calvin.bruner@canremote.uucp (CALVIN BRUNER) (09/11/89)
I have a peculiar question....does anyone know if you can label a hard drive segment as Drive "B", or is that reserved for floppys? I have a cartridge which only wants to access drives A or B, and wondered if just reformatting (ugh!) my hard drive and labelling one segment as B would do it? Thanks --- * Via ProDoor 3.01R
hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) (09/11/89)
In article <89091023103918@masnet.uucp>, calvin.bruner@canremote.uucp (CALVIN BRUNER) writes: > I have a peculiar question....does anyone know if you can label a hard > drive segment as Drive "B", or is that reserved for floppys? I have a > cartridge which only wants to access drives A or B, The scheme use for all io is to vector thru hdv_rw, which get you to the disk driver. If it wanted to think of B as hard disk it could. But all the ones out there assume a and b are floppies, and start their tables at c: I reverse engineered the BMS driver to add features I needed. One allow me to MOUNT and drive partition on any drive letter. (why? try to move word perfect from F to D without reentering all the absolute paths it uses). Anyway, this would just as happily mount f: as b: . Bottom line. Yes you can have hard disk as b:, but you have to work at it. Howard C. Johnson ATT Bell Labs att!lzaz!hcj hcj@lzaz.att.com
woodside@ttidca.TTI.COM (George Woodside) (09/12/89)
In article <89091023103918@masnet.uucp> calvin.bruner@canremote.uucp (CALVIN BRUNER) writes: >I have a peculiar question....does anyone know if you can label a hard >drive segment as Drive "B", or is that reserved for floppys? I have a >cartridge which only wants to access drives A or B, and wondered if just >reformatting (ugh!) my hard drive and labelling one segment as B would >do it? >Thanks >--- > * Via ProDoor 3.01R It will fail. Drives A, a, B, and b are floppies. Functions to those drives use the floppy disk I/O vectors. Drive c is the cartridge port. Drives C-P and d-p are all vectored through another set of vectors, referred to as the hard disk vectors. In reality, they can be any type of storage media. It need only add itself to the vector, and support the proper functions. Note that support of 'A', 'a', 'B', and 'b' do not constitute four drives, only two. Drive 'C' is the only one with a case differentation. This differentation is really only effective on the desktop. Most shells normalize the case of drives and paths before calling the operating system. Consequentally, if you were able to designate a drive 'b' or 'B' on your hard disk, you would be unable to access it. All calls to the drive would go to the floppy disk vectors. If you had only one floppy drive, you would get the "Insert disk B into drive A" prompts. -- *George R. Woodside - Citicorp/TTI - Santa Monica, CA *Path: ..!{philabs|csun|psivax}!ttidca!woodside
ignac@electro.UUCP (Ignac Kolenko) (09/15/89)
In article <5982@ttidca.TTI.COM> woodside@ttidcb.tti.com (George Woodside) writes: >Drives A, a, B, and b are floppies. Functions to those drives use >the floppy disk I/O vectors. Drive c is the cartridge port. Drives >C-P and d-p are all vectored through another set of vectors, referred >to as the hard disk vectors. In reality, they can be any type of >storage media. It need only add itself to the vector, and support the >proper functions. > >Note that support of 'A', 'a', 'B', and 'b' do not constitute four drives, >only two. Drive 'C' is the only one with a case differentation. This >differentation is really only effective on the desktop. Most shells actually, only the desktop supports drive 'c'. and even that is not a true drive since the way information is stored on a cartridge is **totally** different than standard GEMDOS format. in fact, if you try to open a file, using a gemdos command such as FOPEN, using drive 'c', gemdos will automatically convert it for you to uppercase. gemdos probably doesn't care about the case anyways. thus, only the desktop can understand the pseudo drive 'c'. -- =====Ignac A. Kolenko (The Ig) watmath!watcgl!electro!ignac===== co-author of QuickST, and the entire line of Quick Shareware!!!! "I don't care if I don't win, 'cause I don't care if I fail" from 'Youth Of Today' by SUBURBAN DISTORTION
hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) (02/02/90)
In article <9001310813.AA11452@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, FRACHEL@umiami.Miami.EDU ("Franklin E. Rachel") writes: > Hello, > > I am planning on building a hard drive system for my 1040 st, and > was wondering which host adapter you people prefer. I have heard > many good things concerning the one from BMS (I think thats it) > Indead, BMS, SUPRA, and ICD are all in this pond. I Like BMS, because I like dealing with the people there. SUPRA and ICD will sell you a complete package. The BMS is marketed direct and by EA Brown (Minneapolis,MN) who will also sell you the box and boards to run your own drive. Howard C. Johnson ATT Bell Labs =====NEW address==== att!lzsc!hcj hcj@lzsc.att.com
totty@m.cs.uiuc.edu (02/08/90)
What exactly does the host adapter need to do? How similar are the protocols between the Atari DMA interface and a standard disk controller? How about between DMA and SCSI controllers? In particular, with a priority on fun rather than saving money, what would be involved in actually building one of these interfaces? Would it be a simple FSM protocol converter with some buffering or are there more complicated things necessary? Also, where can I get technical information on controller details and the Atari DMA port? Finally, I got mail from one person who said he built a simple host adapter and offerred me schamatics. I wasn't able to get my reply back to him. If he reads this, I would be interested in any technical info/schematics! Thanks, --- Bri / Brian Totty o o /__ __ o 406 E. Michigan / Apt. 6 o / / / / Urbana, IL 61801 \_/ "We have corn in /__/ / / totty@cs.uiuc.edu Massachusetts too!"
weber_w@apollo.HP.COM (Walt Weber) (02/11/90)
In article <7500014@m.cs.uiuc.edu> totty@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > > What exactly does the host adapter need to do? How similar > are the protocols between the Atari DMA interface and a standard > disk controller? How about between DMA and SCSI controllers? The Atari DMA interface interface implements what some have called a "modified SCSI interface", since (1) the connector and interface specs regarding cable lengths, etc. is different from SCSI, and (2) the command descriptor block used to transmit commands to the device differs in that the opcode and controller number are both in byte 0 of AtariDMA but in different bytes within SCSI (there are other differences, as well). The host adaptors which I have seen convert AtariDMA <--> SCSI, and then will talk directly to a drive with an embedded SCSI controller, or will talk to a controller card (Adaptec or Omti are two popular choices) which does SCSI <--> ST506. > what would be involved in actually building one of these interfaces? > Would it be a simple FSM protocol converter with some buffering or > are there more complicated things necessary? Unknown by me. Looking at the ICD and BMS (Berkeley Micro Systems) boards, there appear to be three "sections" - one to do command restructuring, one to drive each side at the appropriate signal levels and handle arbitration, and an third which puts a clock at one of the AtariDMA bus addresses, since the early ST's didn't have an on-board clock, and there are other uses for the cartridge port (buy a Spectre GCR!!). > Also, where can I get technical information on controller details > and the Atari DMA port? Become a registered developer with Atari, and you can get the docs. You will also have spent more than the cost of an ICD or BMS board (approx $125). But you did say it was for "fun", so perhaps the cost isn't an obstacle. ...walt... Walt Weber Hewlett Packard NARC @ Apollo Systems Division -The views expressed herein are personal, and not binding on ANYONE- "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it" -George Bernard Shaw
FRACHEL@UMIAMI.MIAMI.EDU (03/19/90)
Ok, I've been away for a while and need some info: My Predicament: I want to build a hard drive system for my St. Basically I need to buy a host adapter, a controller card, case, power supply, and hard drive. I will most likely get a seagate hard drive, and the Icd host adapter. Now i have also seen from Icd the host adapter + controller kit (either MFM or RLL).. Now I really have no idea what MFM or RLL means, so If i buy a seagate hard drive, (Probably something like a 296N (i think thats it) which kit should i buy, the RLL or the MFM? Please reply in email. Thanks for any help. Frank Rachel University Of Miami Frachel@Umiami.Miami.Edu