Which: Hxc, Gotek, Ultrasatan.?

[TonVH]

If I understand correctly all three can be used to (1) transfer easily data from PC/Mac to ST/Mega thru the use of SD cards and (2) as surrogate for a harddisk.

 

I've searched and read a lot but it is still unclear to me what the difference between the 3 is and which one is to be preferred for the above mentioned uses.

 

Drawback of HXC/Gotek (if I understand the docs correctly) is that they have to replace the existing floppydrive while the Ultrasatan can be connected eternally. Replacing has as a drawback that it is no longer possible to use real floppies. Or is there a way to connect Hxc/Gotek externally to the 2nd floppy port?

 

Otoh the Ultrasatan can only be bough new (=expensive) where the Gotek can be used 2nd hand (=cheap).

 

Netwerk capability of the Ultrasatan is not important because a good data transfer between ST and PN/Mac makes networking the ST unnecessary. So it is really the datatransfer that counts.

 

 

Any information in helping making the choice is appreciated.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

HxC and Gotek are hardware floppy emulators, so not are 'surrogates' for hard disk. Actually, you can connect them as floppy B, but it needs some rewiring. And is not good idea - better then to connect them as A, and using real floppy drive as B. Just because that most of SW can work only from A.

As I already said networking has not much sense in work with floppies, or floppy emulators - actually in later case really no sense, since you can do all transfers on PC/MAC to floppy images, and then copy them on SD cards for HxC/Gotek.

UltraSatan is more expensive and that's normal. I don't see why there should not be some second hand UltraSatan in offer by chance. Really weird logic what you talk about 'only be bough new' - 'can be used 2nd hand' . I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that you can use well second or even third hand UltraSatan well if someone will sell it to you.

If you can afford it get UltraSatan. Will be much more comfortable for work, playing - yes, even for gaming, since plenty of games is adapted for running from hard drive.

[TonVH]

What I meant to write: I see no 2nd-hand Ultrasatan in my country (Netherlands) but many 2nd-hand Goteks.

Edited January 28, 2018 by TonVH

[fille1976]

Hi,

 

I use for years the ultra satan,and its fantastic.

I also purchased petari's hd driver.

[TonVH]

Bought a Atari 1040 ST fm with monitor today. So now hunting for a (preferabele used) Ultrasatan.

[mchorvat]

I am quite new user of Atari STE (1040STE, 4MB ram) as well. As a long time Atari 8bit user i always wanted to explore ST line more. And I guess i went through similar process as you are going through now I just wanted to be able to run .st, .msa files so bought gotek drive and installed some free drivers. I faced lots of problems installing Gotek and making it run. All in all it was quite a hassle so i gave up and put the original disk drive back.

Bought Ultrasatan device and man this thing rocks. Worth every penny, even a new one (i also could not find any 2nd hand even on ebay). Just plugged it in the ASCI slot, hooked it to USB power bank, partitioned SD card and it was ready to rock and roll. I also recommend to spend 10eur on Peter Petari hdd drivers - fantastic piece of SW. I am really enjoying the STE now - very user friendly setup, i am able to run demos, games - even .st images can be loaded via some free sw from Petari.

Last but not least, since Ultrasatan uses SD card and partitions are DOS compatible, the transfer of data/files between ST and PC is smooth as silk.

Edited January 30, 2018 by mchorvat

[dimfil]

"No-brainer" at all...

Go for Ultrasatan. Must have!

A vast quantity of games are already adapted for hd use, either from Peter or from DBug and Klaz and it's quite certain that whichever game you like is already on that list.

Not to mention that you will have a hard disk after all with more than enough capacity for all atari st software and to transfer files from/to pc is easy as a game...

[+DarkLord]

This!