Have an 8-bit computer looking to use compact flash for IDE drive

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big_d_316

Well, I didn't know where to post this, but I thought these seemed like
a good place to start. I have an old Coleco Adam with a
MicroInnovations IDE drive adaptor. I would like to upgrade it, and
keep it internal by useing a Kingston 48MB HighSpeed COmpact flash
card. Model CD/48. Ok, the problem now comes when the setup software
ask me for the number of heads and cylinders. how does a CF emulate
these features, well, if they do that is.
 
Well, I didn't know where to post this,
Click to expand...

Try comp.os.cpm. Adam's are discussed there from time to time. I seem to
recal a brief thread just a week or so ago.
but I thought these seemed like
a good place to start. I have an old Coleco Adam with a
MicroInnovations IDE drive adaptor. I would like to upgrade it, and
keep it internal by useing a Kingston 48MB HighSpeed COmpact flash
card. Model CD/48. Ok, the problem now comes when the setup software
ask me for the number of heads and cylinders. how does a CF emulate
these features, well, if they do that is.
Click to expand...

Try this:
http://lrp.end.ro/hd/ide-cf.html

for 48MB it says
Cylinder = 734
Heads = 4
Sectors per Track = 32

I'd like to hear back if it worked.

- Bill
 
hey thanks, I have no clue what is going on with it. It got to the part
where it was supose to partition the card, and it sat and sat and sat.
I would like to know if the system sees anything that is plugged into
the card. Well, I have no clue what I am doing, and there isn't much
for Adam resources, more so for 3rd-party IDE cards.
 
hey thanks, I have no clue what is going on with it. It got to the part
where it was supose to partition the card, and it sat and sat and sat.
I would like to know if the system sees anything that is plugged into
the card. Well, I have no clue what I am doing, and there isn't much
for Adam resources, more so for 3rd-party IDE cards.
Click to expand...

It's best to quote something of the message you're replying to when using
Usenet. There's no guarantee that anyone can see the message which led you to
post the above, and even if they can, they may not see it immediately before
yours. I know that Yahoo! and Google give the illusion that you can just step
back to the previous message and/or follow threads, but it doesn't always (or
maybe even often) work with the tools many Usenet denizens use.

As to your subject, I've had some problems with Kingston CFs. I have a 32M CF
in my Poqet ( see http://www.cadigital.com/poqetpc.htm ). I'd bought a
Kingston at a decent price but it wouldn't work, which surprised me because the
SanDisk I'd borrowed to make sure the machine could support it did work. When
I checked it out, the Kingston and the SanDisk worked perfectly in the other
machine, but only the SanDisk worked in the Poqet, so I swapped them.

In addition, I have to wonder what kind of an IDE is in the Adam. My very old
(15+ years) laptop has what's called an IDE interface to it's hard drive, but
it's not connector compatible with any IDE drive I've ever seen.

Anyway, you may want to try another CF before you give up on it. Or, if you
can, try a known working actual IDE disk.

- Bill
 
In alt.folklore.computers (e-mail address removed) wrote:

: Well, I didn't know where to post this, but I thought these seemed like
: a good place to start. I have an old Coleco Adam with a
: MicroInnovations IDE drive adaptor. I would like to upgrade it, and
: keep it internal by useing a Kingston 48MB HighSpeed COmpact flash
: card. Model CD/48. Ok, the problem now comes when the setup software
: ask me for the number of heads and cylinders. how does a CF emulate
: these features, well, if they do that is.

I reposted this query to the Coleco ADAM mailing list (see
http://www.adamcon.org/ if you are interested in subscribing). Here is
what one of our faithful responded:
On this note, I was able to acquire one of the compact flash to IDE
adapter cards. From what I can tell all of the adapters require a 4 pin
power connector.

When I tried this adapter with an old 16mb compact flash card I had
laying around, the ADAM would not recognize device as an IDE hard drive.
The ADAM programs used to partition and initialize the hard drive would
freeze up when attempting to access the card. I had the same result
with a 256mb compact flash card in the adapter. Due to the above
failure I decided to try a couple of other devices I had lying around
the house.

First, I tried attaching an internal one gigabyte IDE SPARQ drive made
by Syquest. This drive worked just like my IDE 120mb hard drive in the
ADAM attached to a power connector soldered to the power connector in
the base of the ADAM using an ADAM printer power supply.

Second, I tried attaching an internal one hundred megabyte IDE ZIP
drive. This drive would not work unless I attached the drive to an IBM
power supply. I am guessing that this drive requires more amperage to
spin up the disk as every time it attempted to the image on the ADAM
screen flickered. Once hooked to an external power supply, this drive
worked great as well.

After a little more thought I decided to try the compact flash adapter
again. I changed the IDE cable (no idea why the idea popped into my
mind) and everything seemed to work fine. It appears to be quick in
responding, but have not had any of the problems we were experiencing
earlier with the larger IDE drives. The hard drive parameters I used in
the are as follows:

16mb compact flash (1024 cylinders, 2 heads, 16 sectors = 16384kb)
256mb compact flash (1024 cylinders, 8 heads, 16 sectors = 65536kb)

From what I remember from the past the largest hard drive partition
accessible by the ADAM is 64mb.
Click to expand...

*Rich*
 
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