Bare minimum to make external UltraSatan work on Mega STe

[AtariSociety]

Hi, my Atari Mega STe arrived! Yeah!!

 

So this system has no internal hard drive but the seller did send along with the system an external what he said was an UltraSatan, that and an internal cable also in case I was to install inside the Mega STe, and an external ac adapter (not pictured below) for the external UltraSatan box.

 

For now I prefer to go external with this setup.

 

He also sent a HDD Driver 8.2 he had purchased.

 

So, having never used one before, I want to try connecting this unit externally for now.

 

I take it I need to plug into the external ACSI port, plug the ac adapter into the box to give it power, and make some bootable floppy with the HDD 8.2 on it so it can see the device.

 

Is there any step by step on how to set this up?

 

I have never used HDD software before on an Atari.

 

The box does have a toggle switch on the back side. I take it that is for power on and off?

 

Here is what the device looks like. See attached.

 

Thanks

 

TJ

Edited May 24, 2016 by macsociety

[ataricrypt]

I'm not sure what you're asking sorry, but I've a Mega STe and external ultrasatan. Just connect it up to the external port and boot HDdriver & install. Then the ultrasatan will not need the floppy as it auto-boots.

Steve

[AtariSociety]

Hi, what am I installing to?

 

This Mega STe has no internal hard drive.

 

I guess what you are saying is if I boot from this HDD 8.2 floppy, then it just works. And if I want to install the driver to a SD card in the unit, I can do that too.

 

I just did not know if this external device will be seen if I boot from this HDD floppy and just plain works.

 

TJ

 

I'm not sure what you're asking sorry, but I've a Mega STe and external ultrasatan. Just connect it up to the external port and boot HDdriver & install. Then the ultrasatan will not need the floppy as it auto-boots.

Steve

[ataricrypt]

Ah I see. Yes, mine is external & will boot from this fine. My internal drive died last year, I don't miss the noise lol

Steve

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Yes, that's the older version of UltraSatan, and switch is for it's power, so keep it on - and don't use much - mine died last year. Just plug off AC adapter when not using.

In case of Hddriver you need to set medium resolution, run from floppy HDDRIVER.PRG - it must detect device, then run HDDRUTIL.APP for partitioning and driver install.

After that it will autoboot from SD card.

But this is longer story - there are relevant details - what system to select, what are partition size limits etc. Some help is available in that APP too. I recommend to lower initial buffer and cache sizes.