Modify PCMCIA CF adaptor to IDE drive? Possible? \ VOGONS

Modify PCMCIA CF adaptor to IDE drive? Possible?

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First post, by brostenen

Posted on 2017-11-07, 23:49

brostenen Offline

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Hi all...
Is it possible, and can a CF card PCMCIA adaptor be turned into an IDE interface or is it possible to attach an IDE CD-Drive to an PCMCIA/CF adaptor? I read on a couple of pages, that the PCMCIA port is a kind of IDE adaptor or something like that. Yet no clues or forum entry's or blogs suggest that a project like this has even been thought of. Or even that it is not possible to do so. My thoughts about this might be something, comes from the fact that CF cards are in fact small IDE drives, and that MicroDrives are a thing.

So... Is it possible to do something like this? Perhaps crack open a CF card and attach wires or something like this. A kind of reverse CF2IDE adaptor.

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Reply 1 of 2, by BitWrangler

Posted on 2017-11-07, 23:57

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I would imagine it's not unpossible, just fiddly.

There is such a thing as a PCMCIA to IDE adapter though.

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Reply 2 of 2, by Samir

Posted on 2017-11-08, 03:20

Samir Offline

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BitWrangler wrote:
There is such a thing as a PCMCIA to IDE adapter though.

This would be your easiest route for this.

I used IBM Microdrives under win95/98se via the pcmcia port since it was the fastest way to offload photos from them (my digital camera uses the microdrive for storage). You needed a special IBM/Hitachi driver to get it to recognize the drive and it was a pain to set up and get working, but worked pretty well once it was setup.

If you wanted to somehow go from a pcmcia cf adapter back to ide, I'm sure the wiring would be pretty simple, but the driver aspect of it would not be. So you'd be left with workable hardware that can't function because it doesn't have the right software. 😢

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