UltraSatan step by step set up

[Koji77]

All,

 

I have read many topics covering this and I have gone to Lothareks site. Can anyone simply pout together a step by step process for initial set up, partitioning and a run thru on how to use it? can you remove the cards while the unit is on? why or why not? does the unit negate booting from the floppy? how do you boot from the floppy if this unit is on.. must it be off? can 2 cards be installed at once (mine has 2 slots).

 

I do not want to screw this up, and most postings here talk from a level of understanding that is at least 1 step further than my base understanding. thanks for all your help, and explanation / tutorial.

 

Mark

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Well, initial set up is usually called partitioning. How it is made concrete, depends on used SW for that. What is important is to understand what it actually does, and knowing limitations of, rules needed by Atari TOS (called GEMDOS too). There is partition size limit, or logical drive size limit. Logical drive is what you see as C, D .... . On TOS 1.00-1.02 size limit is 256MB. On TOS 1.04-3.06 it is 512MB. On Falcon (TOS 4.0x) it is 1GB. There is another TOS limit: max count of partititons what it can handle is 14, so drive letters C-P. It stays for total count, regardless from on how many physical units they are. So, if you have for instance 2 SD cards connected at once, and first has 9 partitions, second 8, you will be not able to access last 3 partitions on second.

Here is video example of partitioning with my SW: http://atari.8bitchip.info/pphdr.php

By other SW it may differ, even if basic conception is same.

Here we need to talk about TOS/DOS compatibility and possible partition types. Atari self used so called AHDI partitioning type, called TOS partitioning too. But nothing prevents us to use DOS partitioning. It has lot of benefits - in first place easy file transfer with some PC, Mac. In case of AHDI partitioning you need special SW on those machines to access data on disk. If use pure DOS partitioning, you need extra SW on Atari, called BigDOS, and it is not best solution, especially not for gaming. TOS/DOS partitioning is with special parameters, which make that DOS, Windows sees it as DOS partittioned, and on Atari TOS sees it as AHDI partitioned - but you need driver SW osuplied with partitioner for that.

 

In case of UltraSatan you can remove cards while unit is on, and even insert another card. It is called hot-swap. Driver SW should support it too, and it is case with newer ones.

With most of driver SW you can load driver from floppy too. Floppy should be always on when use some hard disk or UltraSatan, even if you don't use floppies at all. Because Atari is mostly floppy based machine, and some SW expects floppy presence.

In any case, you need to know boot order: first thing is executing floppy bootsector - usually it is by games where you don't see regular files. So, if it is executable game will start, and hard disk driver will not boot at all. And it is good for gaming. If no such floppy inserted hard disk driver will boot from first attached device, with lowest target ID, so first slot iof UltraSatan. If only second slot has card inserted will boot from it. So, yes, you can have 2 cards at once - what would be sense otherwise to have 2 slots ?

Only after floppy or hard disk boot AUTO folder PRG will be executed - from C, if hard disk is installed.

You may prevent loading of autoboot hard disk driver by holding Alt key after reset. Then may load it from floppy - for instance to try some other driver version.

[cncfreak]

Yeah I kind of had the same problem. I've had my ultra satan drive for a while and still don't have it properly setup yet. I normally can figure these things out but for some reason this one stumped me. Mega ST4 (1.02 TOS)

Edited January 13, 2014 by cncfreak

[Skarro]

There is another TOS limit: max count of partititons what it can handle is 14, so drive letters C-P. It stays for total count, regardless from on how many physical units they are. So, if you have for instance 2 SD cards connected at once, and first has 9 partitions, second 8, you will be not able to access last 3 partitions on second.

 

While we're on the subject of partitioning, I have a question regarding drive letters. Are the drive letters "permanently assigned" to a partition, or can they change? For example, on my MegaSTE I have the old internal SCSI drive with 4 partitions (C,D,E,F) and a RAM Disk as G. If I set up and configure my UltraSatan on the external ACSI port, and configure it with partitions starting at C, how will the Atari respond when both the external UltraSatan and the internal SCSI drive are running?

 

- Will it see the UltraSatan as (for example) C, D, E, F, and then "move" or rename my internal SCSI partitions to G, H, I, J, and make the RAM Disk K?

 

- Or will it see 2 x Drive C, 2 x Drive D, etc (with the Drives being "C on SCSI device 0" and "C on SCSI device 1", etc)?

 

- Or will it just get confused?

 

Hope this makes sense. It's been a long time since I've used SCSI drives, and since I'm normally a Mac user, I never really have to think about drive letters!

 

Thanks!

[ParanoidLittleMan]

You can not have 2x same drive letter, of course.

Drive letters are not permanently assigned. Such thing is possible in Windows XP for instance, when you assign them with disk manager.

Normally, drive letters are assigned during hard disk driver boot, in simple order: partitions from first physical drive, then from second, etc.

First physical drive is one, which has lower target # on ACSI port.

So, what will be order depends on how user sets target #s. If internal Mega STE drive remains as #0, then it will still have lowest letters, C ... .

If Satandisk, US is set as lowest (0) then partitions from internal drive will be after partititons from SD card(s).

 

All above stays for normal case, when only 1 driver is loaded. TOS 2.06 prevents autoboot of multiple drivers in case of multiple devices attached. In case of older TOS it is task of driver SW self, and it is best to not load multiple drivers, because it often makes confusion.

Hddriver will usually kill previous driver, when you load it from floppy, and will assign letters C ... It has bad and good sides depending on what user wants.

 

It is possible, of course, to make special driver SW, which forces 'permanent' letter assigning for specific physical drives. If someone wants it, let me know.

[Skarro]

 

... All above stays for normal case, when only 1 driver is loaded. TOS 2.06 prevents autoboot of multiple drivers in case of multiple devices attached. In case of older TOS it is task of driver SW self, and it is best to not load multiple drivers, because it often makes confusion.

Hddriver will usually kill previous driver, when you load it from floppy, and will assign letters C ... It has bad and good sides depending on what user wants.

 

 

Hmm... now you've just said something that I think complicates my life. Once I get my UltraSatan (external) formatted and set up, I was going to back up my internal SCSI drive to it, then replace the internal drive with the internal UltraSatan. But if I understand you correctly, I probably won't be able to back up my internal SCSI drive to my external UltraSatan because my internal drive was formatted and configured with the old Atari software back in the 90's, and I was going to use one of the newer software drivers to format and configure the UltraSatan... which would mean 2 different drivers. If this is the case, how would I perform such a backup? Can I install one of the newer drivers over top of the old Atari driver on my internal SCSI drive, so that both the SCSI drive and the UltraSatan have matched drivers?

 

Or am I totally misunderstanding the situation?

 

Thanks for all this info, by the way... it's very helpful and very much appreciated!

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Newer drivers support old formats and configurations, so they will 'see' your old internal SCSI drive, and you will be able to backup it.

And it is possible to install new driver on internal SCSI drive, and then it will recognize UltraSatan too. Although, it is not necessary if you don't plan to use it later.

[Skarro]

Excellent ! Thanks for the info ParanoidLittleMan.

[English Invader]

Yeah I kind of had the same problem. I've had my ultra satan drive for a while and still don't have it properly setup yet. I normally can figure these things out but for some reason this one stumped me. Mega ST4 (1.02 TOS)

 

TOS 1.02 is a major handicap when it comes to the UltraSatan. It works okay, but most of the PP software is out of reach and, unless you're a skilled hobbyist, you're left with Jay MSA which is only good for non-commercial software. Ideally, you want to upgrade to 1.62 or 2.06 and have at least 2MB RAM.

 

This is my UltraSatan guide for dummies:

 

1) have TOS 1.62 or 2.06 and at least 2 (preferably 4)MB of RAM

 

2) download PPs 1GB image file with 200 games, Image Run and JayMSA

 

3) format an SD card through Windows DOS

 

4) download PPs Drive Image software and use it to copy the 1GB image onto the SD card

 

5) download additional games from PPs site and Atari Legend (these games are as close to a sure thing as you'll get), Image Run has a very low compatibility level and only a handful of Automation and general ST files have worked for me so far

 

This guide is based on my experiences with an STfm (1.02, 2.5MB) and an STe (2.06, 4MB)

[Koji77]

that is what I was looking for.... I ill try and se how I do. thankyou my friend!

[npturton]

download PPs 1GB image file with 200 games, Image Run and JayMSA

 

Wheres PPS website?

[Koji77]

I second that... got a web site?

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Hard disk image and games can find here: http://atari.8bitchip.info/fromhd.php

http://atari.8bitchip.info/DiskImgPP1.html

However, in case of TOS 1.02 you will be able to use only first 2 partitions, as third is over 256 MB. That may be good for start, of course. Games are on first partition..

Contrary to what some say you don't need Drive Imager, JayMSA or some other SW for data transfer with some PC or MAC. Because it is TOS/DOS compatible, and need only to connect via some USB card reader. Then may access files directly with some file manager - Total Commander is recommended. Most important thing is to avoid long file names on Atari SD cards. And as usual, there is some limitation here, again: Windows XP and later versions will see only first partition on SD card. But there are solutions for that, and it is discussed on forum.8bitchip.info .

It would be best to update TOS to 1.04 in your machine , since it is more reliable and offers some other benefits. If that's problem, you can go on commercial SW for TOS/DOS partitioning (link in earlier post), with what can use full size of SD card on TOS 1.02 - but it means max 4GB card with 14 partitions.

 

Image Runner may be frustrating if you expect too much from it - as is explained it will work not with many games. Instead it better play games fixed specially for hard disk - from link given above. Most of fixes has exit to Desktop from game, gamestate savings, trainer options ...There is a lot of them already.

Edited January 19, 2014 by ParanoidLittleMan

[Koji77]

let me understand this.. I have downloaded the sd image file... can I copy it straight to the sd card or do I have to format the card 1st? camn you give me a step by step for dummies walk through on exactly what I need to do... I am totally ignorant.

 

thanks!

[ParanoidLittleMan]

You don't need to format, you don't need to partition. Just write image straight to SD card.

 

If using Drive Imager: Depack long file from RAR archive. Connect USB card reader with SD card inserted to PC. Run Drive Imager. Select SD card in list at left - it should stay there 'Removable' ... capacity. Click on 'Open Image File' and select img file. Click on 'Write to sel'd' . It should write it in couple minutes. When is done, all you need is to insert SD in UltraSatan, connect to Atari, give power to both ...

[English Invader]

Image Runner may be frustrating if you expect too much from it - as is explained it will work not with many games. Instead it better play games fixed specially for hard disk - from link given above. Most of fixes has exit to Desktop from game, gamestate savings, trainer options ...There is a lot of them already.

 

It still loads two of the most important games; r0x and Skulldiggery (Automation 83).

[Koji77]

thank you.... don't want to be a bother, but I will be bothering you as I run into issues:) thank you for your time my friend!!!

[Koji77]

where do I find the prg disk imager?

[English Invader]

where do I find the prg disk imager?

http://atari.8bitchip.info/drimus.php