Hatari emulator: Problems using a HDD image as C and GEMDOS drive as D

[LordMeow]

Hello!

 

I recently configured Hatari to have some work done with a software that is part of a larger package to produce text adventures.

 

Hard disk emulation was a must because of speed and so I went the GEMDOS HD route because it made very easy to modify files with the tool and then grab them from the host machine and test the results.

 

But the software seems to be incompatible with GEMDOS HD emulation, it complains that the file can not be read nor written, so I needed to emulate another type of HDD, retaining if possible the ability to easily exchange files with the host via a folder.

 

I configured then a HD image as C and selected the option to assign letters to GEMDOS drive after the others... I realized then that the software COULD access to the GEMDOS drive as D but it does not appear on the desktop.

 

Another thing I tried was disabling such check and force GEMDOS drive to be D by creating a folder named D inside the folder for the GEMDOS HD, same result.

 

To be honest I have no experience with real hard disks on real STs, mine never had one and I am at a loss, I don't make sense of the Hatari docs because I don't understand when or how to use drivers for the HDs...

 

I'm also surprised that the software I use can see the GEMDOS drive but the desktop does not show it... seeing the drive however, does not make it work (same problem reading and writing files I mentioned previously).

 

I hope to have explained myself... though I apologize in advance if not. Any hint would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

[TGB1718]

I have no problems with a GEMDOS drive, I just created a folder and can copy files into it and Hatari see's them fine

These are my settings, although I really don't use Hatari, I prefer STEEM SSE

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Well, this with 'not seeing drive D on Desktop' is one of most common problems I read about in last years.

TOS was done in years when memory was expensive, so TOS placed in ROM (192 KB) is not so comfortable - stays for TOS 1.xx. 2.06 is better (256 KB), but it will not too automatically put icons for D, E ... on Desktop.

On this page is described how to solve it: http://atari.8bitchip.info/astbegfaq.html

Section "One of most frequent questions is: why I don't see hard disk partitions D, E ... on Desktop ?"

More interesting is hard disk emulation in Hatari and Steem. So called GEMDOS emulation is not real hard disk emulation, not in way how it works on real Atari HW with attached mass storage. In case of developing SW for Atari SW real hard disk emulation is necessary, maybe not all time, but for final tests surely. And in case of Hatari it is especially important, because it's GEMDOS hard disk emulation is not so faithful - couple months ago was thread in programming section, where problem was that Hatari accepted file path with slash too, but with TOS only backslash is what works.

I can recommend Steem for this job. And original Steem (3.2) rather that SSE - just more reliable, and don't think that you need really SSE new features for this.

Advantage is that you can assign any drive letter for GEMDOS emulated logical drive, and more than one. More accurate emulation. For real hard disk emulation will need Pasti.dll . And Steem Debugger will help a lot in debugging, fixing SW in development.

 

 

[zzip]

5 hours ago, LordMeow said:

I configured then a HD image as C and selected the option to assign letters to GEMDOS drive after the others... I realized then that the software COULD access to the GEMDOS drive as D but it does not appear on the desktop.

Sometimes all you have to do is create the D icon yourself, then save your desktop so it appears the next time you boot.    Unfortunately GEM doesn't automatically detect and install icons for all the drives you have attached.

 

I forget the exact name of the option that allows you to install a new desktop icon, but it's in one of the drop down menus.   If I recall, you have to give it an upper-case D letter or it won't work.

[LordMeow]

I have followed the advice of creating the D icon from the menu (it was mandatory to select a disk drive icon or the option was not active) and it's worked flawlessly! Thanks to everybody!

 

With Hatari configured to my taste, I'm going to follow @ParanoidLittleMan's advice and create the same setup in Steem, that debugger sounds really good.

 

Since I work with both Linux and Windows, having both of them configured would do no harm, quite the opposite.

 

Thanks again!

[LordMeow]

On 1/6/2021 at 12:32 PM, TGB1718 said:

I have no problems with a GEMDOS drive, I just created a folder and can copy files into it and Hatari see's them fine

These are my settings, although I really don't use Hatari, I prefer STEEM SSE

 

 

Yes, this work for me, problem arises when I want both an ACSI HD emulated image along with a GEMDOS drive.

 

Under GEMDOS drive the software I am using refuses to open nor save any file.