Ultrasatan, 2 SD, Spectre128, ICD/PP/HD, AdSCSI Micro ST

[OldScot]

My Ultrasatan is back and I'm experimenting with it again so I have many, many questions.
(After having my first Ultrasatan for a day I somehow managed to bork it and it had to be reflashed.)
Thank you for reading and any suggestions/advice!

 

System: MegaST2, ICD AdSCSI Micro ST internal interface, Quantum Prodrive LPS (SCSI), external Ultrasatan.

I have both the ICD and PP drivers.
The internal SCSI drive was partitioned with ICD driver, uses SCSI ID 0.

 

1. Ultrasatan with 2 SD cards may lock up?
Some combinations of cards work, other combinations lock up the Ultrasatan.
(Red lights don't blink, ST sees no drives.)
All of the cards work on their own. Does it matter if different drivers partitioned the cards?
Why do some combinations work but others don't?

 

2. Spectre128 doesn't understand PP driver formatted partitions?
Spectre128 shows gibberish and only 2 partitions. (Displayed partition sizes are very imaginative numbers.)
Works perfectly with ICD partitions. (Have 4-5 ST partitions followed by 2 MAC partitions.)
Online browsing suggests it SHOULD work with PP partitions.
Anyone using PP driver with Spectre128 HFS partitions?

(Spectre128 version 3.0.)

 

3. Is there a way to back up/copy non-GEM/BGM partitions?
I'd like to copy/back up my Spectre128 HFS partitions. (Type is OOP as I remember.)
The manual suggests using MEG-A-Minute (same author) but I don't want to back up to diskette.

 

4. Can't use AdSCSI and Ultrasatan at the same time?
So far I've not been able to access Ultrasatan partitions when using the AdScsi drive.
I've configured the Ultrasatan for SCSI ID 1 and the AdSCSI drive for SCSI ID 0.
I've tried both ICD and PP drivers, no luck.

I'd like to copy the partitions between drives and also backup the partition to my PC.

Just read the AdSCSI manual, doesn't mention any limitations other than SCSI IDs 0-4 must be used.

 

5. Wondering if I should try the HD driver?
Does anyone have experience with Spectre128 HFS partitions using the HD driver?
Does anyone have experience with AdSCSI and Ultrasatan with the HD driver?

 

Yes, I will probably eliminate the AdSCSI/SCSI drive at some point but would like to recreate
the existing setup (desktop replacement, spectre, etc etc) on the Ultrasatan first.

 

HINT: Quantum Prodrives have internal rubber stops that turn to mush/glue over time and stop the drive from booting.
This was a problem back in the 90s when I was using this system, I would reboot until the drive finally spun up.
Youtube videos show opening the drive and replacing those gloppy stops but that's as error prone as it sounds.
Now that I know what the problem is I've found that heating the drive (to free the armature from the glop) before using it allows the drive to spin up successfully.
(Your mileage may vary.)

 

Thanks Again!

 

[OldScot]

Forgot to add. System: TOS 1.04. (Originally 1.02, I just found my original TOS 1.02 roms the other day.)

[ParanoidLittleMan]

4. I made some tests with UltraSatan and ICD adapter connected together to Atari ACSI port. Pass through ICD was not good. Connecting them parallel (needs splitter) worked.  Here to add that UltraSatan needs 2  IDs, like 1 and 2 when is connected together with some other deivice set to ID 0. And it is hardware issue, so don't expect that some driver will solve it.

 

Spectre and Mac HFS partitions are not supported with (usual) Atari hard disk drivers, and I find it strange to expect such thing.

Making backup, or rather doing copy of all files/directories - maybe should try with ICD driver - if it can create HFS partitions then could access them on Atari ?

Or if can access some older MAC to do transfer with it.   Making image of complete hard disk is good for preservation too, and there is probably some SW for MAC what can extract files from such image. What is capacity of that drive with Spectre HFS partitions ?

[OldScot]

Thanks for the feedback Peter.

 

4. The AdSCSI is connected to the internal ACSI connector and the UltraSatan is connected to the external ACSI connector of the MegaST. The UltraSatan is configured as SCSI 1 and 2.

Perhaps the ACSI port doesn't like using both the internal and external connections at the same time?

Perhaps it's a termination issue?

SCSI is a bus with termination on the last device. Perhaps ACSI doesn't work the same way?

 

1. Any idea on question 1? I'd like to try putting the GEM partitions in Slot 1(SCSI 1) and the non-GEM partitions in Slot 2 (SCSI 2) but when I tried adding a new card in Slot 2 the UltraSatan wouldn't start.

I've done more experimenting and it seems like Slot 2 must be an SD to use both slots. Can't use an SD HC in Slot 2 when Slot 1 also in use?

 

I understand the Atari can access the non-GEM partitions as Meg-A-Minute is supposed to be able to back up the partition.

And of course the Spectre128 software formats and uses those partitions.

The non-GEM partitions are 20-30MB.

[OldScot]

I asked Lotharek about the problem of using 2 cards and Przemyslaw updated the online FAQs.

The response is the last FAQ.

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=48#faq

 

Apparently "sdhc cards have recently changed".

[OldScot]

FYI. I followed Przemyslaw 's instructions and installed a pair of 15pf capacitors on the sd slots and now the UltraSatan is working with mutliple SDHD cards.