This article was taken from the newsnet system. It details what is needed to set up a hard disk on an Atari. Tidied by Dean Garraghty.¢-----------------------------------¢¢This is what you'll need to hook up that 20 meg SCSI drive to your XL or XE computer: an interface, case, power supply, cables and some software.¢¢There are two interfaces currently available for the XL/XE computer, the MIO from ICD (815-968-2228) and the Black Box from CSS (716-586-5545). If you own an XE computer, you'll need to buy the inexpensive adapter card from ICD or CSS, which combines the parallel bus interface with the cartridge port on these machines.¢¢The MIO comes in it's own case and features a ram disk (256K or 1 meg), parallel and serial interfaces, and a hard disk interface - it used to cost about $300+ - though with the clearance sale at ICD you might get it cheaper.¢¢The Black Box is a circuit board which features serial and parallel interfaces, and a hard disk interface for $200. You'll need a case to put this in, either a seperate box or inside your hard drive enclosure - check with CSS for size and power requirements.¢¢For cases and power supplies, just about any external hard drive case and power supply will do. Some things to keep in mind: bigger power supplies are NOT always better - the really big ones (200 watt+) won't even work unless they sense a load on the line. A power supply rated between 30 and 70 watts should work OK for a single hard drive setup. Also, be sure you get a power supply rated for a hard drive, not a floppy drive. Hard drive power supplies are designed to run 24 hours a day, floppy power supplies aren't. You can buy these cases/power supplies at all the computer shows, ICD, CSS or IB Computers (503-297-8425), a long time Atari dealer who specializes is drive cases and power supplies. Make sure the you get a case which includes at least a fan to cool the power supply. Some brands of hard drives (Maxtor) run pretty hot - you might need another fan for the drive also. A case and power supply will cost between $50 and $150.¢¢The only cable you'll need is a SCSI cable - a 50 pin (2 rows x 25 pins) ribbon cable with a female connector on each end. They usually cost $5-$10 - I'll sell you my extra cable for $3 if you're interested. The cable connects the hard drive to the interface.¢¢The last thing you'll need is the hard disk driver software and DOS. The two choices are SpartaDos from ICD or MyDos from Bob Puff (who just recently became the owner of CSS). SpartaDos is much more polished, offering time/date stamping of files, I/O redirection, a much more advanced directory structure and many other features. SpartaDos X cartridge now costs around $50 from ICD.¢¢MyDos 4.5 is much closer to Atari DOS 2.5, except it features subdirectories, configurable ram disk sizes and hard disk support - it is shareware. To summarize, MyDos offers better compatability with most programs than SpartaDos, but it has fewer features.¢¢That should give you a general idea of what you need to set up your hard drive. I would check with the manufacturers before purchasing any hardware - I am not an expert on 8-bit hard drive systems, only ST hard drives. You might want to check with the sysop of the Q BBS, as he has a hard drive running on his 8-bit system. See you at the meeting.¢ Forrest ¢¢¢
