I think you need to check your PCMCIA driver supports ATA mode PC Cards, some only did memory, some did flash disk... I forget all the standards, there were several. Plus you may need to test with the relatively small cards to start and rule out the capacity limit problems.

I know one card that probably would work with an IDE to CF adapter, an Apricorn EZgig, but those are super hard to find. They weren't actually sold as a standalone I don't think but were part of a HDD upgrade kit, so used for cloning the smaller drive that was getting replaced.

'Period accurate' verbiage is likely more 'microdrive compatible'.

At one point in time, Sandisk produced teeeeny tiny hard drives (platter and all!) In the compact flash form factor, under the trade name Microdrive.

IBM and others used that name as well. These will DEFFO do ATA mode.

These REALLY WERE/ARE teeny tiny hard drives.

[Reddit post this was harvested from states it came out of an ipod mini.]

I think any PCMCIA-CF adapter should work with an appropriate ATA driver loaded. The driver is usually a part of PCMCIA drivers pack.
What laptop are you using?
For instance the above microdrive adapter works with any CF card, given it's capacity is supported by the driver. It's usually 2 gigs in DOS.
I use some very generic one, and it works fine.

The question was explicitly about booting I thought?

A bonafide microdrive controller may contain a boot prom, for instance, allowing booting.

wierd_w wrote on 2024-09-04, 10:11:

The question was explicitly about booting I thought?

A bonafide microdrive controller may contain a boot prom, for instance, allowing booting.

I didn't see specifically booting mentioned. Yet, all mentioned devices can work as boot devices if the BIOS supports booting from PCMCIA. Thinkpads of 3xx and 7xx series support it. I successfully booted form both all kinds of CF cards up to 2 gigs and also from mentioned Apricorn EZgig card + HDD connected.
As for CF cards it's critical to use appropriate tools to create a partition on it. Otherwise it may not work for booting.

Agree with Bondi, any PCMCIA-CF adapter works fine in DOS. I have Digital HiNote Ultra CT450 laptop, it can boot from PCMCIA too.

Additional options include Backpack CDROM drives which can work through a PCMCIA interface or a Parallel port, I think the PCMCIA interface is actually SCSI, some drives came with both interfaces at retail. Parallel port, Zip, Jazz, Shark etc drives also exist, as did some early external HDD for parallel, but they are not common to find at all, since market presence was small. Get a general purpose SCSI PCMCIA card and the storage world is your oyster, so to speak, but they run $$$$ and the drives now run $$$$ so that's probably about luck these days.

Then also there's laplink parallel cables, which have several uses. You can either just DOS laplink with them, you can set up a PLIP network interface to another machine and have TCP/IP internet, or use Windows ICS.

Parallel port stuff is not "fast" but it's not that terrible with smaller software packages for older machines, with the drives you can get close to USB 1.0 speeds 1Mbit/sec depending on whether you have to use SPP, EPP or ECP modes. The laplink cable is slower because of using 4 bit to be universally compatible, so that gets about ~300Kbps, later versions of Laplink software will compress and decompress on the fly I think to get higher throughput, but you may not notice if moving previously compressed zip files or something.

But if it gets down to last choice, serial null modem cable, I like a util called Twin Express, it's often seen on Amiga sites because it supports Amiga but does PC to PC as well. The particular advantage of that is that it does not rely on sluggish standard serial routines in DOS, but uses it's own built in serial driver, that means it gets faster speeds than most other serial link utilities can. It gets faster speeds on slower systems also. With standard windows3.x/DOS serial, ppl might say you can only do 38,400 on a 16450 or earlier 8450 UART.... and need a 16550A for 56k.... forget that, this puppy will get you 115kbps on a 16450.... unless you're on an XT, think those can only get 56k with a V20.

For parallel port I recommend DataFab card reader:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/276614977934

Here seller mistakenly mark it as serial.

MAZter wrote on 2024-09-04, 14:51:

For parallel port I recommend DataFab card reader:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/276614977934

Here seller mistakenly mark it as serial.

Interesting device. Does it have drivers for DOS?

Bondi wrote on 2024-09-04, 15:51:

Interesting device. Does it have drivers for DOS?

Yes, I used it with couple old laptops, when floppy drive die, very helpful.

My Laptop in Question is a Dell Latitude XPi

magestic wrote on 2024-09-04, 17:31:

My Laptop in Question is a Dell Latitude XPi

Looks like your laptop has Vadem PCMCIA controller chip and used Systemsoft Cardsoft drivers for PCMCIA support. You can download a copy from archive.org (see my signature). The latest version is 5.x, but I don't remember if it has DOS installer. If no, then you'll have to add the drivers to config.sys manually, or try version 3.x.
On Dell's website there is a fix file for Socket Services driver available. Makes sense to replace the original one with it.
https://dl.dell.com/fixes/SSVADEM.EXE

MAZter wrote on 2024-09-04, 16:00:

Bondi wrote on 2024-09-04, 15:51:

Interesting device. Does it have drivers for DOS?

Yes, I used it with couple old laptops, when floppy drive die, very helpful.

Yes, I have two of them, one is plugged into my XT all the time, the other one is moved between a few laptops.

magestic wrote on 2024-09-04, 17:31:

My Laptop in Question is a Dell Latitude XPi

I can confirm, ATAENAB.exe utility does not work with Dell Latitude XPi without card services installed (most laptops works without it).

MAZter wrote on 2024-09-05, 12:19:

magestic wrote on 2024-09-04, 17:31:

My Laptop in Question is a Dell Latitude XPi

I can confirm, ATAENAB.exe utility does not work with Dell Latitude XPi without card services installed (most laptops works without it).

Did you try CBATA.exe as well?

Ok guys thanks for all the info, i purchased a EZgig and microdrive with pcmcia adapter and downloaded all your driver suggestions, after i receive this stuff ill post back with my results.....

Here cardservices setup, which works with XPi notebook:

CONFIG.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM X=D000-D7FF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFT\SS365SL.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFT\CS.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFT\CSALLOC.EXE

AUTOEXEC.BAT:

C:\ATAENAB.EXE

if you've installed and are running socket services, running ataenab which is supposed to be an all in one tool shouldn't be necessary. There should just be a couple more files as part of cardsoft that need to be run for ATA cards to detect and work - atadrv.eve and cardid.exe

Thermalwrong wrote on 2024-09-06, 02:40:

if you've installed and are running socket services, running ataenab which is supposed to be an all in one tool shouldn't be necessary. There should just be a couple more files as part of cardsoft that need to be run for ATA cards to detect and work - atadrv.eve and cardid.exe

Totally agree. No need to use ataenab as the Cardsoft has all necessary drivers. Let alone ataenab/cbata are paid tools, trial versions have an annoyig delay and work for two weeks only.