the Goal: Eliminate the need for a disk drive.

**nathanallan1** · December 19th, 2011, 01:40

Hi guys,

The two non-reading DC's I have are really making me want to push this forward.

There is a serial port on the back of the DC, and many have used it for SD and that's cool; they effectively made it USB 1.x to do this.

This got me to thinking that a serial to ethernet solution could be implemented, but how to address it with no working disk drive?

My question: Can executables be loaded from the VMU? Is there any kind of memory adapter ever been made to work that way?

Also, I am trying to avoid hacking the internal ROM.

***BlueCrab*** · December 19th, 2011, 04:39

There is no known way to run code from anything other than the Boot ROM or the disc drive. You cannot run code directly from the VMU, nor is there any way to run code from any of the external ports (serial, Maple, or the Expansion port), without some sort of loader being run from the disc or the Boot ROM.

That is not to say there isn't any way, but if there is nobody knows about it as of yet, and I wouldn't expect that many people to be looking either.

**nathanallan1** · December 19th, 2011, 05:06

http://dknute.livejournal.com/

there is an emulator that works in place of the disk drive; not totally finished but a good effort so far even if it is outdated. And a bit pricey.

I'm betting the first thing that would be done is something like this will be reproduced in China for Christmas one year as a clone of some kind. Anyway.

No, I imagine nobody is thinking like that. But I still think it should be done. The disk drive is the systems' biggest fault just because it fails so often. I'm still looking and still finding all kinds of neat gadgets like that one.

Also, this: http://www.dc-sd.com/ it's for sale now, to be used with a disk image that you can download.

Imagine all the dead DC's that would suddenly be brought back to life if the disk drive was no longer an issue.

***BlueCrab*** · December 19th, 2011, 05:37

The piece of hardware you linked to basically is a replacement for the disc drive. The development kits featured something similar, in some respects. Its not hard (with a lot of hardware) to replace bits and pieces of the system. In all actuality, a Boot ROM replacement is easier, cheaper, and much more interesting of a prospect than that, if you're going to mess with internal hardware.

I figured since you didn't want to mess with the Boot ROM that that ruled out any sort of internal modifications.

Of course, this all said, I've never had a properly-taken-care-of Dreamcast of mine have a disc drive die (at least not when it wasn't already dead before I bought the system). Perhaps I'm just extremely lucky, but I find that with a little care, most of these things don't break easily.

**nathanallan1** · December 19th, 2011, 09:00

Which kits are you referring to? I will modify the boot rom if I have to, just hate surface mount soldering, and doesn't the boot rom become unstable?

Using a different, more easily replaced CD/DVD drive would be the absolute best thing, but if it was going to happen it would have by now, I'd say.

Right, that project replaces the disk drive, which is ultimately the goal.

Can you point me in the right direction to replace those bits of hardware? Can the boot rom be modded to look for data serially, through the rs-232 port or memory cards?

Replacing the GD-rom with something else is a GOOD idea.

***BlueCrab*** · December 20th, 2011, 18:29

When I refer to development kits, I refer to the official ones that Sega sent out to their registered/licensed developers. Specifically the HKT-0120 Set 5.24.

As for replacing the Boot ROM, its possible to essentially wire in a switch to switch back and forth between the original and the modified ROM. Dan Potter did this for the "navi" project. You could make the new boot ROM do whatever you can come up with for it to do and can program it to do, of course. Any sort of hardware modification is likely going to require some software to work with it in some way, shape, or form.

The stuff that Dan did with navi is here. Other than that, I don't have any links handy.

**nathanallan1** · December 21st, 2011, 20:20

Originally Posted by nathanallan1

Which kits are you referring to? I will modify the boot rom if I have to, just hate surface mount soldering, and doesn't the boot rom become unstable?

Using a different, more easily replaced CD/DVD drive would be the absolute best thing, but if it was going to happen it would have by now, I'd say.

Right, that project replaces the disk drive, which is ultimately the goal.

Can you point me in the right direction to replace those bits of hardware? Can the boot rom be modded to look for data serially, through the rs-232 port or memory cards?

Replacing the GD-rom with something else is a GOOD idea.

Do the forums put links in to best match certain terms? I put in no links in this post, but there they are, two to Amazon that are totally off topic to what we're talking about.

***BlueCrab*** · December 24th, 2011, 01:52

Wouldn't surprise me if it did. I have adblock, so I never see anything of the like.

**Hogwarts** · March 7th, 2012, 00:38

So from reading this thread it looks like the NAVI project was successful.

Why doesn't someone sell the kit to install a HDD into the dreamcast if the HDD interface was successful?
Also I notice that he switched the bios with a new bios chip. I'm guessing to bypass the GD-Rom totally. Smart idea

Now if only everyone had access to this information / software.