CMD hard drives can modded to use Secure Digital cards. CMD hard drive boards expect a SCSI drive mechanism, but with adapters, the CMD hard drive board can be used with SD cards. What is needed are two adapters -- a SCSI-to-IDE adapter and a IDE-to-SD adapter.
The first adapter can be seen at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330243075113&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=014
-- and the second adapter can be seen at
http://cgi.ebay.com/SD-MMC-Card-to-IDE-Adapter-Converter-HD-Flash-Memory_W0QQitemZ260278383812QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260278383812&_trkparms=72%3A392%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 (or get a similar one because this one is out-of-stock. Warning: not all IDE-to-SD adapters work with the CMD board. For the latest info, contact Eddie who is listed below.)
Because of the CMD HD DOS, you are still limited to a maximum of 4 gigs being recognized in the SD cards. The newer CMD boot room 2.80 is advised, in order to handle the large 4-gig capacity. CMD Utilities *will* work with such a drive set-up.
Here is more from the hardware modder working on this -- eddie(at)innercirclebbs.com :
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Just beware that you will need to DESOLDER the molex power connectors and solder on a Y adapter, otherwise the SCSI-IDE Bridge will not mate properly with the IDEtoSD adapter.
So far I have tested with these SD cards (and more coming in the mail); all are 4GB and so far they all report the SAME amount of blocks free: 15685438 which is enough for 240 partitions (241, but the last one only has 256 blocks free):
Transcend (not recommended, took 4 times to LLFormat and Create sys before
it worked properly)
SANDisk Ultra II (15MB/Sec) Class 4, This is a FAST card
SANDisk SDHC Class 2, slow.
[Addendum from Sept. 18] Yes, I've added a few more [SD cards] to the list...
SANDisk Ultra III (20MB/sec) Class 6. Hauls ass.
Danetec, purchase did not go through, money refunded.
PNY Arrived damaged.
TOPRAM 150x ... Piece of crap. Reports 3.60GB free. Slow, it broke, attempting to get it replaced.
On Deck [to test]
Kingston 4GB Class 6 -- These report 3.68GB free on the PC, which is less than the other's I've tested.
TOPRAM 150x replacement
Danetec
[End addendum]
I'd also like to add that I've tried this with a CF setup (4GB) and although LLFormat formats it and Create Sys works, I can not get it to work. Just errors out.
I love the idea of SD cards, easy to swap in and out, hit reset when swapping and you're good to go. Don't forget the Device # is stored on the SD card, so keep those consistent.
Like to point out Jim Brain turned me onto [the following] disk imaging utility to create a backup of the card in the event I need to restore the data or make a copy of the card. Be sure to select physical and not logical and SET THE WRITE PROTECT so data does not get written to the card when you plug it into the PC; otherwise, the data will be overwritten somewhere... The PC will take a long time to error out while it tries to mount the SD card, but it will eventually time out - I suggest setting up the program first get all the settings ready before inserting the SD card to the PC for backup.
The name of the imaging program for Windows is Roadkil's DiskImage Version 1.45. Very simple, easy to use. And I use it to put the image on the new cards for testing, this is where I notice the speed increase/decrease... The faster cards are faster and the slower cards are slower, duh. The performance on the CMD HD is MUCH better than a HD, but doubt it really goes any faster than a few Megs a second (if that) due to the limitation of SCSI-1.
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Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
They work just as well with Compact Flash cards, IDE modules, SSDs and any number of other doodads. The CF card was what I had originally suggested to Eddie that kicked this whole thing off. Almost all Amiga users with clue have long since abandoned hard disks. I was gobsmacked that 64 users were still rubbing sticks together.
I even drank the Kool-Aid, Golan. It looks like I'll be retiring my 64HDD setup in favor of one of Jim Brain's uIEC devices. Even though I like the idea of using all period hardware, the card devices are just too darned convenient compared to running big iron.