braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner) (01/02/88)
[] I wonder: is the 18 inch limit on the length of the cable connecting the ST to the Atari SH204 hard disk (stated in the user manual) the real technical limit? Would be very nice to have a, say, 3 feet cable. (I hate fan and motor noise.) Does anybody have a disassembly of AHDI.PRG? I have a strange bug, and suspect that AHDI.PRG fiddles with high RAM. Could that be? Is there an alternative driver program for the Atari HD? - Moshe Braner PS: how can I persuade PC-Ditto to read partitions D: and E: from inside MS-DOS? I am trying out PCD 3.0 on 1040ST, mono, SH204 HD, and _did_ put "device=pc_dhd.sys" at top of config.sys. "Dir d:" prints either garbage or an empty list of files. The PCD docs say that reformatting the HD is _not_ required (unless you want to autoboot MS-DOS from the HD, in which case you must let MS-DOS reformat partition C:). Partition C reads OK (and I did not reformat it).
turner@daisy.UUCP (D'arc Angel) (01/02/88)
From article <3268@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, by braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner): > [] > > I wonder: is the 18 inch limit on the length of the cable connecting > the ST to the Atari SH204 hard disk (stated in the user manual) the > real technical limit? Would be very nice to have a, say, 3 feet cable. > (I hate fan and motor noise.) > not at all, i built an extender to my cable (using flat cable to minimize resistance) and have never had any problems with it. I's say the cable with extension is 3 to 4 feet long. -- Laissez les bons temps rouler - Queen Ida ...{decwrl|ucbvax}!imagen!atari!daisy!turner (James M. Turner) Daisy Systems, 700 E. Middlefield Rd, P.O. Box 7006, Mountain View CA 94039-7006. (415)960-0123
dclemans@mntgfx.mentor.com (Dave Clemans) (01/05/88)
> Does anybody have a disassembly of AHDI.PRG? I have a strange bug, and > suspect that AHDI.PRG fiddles with high RAM. Could that be? Is there > an alternative driver program for the Atari HD? There are at least two alternatives; the Supra driver and the ICD driver. Both have been freely distributed on Compuserve. > PS: how can I persuade PC-Ditto to read partitions D: and E: from inside > MS-DOS? I am trying out PCD 3.0 on 1040ST, mono, SH204 HD, and _did_ put > "device=pc_dhd.sys" at top of config.sys. "Dir d:" prints either garbage or > an empty list of files. The PCD docs say that reformatting the HD is _not_ > required (unless you want to autoboot MS-DOS from the HD, in which case you > must let MS-DOS reformat partition C:). Partition C reads OK (and I did > not reformat it). From messages on Compuserve, there are apparently some fields in the boot sector that are "don't care" to the Atari driver, but are looked at by IBM drivers. Avant-garde is distributing a patch program via Compuserve (and presumably others) that zaps these fields from the garbage that they are left at by the Atari formatter into something that MS-DOS approves of. dgc
roydant@hpgrla.HP.COM (Roydan Tomlinson) (01/13/88)
After reading the initial note I dug out the schematic on my 1040 st
and looked at the driver circuit for the DMA port and confirmed that the 18
inch limit was put on by Atari because of the lack of proper drivers and
termination resistors. (I assume for cost reasons)
So in a normal production run of computers and peripherals the margins
dictate the maximum cable length of 18 inches. This does not mean that you
can't run longer cables for a specfic machine, but the chance (no I don't
know the sensitivity) of data dropout and harddisk retries is increased.
With some rework on the inside of your st (i.e. void warranty) and the
proper modification at the ACSI to SCSI for proper drivers and terminations.
Roydan Tomlinson