Stacy4 problem with hard drive

[Plink]

Hello guys, it's been a while since I have been on AA. I am mostly a console guy, so I know little about how St computers work, but recently a friend gave me a Stacy4 and a 520stfm (there is a reason why I mention the 520).

I was lucky enough that the Stacy was in ace condition, fully working with a hard drive full of software. 

However today the hard drive stopped working, there is "bad" sound coming out of it, as if it is jammed. 

I wanted to describe how that happened, so maybe someone has any idea to help the situation. 

We were trying with a friend the drive of the 520,my friend downloaded a tosec from a torrent and used some pc software to write some disks. We tried a few games, but all of them, when loaded, were just making the 520 reboot constantly. We had the awful idea to test one diskette on the Stacy4, loaded the file, the computer rebooted and after that the hard disk started squeaking. 

What could have caused that? Is the hard drive busted or could the diskette somehow mess with the boot sector and make the HD not working? Is there an easy way to replace the HD and load again all the software? 

Sorry for the long post and

Thanks in advance for any help 

 

[+DarkLord]

Some questions here. Does the STacy get to the desktop at all?

 

If so, is the hard drive just not available (besides squeaking)?

 

What happens when you boot up with a known/good floppy disk?

 

Back in the day, Atari had a few viruses, but I never encountered

anything personally that messed with my hard drives. It seems

to me that the PC formatting for those floppies isn't quite right.

 

Not sure about recovering data from your old hard drive. There are

a couple of techniques involving some lube on the spindle then

freezing and thawing the hard drive. (that's assuming it's freezing

up somehow).  Others can offer more/better advice here.

 

That hard drive, if original (I'll assume it was) is very old and are well

known for dying horrible deaths. My STacy arrived with one DOA and

it actually melted down, with ugly black stuff oozing out into the STacy

itself. Took a while to clean it up.

 

With the slew of mass storage options available to Atari users these days,

you can easily replace that original hard drive with something much better.

 

 https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=47

 

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=49

 

This is a good place to start.  You'll have to figure out how to mount it in

one of the STacy's bays (there are several ways of doing it) but that will

do it. You'll also need hard driver software such as ICD PRO's (free now)

or PPera's (cheap and effective) or HDDriver (more expensive).

 

HTHs.

 

[Plink]

1 hour ago, DarkLord said:

Some questions here. Does the STacy get to the desktop at all?

 

If so, is the hard drive just not available (besides squeaking)?

What happens when you boot up with a known/good floppy disk?

 

Back in the day, Atari had a few viruses, but I never encountered

anything personally that messed with my hard drives. It seems

to me that the PC formatting for those floppies isn't quite right.

 

Not sure about recovering data from your old hard drive. There are

a couple of techniques involving some lube on the spindle then

freezing and thawing the hard drive. (that's assuming it's freezing

up somehow).  Others can offer more/better advice here.

 

That hard drive, if original (I'll assume it was) is very old and are well

known for dying horrible deaths. My STacy arrived with one DOA and

it actually melted down, with ugly black stuff oozing out into the STacy

itself. Took a while to clean it up.

 

With the slew of mass storage options available to Atari users these days,

you can easily replace that original hard drive with something much better.

 

 https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=47

 

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=49

 

This is a good place to start.  You'll have to figure out how to mount it in

one of the STacy's bays (there are several ways of doing it) but that will

do it. You'll also need hard driver software such as ICD PRO's (free now)

or PPera's (cheap and effective) or HDDriver (more expensive).

 

HTH

Thanks for the reply mate, 

When booting the computer stays on a white screen and never boots into the system. To be honest the behavior seemed like a possible virus to me,since I think that the OS in on a chip normally and it should boot with or without a hard drive, correct? 

I tried a working disk with a word processor and it loaded fine. 

Is there a way I can fix that?also any chance it would boot with rom if I unplug the hard drive? I guess it should be kind of easy to access it, or not? 

 

I know the hard drive didn't stand a chance to survive after all these years, but the whole behavior troubles me and I want to understand what happened. 

Also thanks a lot for the links about the new solutions, I will look into that. 

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Edited December 17, 2020 by Plink

[TGB1718]

Unless this is just poor coincidence that the hard drive failed exactly the time you tried that floppy, it

just sounds like the hard drive has been corrupted and it's failing to find the boot sector, probably the noise

is the head searching for the boot sector.

 

You need to be able to boot the Stacy from a floppy with the HDD attached (not sure if you can do that with a Stacy without it trying to boot from the HDD),

the floppy needs HDD utilities on (like the ones @Plink said) so you can check the state of the HDD 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Indeed, it is most likely hard disk failure by all symptoms . And since floppy and hard disk go via same DMA chip in Atari machines, it is possible that hard disk just blocks normal floppy work.

So, detaching it is first thing to do .

And yeah, recommended is to go on modern Flash card storage. Like this: http://atari.8bitchip.info/acsicfafs.html

 

[Plink]

Thanks a lot guys for the replies. I am not sure I am going to keep it yet, so won't decide on upgrades, although it is good to know the alternatives. 

Anyhow, I need to troubleshoot the problem first. I am trying to find info on how to properly access the HD to disconnect it. 

[+DarkLord]

Taking a STacy apart is a bit involved, I'm afraid. 

 

There are a couple of online guides:

 

https://vintagecomputers.code.blog/2020/01/31/stacy-part-1/

 

https://vintagecomputers.code.blog/2020/02/01/stacy-part-2/

 

https://gtello.pagesperso-orange.fr/stacy_e.htm

 

The main thing is to go slow and take your time.

 

HTHs.

 

[mdivancic]

6 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Taking a STacy apart is a bit involved, I'm afraid. 

 

There are a couple of online guides:

 

https://vintagecomputers.code.blog/2020/01/31/stacy-part-1/

 

https://vintagecomputers.code.blog/2020/02/01/stacy-part-2/

 

https://gtello.pagesperso-orange.fr/stacy_e.htm

 

The main thing is to go slow and take your time.

 

HTHs.

 

DarkLord is to kind, it’s a royal pain in the butt. It can be done and you can get good at it. If you decide to mount an UltraSatan let me know. I have a 3D printed solution.

 

 

[+DarkLord]

LOL - Yeah, they really are. 
 

BTW, are you now selling your printed 3D solution? Thanks.

 

[mdivancic]

On 12/19/2020 at 6:51 PM, DarkLord said:

LOL - Yeah, they really are. 
 

BTW, are you now selling your printed 3D solution? Thanks.

 

Not in any official capacity but it’s not like there are a lot of STacy’s out there. If someone need a set I would be willing to print if they couldn’t source locally...