possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

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February 5th, 2005, 20:55
kylelear

possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

I managed to get my dreamcast to run DClinux just fine, or atleast it booted but I don't have a keyboard/mouse (but I hope to buy one this week).

I'd love to be able to run my DC as a server - Nothing substantial, just something that could keep apache up on serving a few files... Ofcourse, to do this I'd need some form of permanent storage - of which I've never seen anything finalized that looks workable.

I've heard rumors that there is scsi like interface for the GDROM but I've never seen anyone manage to work it - or even any proof that it could work.

I've also heard that IDE adapters have been made before, and heard people talk about using flash...

What I really want to know is if its been done successfully, and if theres anyone out there who can tell me what I need/how to do it :)
February 5th, 2005, 21:05
quzar

Re: possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

Two people have made IDE interfaces that I know of. The problem is that you would also need to write a driver for it if it doesnt exist. This wouldnt be a casual task. Even the creation of the interface requires you to scrap a modem or terminator and soldering up your own breadboard with it.

Here are some links with information:

http://hw001.gate01.com/ikehara/dc/dcwdc.html

http://www.fuzzymuzzle.com/Dreamcast/dc-ide.htm

http://www.fuzzymuzzle.com/Bitmaster...TERs_dCdeV.htm
February 5th, 2005, 23:01
RangerGuy

Re: possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

It actually shouldnt be too hard to get a driver. Just hack up an old Linux IDE HDD driver to work on DCLinux, then tell it to look for the hardware via the Exp. port. But, then again, you would gain an HDD, but you would lose your connection to the internet. Since, the IDE ports currently developed take up the Exp. ort where the modem/BBA goes. Someone DID make a breadboard that supported IDE + ISA, but I dunno what happened to that one.
February 5th, 2005, 23:51
kylelear

Re: possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

What about something that could smack right where the GDROM connects, wouldn't that be nicer? I've heard its some form of SCSI interface... (perhaps using a scsi hardrive would be a good idea then ;D).. You'd think you could attain higher speeds this way wouldn't you?

I saw something about the IDE + ISA breadbox - I think it used to reside here: http://dcdev.allusion.net/ and it was called DC navi... can't find a mirror anywhere :'(
February 6th, 2005, 17:14
semicolo

Re: possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

http://gamedev.allusion.net/hdwrprj/navi/
February 6th, 2005, 17:23
quzar

Re: possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

The navi was a slightly different thing that what you are looking for because it was mostly Dan Potter's attempt to write his own bios for the Dreamcast (which come to think about it, would be amazing if there was a faster replacement bios or something =P)
February 8th, 2005, 22:52
semicolo

Re: possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

the bios is on a flash chip, maybe it wouldn't be too hard to hack it to be able to reprogram it (tie +5v to vpp and connect a write pin, another project after all the ones I got)
February 28th, 2005, 16:40
ptr.exe

Re: possibility of a dreamcast hdd (bootable)?

im fairly sure it's been done to an extent but the speed was too slow to make it worthwhile, check out the forums of other DC sites such as www.dcemulation.com theres alot of posts on various sites discussing this.
But its pretty safe to say its never gonna be fast enough to be worth the mod.
April 7th, 2005, 23:16
RangerGuy

Speed shouldnt be as big of a problem as many people say it will be. If you use the old IDE type interface, they only had a maximum bandwidth of 33.3Mb/s. The eternal modem port gets 50Mb/s, more than enough to support an old IDE HDD + an old 10Mb/s NIC card, with speed to spare.
April 7th, 2005, 23:34
quzar

Quote:

Originally Posted by RangerGuy

Speed shouldnt be as big of a problem as many people say it will be. If you use the old IDE type interface, they only had a maximum bandwidth of 33.3Mb/s. The eternal modem port gets 50Mb/s, more than enough to support an old IDE HDD + an old 10Mb/s NIC card, with speed to spare.

do it then.

Its not as easy as you make it seem. Without better driver support no matter what you do itll just sit there. Not only would you have to build the device but also write the drivers for it.
April 8th, 2005, 07:31
Kamjin

It's not actually that slow.. using an old 210Mb 2.5" ide It gets about 500K->700K/sec.. if you just blindly stream to it (no filesystem) it gains another 500K..

RangerGuy,
33.3mb/sec isn't an old ide.. that's UDMA mode 2..
The only way you can talk to the HD on the dreamcast is in slave mode (pio), and the
cpu has to do it all, but as quzar pointed out.. drivers. even after you built it you need a filesystem, and some sort of hook or drivers in KOS.. etc..