Help a noob out...

[Boschloo]

Howdy folks, I'd like to add hard drives to my Commodore 64 and C128 computers.
How hard is that to do?

[+OLD CS1]

10 hours ago, Boschloo said:

Howdy folks, I'd like to add hard drives to my Commodore 64 and C128 computers.
How hard is that to do?

You have two choices for actual hard drives: a CMD HD or the Rear Admiral^*.  Both about like hens' teeth these days.

 

Or, get an SD2IEC, on which you can create "native" partitions up to 16MB, or use the root filesystem as storage.  I am not sure of the limitations of the latter.

 

Also, no matter what, get JiffyDOS.

 

* Or a Lt. Kernal, another hard drive of the era, but about like hens' foreskin.

[hofster]

There are a few more options when it comes to hard drive interfaces such as IDE64, IEC-ATA and NLQ-HD/NLQHD-SATA with different levels of software support.

 

What do you want your hard drive to do?

Are you just looking for a storage device with relatively large capacity, then SD2IEC is probably all you need.

If you are longing for the whining sound of rotational platters and ticking noise of read heads you the IDE or SATA solutions might be better for you.

[+OLD CS1]

9 hours ago, hofster said:

There are a few more options when it comes to hard drive interfaces such as IDE64, IEC-ATA and NLQ-HD/NLQHD-SATA with different levels of software support.

Are any of these in production?

[hofster]

I'm not sure if they are in production.

The NLQHD-SATA is my design but I don't sell it actively anywhere. It doesn't offer any advantage over the SD2IEC except that you can use a proper SATA hard drive (2.5 or 3.5 inch) if that's your cup of tea. You also loose the D64 support. The max usable size is 128GB so you won't get Terabytes of space either. I guess it could support a CDROM too but I haven't even tested that because I don't see a point in using compact discs anymore.

Both NLQHD-SATA and the original NLQ-HD (IDE) are open source products that are free to build for anyone.

I have parts enough to sell a few controllers if anyone wants one but it would still be a DIY solution without a case.

 

[carlsson]

Technically you could use an IEEE-488 interface which gives you access to a few more vintage hard drive solutions. Neither are in production if that is a key point. All would be very low capacity, high maintenance, fragile and expensive. Like mentioned, something like SD2IEC, Pi1541 or the Ultimate series would probably suit all your needs and more, unless you really want something that is loud, slow, uses a good deal of power, hard to backup and once it breaks down, turns a few hundred dollars into a piece of junk unless you can repair it.

 

BTW: You get minus points from me for the choice of a nondescript topic. Something like "HDD solutions for C64/C128" would have been far better and lets other readers know on beforehand what the topic is about.

Edited January 14 by carlsson

[+OLD CS1]

2 hours ago, carlsson said:

Something like "HDD solutions for C64/C128" would have been far better and lets other readers know on beforehand what the topic is about.

Also easier to find for people browsing the forum.  I think the problem is click-bait has infected our social interactions and people are completely unaware of it.

[Boschloo]

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

I think the problem is click-bait has infected our social interactions and people are completely unaware of it.

I was between "Help a noob out..." and "I Tried to Do A Crazy Thing To My C128 (INSTANT REGRET)!"

[eightbit]

On 1/12/2024 at 11:35 PM, OLD CS1 said:

* Or a Lt. Kernal, another hard drive of the era, but about like hens' foreskin.

 

That's a blast from the past. I used a Xetec 20MB Lt. Kernal for my BBS back in the day. Not my picture, but those do bring back memories:

 

 

 

 

My folks always thought I was making popcorn in my bedroom!