Format an SD Card for the Side3 Cart

SpartaDOS X, clock and hard drive

The Side3 is a powerful cartridge for the Atari 8-bit that has some real cool features. I primarily bought it for these: use SD cards as a hard disk, built-in SpatraDOS X and built-in realtime clock. It also has the ability to load ROM files directly from the SD card, some ability to run ATR disk images and probably other things I haven’t heard about. I picked up my Side3 from the Brewing Academy last year.

In conjunction with a FujiNet and an S-Drive MAX it really helps take the 8-bit Atari to the next level! I use each of those with my 130XE and I’ll be writing more about those other two gadgets soon, but for now I want to write about how I got my Side3 configured.

When I first got my Side3, I found it a little confusing about how to properly format the SD card to work as a hard disk. Here are the steps that worked for me.