BBC MODEL B & MASTER 128 INTERNAL CF HARD DRIVE KIT

This is a Buy-It-Now sale for a Universal 1MHz bus Internal Compact Flash Solid State Hard Drive kit for the BBC Master 128 or BBC Model B (or B+) Computer.

Give your BBC B or Master a new lease of life with fast, solid state storage space, from this popular Internal CF Hard Drive kit from RetroClinic. This kit uses Compact Flash cards instead of old style spinning platter drives, which gives the advantage of a smaller, lighter unit, no noise, no spin up time, and faster access speeds, with greater reliability. It acts as a huge repository of files and directories, and works in exactly the same way as the original Acorn Winchester drives did through the ADFS filing system, not like the "floppy jukebox" MMC type systems you see elsewhere. Think of it as being the BBC version of the hard drive you use in your PC, you can load programs on it from all your existing BBC floppies if you have the appropriate hardware, or now you can load them from your PC to the flash card via a USB reader, please see below for more details.

The kit comes with almost everything you need, the only thing left for you to get are the Compact flash cards themselves. These are available all over the high street, as well as here on eBay, or I can supply you with a ready formatted one with sample software on at extra cost, please contact me for details. This kit does not need any special type of CF card, a bog standard off-the-shelf one will do just fine. As well as the Interface itself, which plugs into the 1MHz bus, comes the ADFS 1.53 for the Master and ADFS 1.33 for the BBC B on a special single ROM that is suitable for either machine. The Master has ADFS 1.50 inbuilt, which accesses SCSI drives, so the replacement is needed to access the later style IDE drives and Solid State devices. A leaflet of instructions and recommendations detail which socket to put the rom in, how to connect everything up, and how to reconfigure your Beeb to access the Hard Drive. It is very straightforward, and completely compatible with your original ADFS floppy disks, as well as the other operating systems like the 1770 DFS and Econet. The CF system also supports the Acorn Level 3 Fileserver. A disk of utilities on 5.25" DFS format is included, for Formatting, Copying, Initialising blank cards etc. plus other utilities.

The CF system doesn't need an existing disk interface to run at all, so you can upgrade your cassette only machine with instant mass storage!

The unit also needs to be hooked up to power, and there is a power cable included which plugs straight into the BBC Master loom, or connection to the existing cables via a connector block you get with the kit as well.

I would recommend using Flash Cards of 1 or 2GB capacity. All IDE devices are 16 bit, but as the BBC is only 8 bit, it can only access half the capacity of the card. Add to the fact that the ADFS can only handle a maximum of 512MB per partition (as could most computers of that era), a 1GB card is the most logical to use, or 2GB if you wish to put 2 partitions on each card - that's a HUGE amount for an 8 bit Beeb!

This kit also comes with a CD containing specially written programs that allow you to plug the CF card into your PC, via any USB Multi Card Reader, and take an image of the card for backup purposes, and write the image back to the same card, or another one of the same size. The Image these programs create are fully compatible with Jon Welch's ADFS Explorer, which allows you to load the image, browse it, add and delete files from downloaded floppy disk images, change the size of the drive for larger CF cards, manipulate it in almost any way you wish. You can then save that image, and reload it back to a CF card, and presto, your files are instantly ready to use on your Beeb. No messing with cables or serial transfer, nice and easy.

The backup and restore programs are supplied free with the kit, but DFS & ADFS Explorer is shareware, and whilst trial versions of both are included on the CD, they require a small registration fee to the Author for full functionality, please see his website for details. Sample hard drive images containing a selection of public domain software and games are also on the CD for you to try and use as a basis for your system.

In essence, this means that you can add any files you like to the CF card using your PC. With the internet containing almost the entire software library of the BBC ever written, you're slightly spoiled for choice, and with up to a Gigabyte of storage on tap, you're unlikely to run out of space either!

Please see my website for further information and more options for this kit.

** PLEASE NOTE: Due to the turmoil in the postal system at the moment, shipping will be by either Royal Mail Special Delivery, or Third Party courier, depending on the current situation. I will advise the dispatch method at the time of purchase.

PayPal accepted with NO surcharge. Please see the photo below, and note that the Compact Flash cards shown are NOT included in the sale. Thanks for looking! Kits are also available to upgrade the Acorn BBC B or Master with an external Compact Flash Hard Drive, as well as the new DataCentre USB and 1MB RAM upgrade, 1770 Disk Upgrade kits, and other refurbished BBC Model Bs and Master 128s pre-fitted with the CF system ready to go! I also do repairs to Pre-Model 2 Sega and Vector Atari PCBs. Please check my other items for sale, or if they've sold out on my listings, please contact me for details, and I will re-list them for you.