jon-paul Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 I'm thinking of getting myself a My IDE interface in the near furture Those of you who use it, any good? Note i'm a game's player at heart rather than a utility and programing person. I was attracted to Atari because of the disk and cart formats (and star raiders) so would i be able to boot games from the hard disk? Also is it any good with a 3 1/2 floppy for such? Can 2 devices (floppy and Hard disk) be used at the same time. Can 3 1/2 floppies be made bootable/multidisk bootable. I don't want to splash out and then find it doesn't do what i would like it to do. Ta in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 I just got one and heres the scoop: MyIDE turns your HD into large disk drives for DOS to see. It works best with MyDOS which allows you to configure 16meg partitions from which you can load software - each directory can have up to 63 entries. With the 'external' cartridge version you will need a disk drive no matter what. At a minimum some device drivers need to load inorder to get the HD interface going, after that its smooth sailing. Advantages: Fast loading Single drive holds LOTS of exe's - I have A - F of exe's loaded into a 16meg partition and havent even filled it 1/2 way up Has 'image load' capability where you can load any disk image onto the HD and run that image as if it was being served by the HD - supports up to 9 different images being loaded in any one session (ie, you could have all the Alternate Reality disks swappable with 1 keystroke when needed!) Works ok with SIO2PC cable Cool thing to have! Disadvantages: Driver runs in a part of memory that some programs dont like (ie, Turbo Basic) Some games also use this memory and wont work I dont believe 'translator' type games will work since you need an XL/XE OS to work with this (An upgraded OS can also be purchased which can run 99% of XE/XL/800 games in 1 OS) You cant load .bin or .atr files from the HD - you need to load .exe files or put the .atr's in the 'image load' area. DOS 2.5 only supports up to 720K and I cannot get Sparta DOS 3.2g to recognize a large partition, therefore I use MyDOS since it has directory capability. External version still needs a disk drive to start ------------------------- It wasnt that big of an investment to me ($60 for External cart encased), $11 for a 1gig HD and $30 for an external case to hold HD and provide power. Beware that some HD's wont work with the interface - ask Mr Atari which ones he recommends. It is alot of fun to see programs being loaded off a HD - Id like to make an AMS partition as well but dont have alot of the songs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon-paul Posted January 18, 2003 Author Share Posted January 18, 2003 In other words, generaly not a problem, and does what i am looking for bar the occational OS version glitch (which i get with an XE anyway) I have a 130 XE and an XEGS, A stock 810, and a 1050, and a us doubled 1050 so those are not problems. so my estimation of a My IDE, a cheep hard drive (i'm sure i have a couple of sub 1 gig ones lurking around) and a housing/power supply would seem to be my only needs to buy. I assume the relevent software for mounting/initilising/formating and partitioning and other managing of the drive comes supplied on a SD floppy for a 1050/810 drive? I was thinking at a pinch of using an external 3 1/2 floppy (that would be mother of a multiboot disk ) 720k 'stiffies are not a problem, I also run (into the ground mainly) a couple of amiga's, Word gets round and people start unloading 720 disks onto me like its going out of fashion! Anyone tried it with and external 3 1/2 floppy? or are you all SIO2pc people? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 I assume the relevent software for mounting/initilising/formating and partitioning and other managing of the drive comes supplied on a SD floppy for a 1050/810 drive? Yes. I was thinking at a pinch of using an external 3 1/2 floppy (that would be mother of a multiboot disk ) 720k 'stiffies are not a problem, I also run (into the ground mainly) a couple of amiga's, Word gets round and people start unloading 720 disks onto me like its going out of fashion! Anyone tried it with and external 3 1/2 floppy? or are you all SIO2pc people? The MyIDE interface only works with ide harddrives, not 3 1/2 floppy drives. You can get a XF551 drive modified with a 3 1/2 inch 720K double-sided drive from CCS but that is a seperate device. These are nice also but don't hold that many more programs obviously. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon-paul Posted January 18, 2003 Author Share Posted January 18, 2003 pity, but its a start XF551's a bit like rocking horse do-do'd here in the UK, and i'm not inclined to order from the US (had problems before). But as i am on a budget its not much of a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 Correct, it only works with IDE drives. It comes with all software necessary to format and partition the drive - FDISK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelen Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 If you use the Myide OS eprom, you can boot direct from your harddisk. That's very nice, no need for a diskdrive anymore. Thelen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 Since IM not very good at Computer fixes/upgrades (unless its a matter of popping something out and back in) I wont have that OS Sijmen should talk with Steven Tucker about his Warp OS and getting that in tune with the MyIDE OS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.