Can i replace a harddisk from a Area 51 cabinet?

[XNIF]

The selftest gives something like "harddisk not connected" so i think it's broke. Old harddrives are ticking timebombs. My question is how does this work?  Can i replace it with a normale harddisk and resize it like the original or something? Any thoughts on this anyone? Or maybe point me to the right direction...?

[Dazz]

I believe that there is a way to use CHDMAN from MAME. You will need to have the Area 51 CHD file from a MAME collection.  I don't know if the hard drive has to be a specific brand/size in order for it to work though.

http://aarongiles.com/?cat=faqs

Can I use chdman to put a CHD file back onto a hard disk?

Yes you can, at least under Windows. You have to be logged in as administrator, and you have to know which physical volume your target hard disk is mapped as. The easiest way to do that on Windows XP and later is to right click on My Computer and select Manage from the menu. In the Computer Management window, in the tree on the lefthand side, select Disk Management. That will show you a list of all the physical hard disks you have plugged in. They will be listed as "Disk 0", "Disk 1", etc. Make a note of which disk number your target hard disk is.

Once you've done that, it's easy to "image" the CHD file onto the disk. Just use the following syntax:

    chdman -extract imagename.chd \\.\PHYSICALDRIVEn

where "imagename.chd" is the name of the CHD file, and the "n" next to PHYSICALDRIVE is the disk number you figured out above.

This technique has been used by several people to restore dead hard drives on arcade games. Note that you can also use chdman to create a backup of a hard disk image in much the same way:

    chdman -createhd \\.\PHYSICALDRIVEn imagename.chd

Which is how most of the CHD images have been created.

Perhaps this thread may be of better use...  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94456.0

[XNIF]

Thanks a lot for pointing this out! Too bad the guy in that thread did not keep us posted if he ever succeeded. So it seems that i have to keep in mind that the securitychip has to match. I wonder how this works, are there just a few securitychips, so i just need to test several CHD files, or is every pcb unique, and do i have to edit the imagefiles and hack the code in or something.
I lot of reading to do i guess...

[bkenobi]

You can find drives on ebay for many games.  I suspect that these are made by people using chdman + the MAME set though.

[XNIF]

You can find drives on ebay for many games.  I suspect that these are made by people using chdman + the MAME set though.

yes saw those....  kinda expensive considering it's not original. Compact Flash is the way to go i hope. I have ordered a IDE/PATA to CF converter and a 8gb card for 15 dollar together. Hope it works.

[DillonFoulds]

I have a hunch, that if you're using MAME CHDs, you'll probably need to burn off a security chip using the area51.zip files.

I've never done it myself, but what would be the point of a security chip, if you can use any old CHDs with the chip?

[Gray_Area]

There has been plenty of discussion on this over the years at MAMEWorld.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I'm not sure exactly how it works.  But I have an Area 51 hard drive that I thought was dead so I bought a "clone" on the internet.  Turns out it was something else on my board and the original hard drive was fine.  But what was interesting was, when I swapped the clone in, it seemed to behave exactly the same as the original (the Watchdog security didn't care that it was a clone).  Turned out to be bad ram on my PCB.

The cloned hard drive was a 10 gb IDE drive.  My guess is the guy somehow cloned the original hard drive and was using a disc utility to copy it byte for byte.  Since I have this spare I wouldn't mind selling it to you if you need it.  $20 sound OK?  I don't really need it since my original is working fine.

DeLuSioNaL29

[XNIF]

I'm not sure exactly how it works.  But I have an Area 51 hard drive that I thought was dead so I bought a "clone" on the internet.  Turns out it was something else on my board and the original hard drive was fine.  But what was interesting was, when I swapped the clone in, it seemed to behave exactly the same as the original (the Watchdog security didn't care that it was a clone).  Turned out to be bad ram on my PCB.

The cloned hard drive was a 10 gb IDE drive.  My guess is the guy somehow cloned the original hard drive and was using a disc utility to copy it byte for byte.  Since I have this spare I wouldn't mind selling it to you if you need it.  $20 sound OK?  I don't really need it since my original is working fine.

DeLuSioNaL29

thank you, but sending it to the netherlands is kinda risky with a mechanical drive and costly. I'm going to try to image a compact flash drive first , if that won't work i'll take that offer ok?
Btw have you thought about upgrading to the maximum force/area 51 duo kit?  I want to make my own upgrade kit by flashing the eproms myself.... just as a test.

[XNIF]

Ok.. i fixed it! I just followed the instructions posted above. I had some problems with compactflash... so i tried an old 40gb IDE drive and it worked great!

Now i have to replace the switch for the startbutton of player 1... clean it up. Then i am going to sell it.. or trade it for a pinball or a cabinet that is smaller. This is way too big for my garage.

[Dazz]

Good to hear that you got it working.

[XNIF]

Yes awesome.. i uploaded a video :

[DillonFoulds]

Nice! Good work! You're a more steady camera man while playing a shooting game than tons of people that are just walking around!

[bkenobi]

Then i am going to sell it.. or trade it for a pinball or a cabinet that is smaller. This is way too big for my garage.

But a pinball would be bigger than this cabinet?  I have that cabinet and a D&D pinball next to it.  They are the same width but the pinball is much deeper.   

[XNIF]

Then i am going to sell it.. or trade it for a pinball or a cabinet that is smaller. This is way too big for my garage.

But a pinball would be bigger than this cabinet?  I have that cabinet and a D&D pinball next to it.  They are the same width but the pinball is much deeper.  

yeah i think you are righjt.... maybe a visual pinball then Ah well i have to finish my mame lowboy first. If you look at my youtube movie at 2:56 you'll see my lowboy standing there. Still in poor state....
But this thing is really too big to fit in my house. But i have to admit... it's pretty awesome.

[yotsuya]

I'm not a big Area 51 fan, but as good a condition that cab seems to be in, and since everything works, I would keep it unless you got a really good offer. Don't let them lowball U!

[XNIF]

I'm not a big Area 51 fan, but as good a condition that cab seems to be in, and since everything works, I would keep it unless you got a really good offer. Don't let them lowball U!

i do not have a clue what it's worth .... here in the netherlands there is not much demand for these things. And that is good for me.. i bought it for 75 dollar plus 30 dollar shippingcosts (diesel). Plus a disk and i have to replace the startbutton (the switch), some paint and glue. So think at 150 dollar it's finished.