by altus » Thu Nov 20, 2008 9:10 pm
Hey guys. There seems to be a lot of confusion going on with the SATA to IDE adapters and the EMU, and I've been getting a lot of PMs asking me how I got my setup working, so let me clarify from experience and information I obtained directly from one of the former E-MU engineers (friend of a friend kind of deal).
Rule #1: With custom systems like the EMU you must avoid going off-spec (i.e. SATA-to-IDE converters!) like the plague. The EMU uses a custom IDE controller and a custom OS and is thus nowhere near as forgiving as a real computer when it comes to device compatibility, which is why you must only use components for which it was originally designed - a real IDE drive connected directly to the EMU's IDE bus.
(A bit of technical explanation is due here: SATA-to-IDE converters perform all sorts of on-the-fly command and address translation, and mess with signal timing, all of which ultimately makes the E-MU barf; it may not, but it's a totally hit-and-miss endeavor.)
I used a 2.5" true IDE removable tray (that is, it takes an IDE drive and gives you an IDE connector on the back), and an 80GB IDE 2.5" hard drive. This way I was 100% sure that it would work, as the drive is native IDE (which is what the EMU is expecting) and there are no unnecessary shenanigans (such as address translation and other "magic") happening in between the drive and the EMU. The tray's part number is IMR250U and it's made by AneoTech. You can get it from MDC-KS, Inc., their number is 913-888-7000.
Any laptop drive up to 120GB will work (though since the partition size limit in EOS 4.7 is 137GB you can pop in a 160GB drive and 137GB will be visible. Also keep in mind that EOS can only store 1000 folders and 1000 files per folder.)
Hope this clears things up!