871579l@aucs.uucp (Todd Lowe) (01/15/90)
A while back I noticed someone was wondering about the TRUMPCARD hard drive
controller /Seagate ST-157N hard drive combination.
I have been using this setup on my AMIGA 500 for about 6 months now with few
problems. The drive is quiet and reliable, although not overly fast. It rates
about 1/3 slower than Commodore's A2090-a, but I don't know how it compares
to the A590 (did I get the number right?).
There are a few things I like about Trumpcard:
1. It will autoboot directly to an FFS partition. Non of
this Old File System boot partition stuff like with the 2090.
2. It will now support a Macintosh patition for use with A-Max.
I'm not sure how this will work, but am soon to call IVS and
find out what it would cost me to upgrade.
3. The case is designed to follow the slope of the amiga (although
somewhat higher behind the keyboard.)
4. Mine is running off my Amy's power supply (the weak one) and is
not giving me problems even though I have several other devices
powered from it also.
There is however problems :
1. From time to time the drive will do a verify when booting.
When this happens it appears that the system is crashed, since
it blanks the monitor, runs the hard drive to verify partition 1,
*eventually* boots, then seems to freeze as soon as it hits any
mount command for another partition. Verifying the whole drive
seems to take about four or five minutes, but only happens once in
a while. (Possibly only when a GURU occurs with open files. Users
who aren't developing may have this occur more rarely or not at all
if lucky.)
2. The auto format programs that comes with the program only formats
to around 44Meg. The drive is capable of more than that (mine
is formatted to 47.1Meg) but the auto install and driver files
have to be modified. (E-Mail me if any of you want to know how.)
3. There is an expansion slot in the case for a memory card. This is
a propriotary connector and I haven't seen anyone advertise cards
for it. (If any one in NetLand knows of one please let me know.)
Hope this helps. :-)
Todd Lowe 871579l@aucs
Acadia U.
Wolfville NSbn@attcc.UUCP (01/18/90)
> 3. There is an expansion slot in the case for a memory card. This is > a propriotary connector and I haven't seen anyone advertise cards > for it. (If any one in NetLand knows of one please let me know.) Computability advertizes the expansion boards for the trumpcard. Give'em a call. NO, I'M NOT AFFILIATED WITH THEM / NEVER PURCHASED ANYTHING FROM THEM. (though I plan to) 8-) Bo Najdrovsky ...!att!mwood!attcc!bn mwood!attcc!bn@ATT.ATT.COM