CF cards hands down!

I assume that this is for MS-DOS only. No Windows?

The adapters should all work. I like the one that goes into the back of the computer. Easy to remove the card and load games on the desktop through a card reader 😀

IDE and/or SCSI disks for real storage and CF to IDE adapters (preferably backplane adapters) and 512MB/2GB CF cards for data transfer:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161134517000?ssPageNa … 984.m1497.l2649

You might also need this to install a backplate adapter:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271302694932?ssPageNa … 984.m1497.l2649

There is also this, but a bit pricey, although much more practical:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111266489172?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

If you would use CF adapters permanently as hard disks, I suggest this type:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DUAL-CF-to-40Pin-IDE- … e-/371097444726?

If you choose to have hot swap CF capability with any build, just search for "CF SCSI adapter" but I'm pretty sure the prices will be prohibitive.
You can also have CF hot swap capability in Windows 98 with an old USB card reader, providing you can find W9x drivers for them:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SanDisk-8-In-1-ImageM … =item19e7200b5f
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DAZZLE-UNIVERSAL-6-IN … =item1c3e67849b

I tried a PCMCIA reader drive once, but without success.
PCMCIA card reader under Windows 98 SE - what should I do next?

I also use older Cruzer flash disks (2-4 GB) on Windows 98 builds again for data transfer. A couple of my builds also has ZIP drives and even tape backups just for the fun of it... 🤣

I have a standard HDD as the OS drive and CF cards for storage, using the onboard controller, Still get the true sound of the HDD during boot plus dont have to worry about write wear.
The CF cards are quick, reliable and the only data that gets written is the occasional savegame. Got the CF card reader that mounts on the back bracket so if you run out of disk space just get another card and swap them around easily like a 8 bit consle.

What should I use as a pewrmanent storage then ? It seems like all my old harddrives are worn out and my newer ones are somewhat incompatible with my older 486 build...

CF cards, you wont regret it!

Just depends on works best for you.
If the card you get is large enough for all your data then something like this that tayyare linked before, plugs direct to the motherboard, no more messy ribbon cable.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DUAL-CF-to-40Pi ... 1097444726?

If you have more data then capacity then a backplate adaptor works the same was as the HDD caddies did back in the day.

Dos machines don't really do many file writes so wear isn't a big deal. Having the HDD in my PC is nice but once it dies I doubt Ill bother replacing it. CF cards are faster, cooler, smaller, more reliable

Allright, I think I will settle for the PCI bracket type. Now, CF cards looks expensive !! What is the recommended brand/model/Capacity for 486 ? I dont have much data...

It depends on what your BIOS limitations are and which OS you will use. A few most relevant barriers:

DOS and normal Windows 95 cannot see partitions larger than 2 GB (FAT16). Windows 98 and Windows 95 OSR series can see up to a little bit more than 120 GB (FAT32).

In addition, some older 486 BIOSs can't detect disks larger than 528 MB, and most can't detect disks larger than 8 GB.

tayyare wrote:

It depends on what your BIOS limitations are and which OS you will use. A few most relevant barriers:

DOS and normal Windows 95 cannot see partitions larger than 2 GB (FAT16). Windows 98 and Windows 95 OSR series can see up to a little bit more than 120 GB (FAT32).

In addition, some older 486 BIOSs can't detect disks larger than 528 MB, and most can't detect disks larger than 8 GB.

Currently, I have one 486 that the bios sees up to 8Gb and the otherone, the bios sees up to 2gb

Synoptic wrote:

Allright, I think I will settle for the PCI bracket type. Now, CF cards looks expensive !! What is the recommended brand/model/Capacity for 486 ? I dont have much data...

Transcend 133x 4GB cards seem to work well, and they are not expensive (can be had for around £9-10), unless you compare them to SD cards of course, but those aren't really suitable for this kind of use.
SanDisk Ultra series are also good. They are 200x speed (30MB/s read and write). They seem to generally be a little bit more expensive than the Transcend ones, but also a little bit faster. They should both be faster than the IDE controller on any 486 class system though, so they won't be "the weakest link", unlike old HDDs.
Stay away from the cheap Kingston cards with the orchid picture on them as they are very slow, max 3MB/s read and 1.5MB/s write, and that's just theoretical, probably less in real life.

Thank you all, I bought the Transcend x133 4gb and a reader that comes with both 3.5 bracket and slot bracket.

Synoptic wrote:

Thank you all, I bought the Transcend x133 4gb and a reader that comes with both 3.5 bracket and slot bracket.

"a reader that comes with both 3.5 bracket and slot bracket"

Can you please give a link to it?

Somewhat relevant, this came up on reddit today: http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2014 … 6-xtcf-lite.htm

tayyare wrote:

Synoptic wrote:

Thank you all, I bought the Transcend x133 4gb and a reader that comes with both 3.5 bracket and slot bracket.

"a reader that comes with both 3.5 bracket and slot bracket"

Can you please give a link to it?

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B000T9QQP0/re … 0?ie=UTF8&psc=1