ScuzzBlog: Diaries July 2017
Entry 28th July 2017: Post: 1
A change of heart
OK
So I am trudging through this endless mountain of floppy disks and using
this rather old Amiga 1200 and seriously the floppy drive is so noisy.
Driving me mad. Anyway I decided to swap the computer out and give the
Archos Overdrive a run out. The computer of choice is one I call Bryoni
[ can't recall why ] fitted with a Power Computing accelerator. It is
important that there isn't another hard drive on the set up as it
confuses the Amiga no end.
So I ventured into the old Amiga junk room and hooked up the Archos to
the 1200 and checked for working functionality. Sat the computer on an
old very yellow 500 that I currently have sitting on top of an Amiga
1000 which in turn sits on top of Graham the A2000/1500 that thinks its
an Amiga 1200 given that fitted inside is an Amiga 1200 motherboard. I
interchange all three with the monitor connected to a 1081 and regularly
check that they are all working.
Things get to be a little hectic in this room as I have boxed machines
stacked to the ceiling and disks and books for all the systems set out
so I can generally find things. Eternally moving about in here. There is
currently a 600 on a 1200 with QL Drive and 5.25" floppy sitting on the
1000 connected to the 1060. Next to that I have the GVP Turbo fitted to
the 500Plus and on top of that is another A600. All represent work in
progress.
Anyway , I digress. The Archos worked without fault and I took a few
pictures of the process showing the kit involved.
Just a heads up to say that I am transferring my posts to the Group
to my website journal now as a way of diarising my activities. I need
to focus more on the website as I am starting to fall behind with so
much that I have gathered over the last year or so. Just that there will
be more content there in respect of any subject that I refer to on the
group including more information and pictures.
Specification on the Archos:
This unit combines an intelligent 3.5" IDE hard drive with the future
in smart card interfaces, the PCMCIA slot. This makes for an incredibly
convenient and simple to use data storage system. The PCMCIA interface
]allows removal and insertion of the unit at your convenience.
Data Transfer Rates : average 1.5MB/sec with maximum 2.5MB/sec
Images always appear a lot more yellow in this room as I have an old
tungsten lightbulb hanging centre of the room. Tends to bring the worst
out of old computers sadly. The full catalogue of images are below if you
are reading this from the web diary.
The unit connects also to the Amiga 1200 external disk port and has a
pass through so you can still hook up another external disk drive.
Thing I like about the Archos is the way the unit has been designed to
compliment the original Amiga design. These were the days when design
was a consideration and certainly gives an elegant solution to drive
storage. One of the big sells for the drive was the fact that it didn't
invalidate your warranty in the day and allowed you to keep that Commodore
seal intact.
And so I am off to climb the floppy drive mountain again.
Happy days.
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