scsi2sd

[+InsaneMultitasker]

After using the Zulu version of the SCSI2SD device for a year and being satisfied with the speed and capabilities, I sent my v6.0 device to SamplerZone for exchange.  Their current deal is if you send them your working v6.0, they will send you a Zulu with a SD card and a check for 75$ (or store credit, your choice) and they pay shipping both ways. 

 

The Zulu device (and maybe the others as well) allow you to configure the target sector size. Sometime over the holidays, I intend to test using a 256-byte SCSI sector to match our TI/Geneve DSR sector size.  It is conceivable that we could increase the Geneve SCSI write speed by more than 25% by eliminating the extra read and the read-before-write requirement.  Reason: the TI/Geneve sector size is 256 so to write out a sector, we must first read the native SCSI 512 byte sector into memory, concatonate, and write back.  Read speeds could also improve to a lesser degree.  The MDOS DSR transfers data between the DSR and OS and application, so speed increases are not based solely on how quickly the drive reads/writes. 

 

[RickyDean]

26 minutes ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

After using the Zulu version of the SCSI2SD device for a year and being satisfied with the speed and capabilities, I sent my v6.0 device to SamplerZone for exchange.  Their current deal is if you send them your working v6.0, they will send you a Zulu with a SD card and a check for 75$ (or store credit, your choice) and they pay shipping both ways. 

 

The Zulu device (and maybe the others as well) allow you to configure the target sector size. Sometime over the holidays, I intend to test using a 256-byte SCSI sector to match our TI/Geneve DSR sector size.  It is conceivable that we could increase the Geneve SCSI write speed by more than 25% by eliminating the extra read and the read-before-write requirement.  Reason: the TI/Geneve sector size is 256 so to write out a sector, we must first read the native SCSI 512 byte sector into memory, concatonate, and write back.  Read speeds could also improve to a lesser degree.  The MDOS DSR transfers data between the DSR and OS and application, so speed increases are not based solely on how quickly the drive reads/writes. 

 

Sounds good, I just did purchase a ZuluScsi. I was going to end up using this with my SCSI card and using my Scsi2Sd v5 with an old pc, probably.

[RickyDean]

I just started using my ZuluScsi, copied a disk image, 256MB SCSI SID MUSIC IMAGE.img, renaming it HD5.img, to it. I booted up and went in DM and saw the files, gorgeous, but I then tried moving the files to one of the Scsi2Sd drives I had set up, SCS2, it started to copy, then immediately locked up. I then restarted, went back into DM and tried to copy all the files to the Scsi2SD SCS2 and it copied some files then gave me a circulair buffer error. Does that mean that the TI can't deal with those files and directories? Do I have to use a Geneve to copy large amounts of files and/or directories over? When I catalog the SCS2, I see the Sidplayer program files and 3 directories, but no files in the directories.

[+9640News]

You might need to copy just a few directories at a time instead of selecting everything at once. I believe the Geneve has a larger buffer as there is more ram space to hold file and directory listings but it too has limitations. 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Received my new Zulu SCSI2SD device and the 75$ check. It came with a cable and 64GB memory card.  Looking forward to the holidays to get it up and running!

[+OLD CS1]

27 minutes ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

Received my new Zulu SCSI2SD device and the 75$ check. It came with a cable and 64GB memory card.  Looking forward to the holidays to get it up and running!

I bought a v6 directly from Alex a number of years ago at VCF.  I still have not had a chance to put it into service.  I am running a v5.something on my WHTSCSI.  Will it make that big of a difference to me?  I have considered it for my Amiga if only for the ability to mount different mass storage drive images for different purposes at a whim.  hrmmmm I could also have a separate image for my DOS file system, rather than a drive partition, for PCTask, which I could then mount and manipulate on a PC... I might be talking myself into it.

 

EDIT: Holy crap, I just realized the 256 byte block size would be better for my CMD HD drive, as well.

EDIT²: Ah, all the others I have are v5.0b.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

7 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

I bought a v6 directly from Alex a number of years ago at VCF.  I still have not had a chance to put it into service.  I am running a v5.something on my WHTSCSI.  Will it make that big of a difference to me?  I have considered it for my Amiga if only for the ability to mount different mass storage drive images for different purposes at a whim.  hrmmmm I could also have a separate image for my DOS file system, rather than a drive partition, for PCTask, which I could then mount and manipulate on a PC... I might be talking myself into it.

 

EDIT: Holy crap, I just realized the 256 byte block size would be better for my CMD HD drive, as well.

I got my V6.0 for the additional SCSI unit support and for what I thought was the ability to access the data via the USB connector. Alas, that wasn't meant to be so I bought a Zulu which has the benefit of using image files, which is perfect for mounting my EZ135 raw image files.  I hope to someday convince them to add a SCSI command extension to mount an image via the host versus having to pull the SD card.  The 'refund' of $75.00 was a nice bonus.  So far, the zulu has been doing a nice job with MDOS development work for the Geneve and I am allllllmost ready to retire the EZ135s, even if they are still doing a great job.

 

[+dhe]

I think another handy feature is the ability to say - your this type of hard drive.

 

And that aren't as prone to failure as 25 year old zip drives.