mrbrush Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Hi everyone. Well, i recently pulled out my old Atari Falcon from the loft and was trying to get it going again. It booted into the desktop with just the A and B floppy icons. I don't know anything about the Falcon but the C drive is definitely missing so I'm hoping someone has some idea how to get the hdd back because i don't know how to start. I have access to a floppy drive on an old pc and i did download TOS 4.2 and double clicked but nothing much happened. I know it's probably not as simple as that but what do you think is my next step? Do i need to load some emulator or buy the HDDriver software. Thanks in advance everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exxosuk Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 there is a demo here which will let you see if the hard drive is found or not. Possible you need a driver... assuming you have a HDD installed that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbrush Posted November 10, 2016 Author Share Posted November 10, 2016 Thanks moonsweeper....I do remember that the hdd was working years ago. I think it was around 64 mb, so how would i go about getting the driver. Any free ones ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 AHDI from your original atari disks should work. You can find the disks here: http://www.atari.org/services/systemdisks.php Also, did you try installing drives from the menu? It's a long shot but you might have removed it from the desktop. Pressing alt + c will open the hard disk if it exists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbrush Posted November 10, 2016 Author Share Posted November 10, 2016 Great stuff, thanks Dragonstomper. I will try that in the morning. I wil post when i know more info. Cheers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Those internal 64mb drives that came with Falcon were a bit crappy, so you may need to prepare yourself for the worst (the ones in my Falcons both failed fairly sharply, both were Conner Peripherals units - who I'm not surprised are not still around). If AHDI doesn't work, take the top off the Falcon and listen to the drive when you turn the power on. You should be able to hear it spin up. If it doesn't it may have jammed, or if there is a clicking noise it is probably toast.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exxosuk Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Not sure why my first post was cut in half.. I suggested HD10 as there is a demo. http://hddriver.seimet.de/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 After my Falcon sat for a few years the hard drive wouldn't spin up, so I did the old trick of turning the power on, then off and repeat until it spun up. After it did boot I backed it up and installed a 200MB drive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbrush Posted November 11, 2016 Author Share Posted November 11, 2016 Morning everyone. Well i first tried the Alt + c but no luck there. So i went to get the system disks as suggested by dragonstomper, and i put "MultiTOS Hard Drive Installation Boot Disk, UK, Revision A" onto the floppy and clicked on a few things. No luck. Honestly i dont know what im doing because of the strange file formats, not sure what AHDI is either. Could anyone be a bit more specific in terms of - if i need a driver before i put in the Tos disks in. Sorry guys, im scratching my head on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 You would need the language disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 (edited) What you need is a blank disk floppy formatted on the PC (standard format). On that disk create a folder called 'auto' and then copy AHDI.PRG into it. There may be another file which needs to go on there, but I think AHDI on its own should work. Put the disk in the drive and then reset the ST. As the ST boots it should flash up some black text on the white background saying something about AHDI, it may pause while it works out which hard disks are attached, which iirc correctly it should then list (very briefly). Your Falcon has the OS built into memory so you don't need anything else on the disk. When its done this you will end up at the desktop. Go to the menu and click on the install devices entry. If it has worked your C drive should come back up. BTW best to go for AHDI version 6 for the Falcon, not sure lower versions will see an IDE drive (or at least might not work very well with the Falcon). Edited November 11, 2016 by Zogging Hell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbrush Posted November 11, 2016 Author Share Posted November 11, 2016 Ok thanks moonsweeper. I'll give it a try again in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbrush Posted November 12, 2016 Author Share Posted November 12, 2016 No luck im afraid guys. Using AHDI didnt work either by booting or double clicking. Maybe the battery is dead or something but i will probably sell it and tell them it needs a new hdd. Thanks for all the help anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Umberto Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 what do you want for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbrush Posted November 12, 2016 Author Share Posted November 12, 2016 No idea, there is an auction in a few days on ebay. Ill observe it and see what they are going for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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