First post, by Cooljerk
Concerning retro PCs and Amiga builds, the prevailing advice given online regarding harddrives these days is to go with a CF kit. From youtubers to random forum posters, I've seen this recommendation over and over again. And for years, across a variety of operating systems, I've tried this, and in my experience CF cards are a very poor medium to replace a reliable harddrive. Only problem is I never see anybody else report the same sort of problems that I've had, so I've never been sure if the problem is with CF cards themselves, or something else I'm doing that I haven't been able to put my finger on.
The problem with CF cards I've found is that, for a lack of better words, they eventually just degrade. What I believe is happening, but I can't confirm, is that bits of data on the cards themselves are either becoming corrupt or just outright changing, and I believe this is exasperated by access. I've noticed a general pattern, regardless of platform or operating system, where for the first few days (or even months) after getting everything set up, it'll work fine, and then slowly crashes will start happening until the card is basically useless.
For example, I have an MS-DOS 486DXII build, soundblaster 16, trident video card, yadda yadda. I had purchased hundreds of CF cards in a bulk lot, and my intent was to format each of them and give each one an MS-DOS install, with a single game installed on every card, set to auto boot. Coupled with a front mounted CF card reader, this would let me treat individual CF cards like game cartridges - just pop them into the DOS box and turn on and bammo, you're in the game. And this all worked, and for about a year I could enjoy my dos games. I figure because each game was a different CF card and different install, and I played many games, it took longer for the pattern to set in, but eventually each game would become corrupted. Ini files would become full of gibberish text or otherwise. Eventually, every card failed. They were bought in a lot on ebay, lots of random builds and manufacturers, but they all eventually failed.
I also have a couple of windows 95 and a windows 98 builds. These followed the same pattern - upon install they worked great, but soon after windows would begin to crash or lock up, and then eventually refuse to boot at all. I figured a modern operating system like windows probably accesses the card much more often that it'd make the symptoms show up sooner.
Lastly, I have a couple of Amiga 1200s and an Amiga CD32 with an SX-1 expansion. Again, CF cards are recommended everywhere, and a workbench installation has worked alright on these machines. Yet, once again, after a while of use, I'll get crashes and locks, and eventually failure to boot.
Has anyone else noticed this happening? I almost wonder if many people who recommend these cards just don't really use their computers very much, or am I doing something wrong? Assuming it IS the CF cards, what is the best option regarding harddrives for old machine? SATA to IDE kits? SSDs? I'd really like to have a discussion on this.
Anybody want to chime in?