peteym5 Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 (edited) Does anyone have a Black Box or MIO for sale? I am interested in buying one so I can see if I can get access to an Atari 8-bit hard drive set up and my MIO device is no longer functioning. The set up is a MFM hard drive connected to a SCSI interface board. I am not sure if the Interface board has issues also. I hooked the thing up to a PC PCI SCSI controller and does not recognize the device. MFM hard drives were outdated when IBM PCs had ISA cards, and there are no PCI MFM controllers on the market. I disposed all my ISA based PCs years ago, they were no longer functioning or taking up space. If anyone has one of these for sale, send me a private message. Edited August 3, 2015 by peteym5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 MetalGuy66 was selling new-build MIOs at http://www.rasterline.com, and has a MIO service manual at: http://www.rasterline.com/MIO%20SERVICE%20MANUAL.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 He also repairs them, which would most likely be cheaper than buying another one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 And if a HDD is the sole purpose of the exercise, there are some slightly more focused, modern (and cheaper) options available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russg Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 (edited) (a thought). Your MFM hard drives need a PC IDE interface, not a SCSI. You said you used a (probably) Adaptec 4070 SCSI to MFM board. The MIO interface is SCSI, so the need of a SCSI to MFM adapter. (memory again) common MFM 20 megabyte is a Seagate 225 or 2xx . (edit). not a Adaptec 4070 (for RLL) but a Adaptec 4000A. Edited August 3, 2015 by russg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 And if a HDD is the sole purpose of the exercise, there are some slightly more focused, modern (and cheaper) options available. What are the modern and cheap options to recover data from a SCSI interfaced MFM drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Hello guys What's the purpose of the exercise? Retrieving data of the MFM HDD or just using the old MFM HDD? You can get a new device to connect the MFM HDD to the Atari, but can a new device read the data off an HDD, when the data has been put on the HDD by a MIO? Sincerely Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 What are the modern and cheap options to recover data from a SCSI interfaced MFM drive? I read: so I can see if I can get access to an Atari 8-bit hard drive set up I didn't realize the inference was supposed to be that there was data on old HDDs which required recovery. It appeared that the intention was just to set up a HDD on the A8, and reuse old equipment if it's convenient to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Recovery's only thing I can think of because modern solid state IDE CF stuff is so cheap and fast who would want a big noisy MFM drive growling on their desk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Recovery's only thing I can think of because modern solid state IDE CF stuff is so cheap and fast who would want a big noisy MFM drive growling on their desk? Maybe the same folks who want a single core 1.79MHz computer on their desk in an era when quad core 3.5GHz computer is increasingly seen as "slow".? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 If you want to recover the data you'll need the MIO - the drive format isn't compatible with the Black Box. Also if you originally ran the MFM drive on a RLL controller (Adaptec 4070), then an Adaptec 4000a will not do you any good. As a last resort, if you used the 4000a and want to pay shipping both ways, I can try to recover it. I have the MIO setup with the adaptec 4000a on my desk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 If you want to recover the data you'll need the MIO - the drive format isn't compatible with the Black Box. Also if you originally ran the MFM drive on a RLL controller (Adaptec 4070), then an Adaptec 4000a will not do you any good. As a last resort, if you used the 4000a and want to pay shipping both ways, I can try to recover it. I have the MIO setup with the adaptec 4000a on my desk. From Black Box Manual: Switch 7 is used to enable MIO compatibility. The BB's hard disk port differs slightly from the MIO board. The MIO stores all data on hard disks inverted. This is fine as long as the MIO reads it, but a host adaptor that functions properly will get garbage data. Setting this switch on will cause the BB to invert all data when doing hard disk I/O. This pertains to ALL hard disks connected. When this switch is on, you may not have any partitions larger than 16 megs. We provided this for MIO users who now use the BB, and already have hard drives full of data. If you reformat your hard disks, we recommend you format with this switch off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted August 4, 2015 Author Share Posted August 4, 2015 I emailed CSS Audio (Bob Puff) and MetalGuy66. Still waiting for a response. I know about devices that can interface MFM drives to modern PCs, but as it is stated, everything was put on there by an Atari so would need to duplicate the partition and somehow translate to an ATR image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 I stand corrected. I didn't know the BB had a MIO compatibility switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 @bf2k when you had read the manual you would know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 Hello peteym5 Bob Puff often doesn't take the time to respond to email. If you want something from Bob, it's better to call him. Sincerely Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 eBay Auction -- Item Number: 331621087315 Someone just put a BB w/floppy board up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 I can fix whatever you got. Use my current work email: sysadmin@gayfamilyauto.com Or PM on Atariage. I'll go check the old earthlink email when I get a chance too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 @bf2k when you had read the manual you would know I have no manual and no reason to read it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted August 5, 2015 Author Share Posted August 5, 2015 eBay Auction -- Item Number: 331621087315 Someone just put a BB w/floppy board up... That black box already is going for more money than what someone already offered me one for in a PM. I am going to attempt to repair/upgrade the MIO for under $100. I can fix whatever you got. Use my current work email: sysadmin@gayfamilyauto.com Or PM on Atariage. I'll go check the old earthlink email when I get a chance too. I emailed to several addresses on your sight yesterday. I am not sure what sure what the partition size of MIO/Sparta DOS/My DOS. But I think we had to split the HD into several 2MB partitions. I can get SCSI drives the are 100GB for under $100. Ebay. Amazon, Pricewatch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 You can always use SCSI2IDE or SCSI2SATA bridges or a SCSI cardreader check FOX-1/MNX overhere he got such device connected to his BB and it works great I heard. I still want to get me such devices myself, it can read SD/CF and USB i think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted August 5, 2015 Author Share Posted August 5, 2015 (edited) You can always use SCSI2IDE or SCSI2SATA bridges or a SCSI cardreader check FOX-1/MNX overhere he got such device connected to his BB and it works great I heard. I still want to get me such devices myself, it can read SD/CF and USB i think. I have a MFM to SCSI bridge card here, and attempted to hook it up to a modern SCSI PCI card, it did not recognize the card. Right now the priority is to hook this drive up and copy everything off from it. I might have TurboBasic XL and Basic XE Games that I wrote 20 years ago that would be great additions to personal and internet archives. I looked up some information about hard drive partitioning, SpartaDOS could format 65536 x 256 byte sectors, 16 Megabytes. If you were to use D1 to D8, that would be 128 megabytes. I know there are versions of SpartaDOS that use 512 byte sectors. Most these things will use is 512 megabytes. Considering the size of hard drives this day and age, that is tiny. Smallest ones I am finding on EBAY are 4GB. I do not recall if MIO or Black Box can swap out partitions. Does any DOS support more than 8 drives? I remember MYDOS can use D9 for RAMDISK. Edited August 5, 2015 by peteym5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SoulBuster Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 (edited) The black box could hold 96 partitions and switch between them, but you could also change where the partition list was located. This would in effect make it limitless on the number of partitions you could have. I had it set up for cracked boot disks [games] and had 10 + partition lists [10 * 96 = 960 Partitions] Edited August 5, 2015 by SoulBuster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 The blackbox can do more the 65536 sectors you can address upto 18-bit but that was never supported by dos. Mydos 4.60 would be supporting it I read but that was never released. You can swap BB partitions under spartados and SDX supports more drives I think Sent from UMI hammer with Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MacRorie Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 (edited) That black box already is going for more money than what someone already offered me one for in a PM. I am going to attempt to repair/upgrade the MIO for under $100. I emailed to several addresses on your sight yesterday. I am not sure what sure what the partition size of MIO/Sparta DOS/My DOS. But I think we had to split the HD into several 2MB partitions. I can get SCSI drives the are 100GB for under $100. Ebay. Amazon, Pricewatch. If someone is selling Black Boxes for less than $350, I would love to purchase one! Feel free to send me a PM! Edited August 5, 2015 by MacRorie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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