CompuServe Thread

#Booting Hard Disks

6 messages in this thread
#106211From: John DraperJan 29, 1988 11:23 PM
Steve, As far as I know, the Comspec drive does not autoboot in the 'approved' manner, though they could probably change that at any time if they see a need to. I wouldn't worry excessively about being 'obsolete', as the amout of time spent 'on the floppy' is not unbearable. It sort of depends on whether your wife will change her mind back again before autoboot HDs are out. <grin> Regards, Larry.
#106300From: Steve FaiwiszewskiJan 30, 1988 11:33 AM
My wife's not that fickle! 🙂 But I just don't know if I could hold off 'till those drives come out (and I would LIKE to). In my opinion, the lack of a decent and reasonably priced HD for the Amiga is the only thing standing in its way from becoming a "real" professional machine. (Don't get me wrong, I love my Amy and won't exchange it for anything else… well maybe for a Sun or A3000). – Steve –
#106533From: Richard Rae/SYSOPJan 31, 1988 12:49 PM
Could you define both "decent" and "reasonably priced", please? Rick
#107241From: Steve FaiwiszewskiFeb 3, 1988 9:46 PM
Reasonably priced : under $1000. Decent : works well (ie no crashes and faster than floppies). How's that for definitions? 🙂 – Steve –
#107273From: Richard Rae/SYSOPFeb 3, 1988 10:49 PM
Well, as I'm currently running a hard drive subsystem which cost roughly half of what you call "reasonably priced", and since it's yet to crash (except for one which I *definitely* caused… powered off the drive and left the controller up, then expected to spin it back up with nary a whimper), and since it's considerably faster than floppies, I think the issue of what's holding us back is more complex than that. Actually, though I haven't had experience with any of the other hard drives, there are a few for under $1000, some of which I've not heard any bad comments about regarding reliability or speed. In truth, I think you're being very conservative in your "reasonable price". I think Ami hard drives need to get down around $500 or so before people will begin adding them in any quantity… and of course it takes the quantity before the price will come down. Catch 016H. 8) Rick
#107306From: John DraperFeb 4, 1988 12:51 AM
Rick, Could have sworn i told you the way around that "power down drive" thing. It's a workaround for now, but not overly taxing… Put a copy of PARK on a floppy, as well as in the C: directory of the HD. PARK the drive before powering down, and when you power it up, type (before _ANYTHING_ else), DF0:PARK (path it anywhere you put the PARK command except the HD). Then just 'do your thing'. It will clear out the messed up status of the controller that results from powering it down. Regards, Larry.