🚀 go-pugleaf

    1) Hard disks:  I'm interested in getting a 20Mb hard disk.  I've
    heard that the Supra hard disk is superior to the Atari hard disk, but
    I do not know any more.  How do the two disks compare in terms of
    
	1) Speed
	2) Convenience, ie. size, installation.

I have the Atari SH204 20 meg hard disk.  The speed is wonderful (though
I don't know how it compares with the Supra).  Overall, I have been
quite pleased with its operation except for the following:

(1)  The cable is too short to permit the disk to be placed at the back
of the table and still have the front panel face forward.  So I have the
disk sideways with its back end (where the connector is) close to the
1040.  But of course, there isn't much to see on a hard disk anyway.

(2)  Much more serious are limitations mentioned in the owners manual;
in particular, that you should not have more than 40 directories total
in all partitions and all devices attached to the ST.  Apparently this
restriction is due to some sort of bug in TOS.  I don't really understand
why or how the ST even knows how many folders I have several levels down
in the directory tree, and indeed, one can apparently exceed the 40 number
for some period of time without any trouble.  But the bug, whatever it is,
is real, and the result is a trashed partition on the hard disk.  I rebuilt
my disk 3 times over the weekend before finally taking that restriction
seriously.  (I had been using it for a month without problems; the trouble
only started when I added some new software that caused several new folders
to be created.)  I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has
any better information about this bug and what to do to prevent it
and/or recover from it.

(3) The software that comes with the hard disk does not permit booting
from it.  Instead, one puts the driver on a floppy in the AUTO folder
and then boots from the floppy.  Desk accessories are loaded from the
hard disk, but any AUTO folder on the hard disk is ignored.  Neil Harris
announced a few weeks ago that TOS will in fact boot from the hard disk
if the appropriate boot sector is written on it.  He indicated at the
time that Atari had software to write the boot sector and was currently
using it in-house and that they would release it if no problems
developed.  (Neil, are you still listening, and is it soon to become
available?)

--Mike Fischer
  <fischer@yale.arpa>
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