the memory to even out usage, but I'm not sure if there is some "base memory" used in the CF for all of the addressable memory. (?) Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can comment on that.

 

I do backup the contents to an APE image at least once a month, but I'm in the process of purchasing some PC software that will sector-copy a hard drive (including CF as a mass storage device under USB). It should also copy proprietary formats such as an Atari -- no need for a FAT or FAT32 on the drive. After I get it, I'll post how well it does. Using a PC, it should take no more than a few minutes to copy a full Atari partition on a drive.

-Larry

 

This might be wayyyyy off topic, but I once had a 128MB CF card that included 802.11B!

I used it in my old HP Jornada PDA.

Now wouldn't THAT be an awesome card, if the wifi worked on top of todays 1 - 2 Gig CF via MyIDE!!!

I'm a sick man hehe.

1 Gig is the defacto standard as of today!

you can still fit a heck of a lot of A8 data on a 128 even though!

[SpicyChronos]

I'm using a 1GB CF card with my setup. I do have a 512MB, but that's being used in my NAS server as the boot drive.

 

I'm also using a 6GB Toshiba HDD as well, now that's overkill! But the drive was free and it works great!

 

-Spicy

[JamesD]

I picked up a couple 128MB cards cheap a few years ago and still use them. Now you can get 1GB for about 1/3 the price.

[krupkaj]

I have 128MB in my SIO2IDE

[Goochman]

256 CF

[+bf2k+]

16, 256 & 512

[IndusGT]

I have a Transcend 256 MB IDE compact flash. You can still buy them from the company's website

[Urchlay]

I have a Transcend 256 MB IDE compact flash. You can still buy them from the company's website

 

Hm, I have a Transcend 128M IDE flash device (not actually "compact flash" because it uses an IDE connector, not a CF connector). It came with my MyIDE cartridge, though it currently lives inside my 1200XL (on the internal MyIDE).

 

Is your the 256M version of this (with IDE connector), or is yours an actual CF connector? I might need to get one, if it's got the IDE connector (currently the MyIDE cart is gathering dust until I replace its storage...)

[puppetmark]

I just came from my local Ritz Camera (part of the "the camera shop inc." chain). I had to ask, but they have 32MB CF cards for $7.99 and 64MB CF cards for 14.99. I bought a couple just to have as extra. They are going to be harder to find soon. Most places now have 1GB as the smallest size.

 

I use 32 and 64MB cards with the MYIDE cart because it seems that the larger capacity CF cards are more likely to have problems. That has been my experience anyway. I think 64MB is plenty of room for the 8-bits.