Why not just use the flash card as a flash file system and be done with it? You get the right flash cheap enough (4M for $50 or so) and just plug it into an IDE-compatible connector. We used SanDisks in a project and it works great. Andy Mark Willis on 05/10/2000 04:24:29 AM Please respond to pic microcontroller discussion list To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU cc: (bcc: Andrew Kunz/TDI_NOTES) Subject: Re: very [OT] linux masquerading a lan Just make the Flash sit there and look (to the on-motherboard FDC) like it IS a (small) floppy drive. Add a 4-pin power connector and far as the machine knows, it has a write-protected Floppy in the drive. The FDD is a lot dumber, easier to reverse engineer part than the FDC, methinks, and FDC's are pretty universal (Also, you don't eat up a sometimes non-existent ISA slot - you don't have to deal with PCI - etc.) I've been meaning to get to this one (CF card off a PIC, hardware write protect switch, rotary "Floppy select" switch.) Should be nice for booting new machines up - no more formatting floppies, no more damaged media, no more forgetting to copy one driver file etc. Mark Alan B Pearce wrote: > It strikes me that the version of Linux router that fits on a floppy should be > put into flash memory with a PIC controlling it to look like a floppy > controller. Note that I say controller, and not drive, so this would involve > disabling (or possibly removing) the floppy controller if it is on the > motherboard. > > Then you would have a totally silent "disk drive" that would have no mechanical > moving parts, no media to wear out under the heads, and could be built into an > extremely small space. -- I re-ship for small US & overseas businesses, world-wide. (For private individuals at cost; ask.)