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Need help with Ultrasatan, autobot, and Stacy2 internal HD


sideburn

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Hello all,

 

I just received my Ultrasatan and the Software for ULTRASATAN sd card from Lotharek's Lair and am having some issues.

I'm a n00b with ST world so I don't know what I am doing quite yet.


When I connect the Utrasatan to my Atari Stacy 2 and boot with an AHDI v4.02 floppy installed, all 6 drives do mount on the desktop but I MUST boot from the floppy.

Is there a way to make this SD card auto boot without the need to the AHDI disk? this is the SD card I have--> https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=79

 

Also when the Utrasatan is just plugged into the Stacy (the Utrasatan doesn't need to be powered on even), then the internal hard drive disappears.

Is it not possible to have both devices mounted?

 

I have sent Lotharek an email regarding these issues as well but have not heard anything back so I thought someone here might already have the answers.

 

I bought the Utrasatan thinking it would make getting software onto the Stacy a little less hassle than my current method of downloading disk images, converting them to .st format then using a Greaseweezle to copy the image files to a floppy using an Amiga floppy drive.. lots of steps... But if I can't get to the internal HD while having the Ultrasatan mounted then my current method might be the best route...

 

Thanks,

 

-Tavis

Edited by sideburn
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5 minutes ago, JamesWD said:

From lotharek's website :

 

 

Don't use AHDI

I saw this but the sd card is supposed to have the drivers installed as it says here-- "

Driver : PERA PUTNIK drivers DEMO VERSION  /6 partitions, some games and demos/ (since  September 25th 2019)

"

 

 

 

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6 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

You need to have a hard disk driver installed on the boot partition of the US.

 

I'm not familiar with AHDI V4.02, I use ICD Pro, you might try that, it's an easy install from a floppy.

I

Now nothing works.. Cant get the disk to mount with a floppy or not.

 

I bought THAT SD card because its supposed to be ready to go.. Oh well guess I will have to buy some drivers and try to build an sd card from scratch.

 

Is it possible to have both the internal drive and the ultrasatan drive mounted at the same time? Its starting to look Like I can have one or the other, and maybe the fact that I have an internal drive is causing the problem?

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I think it is conflicting with my internal hard drive and i just got lucky the one time it did mount.

 

I think the Ultrasatan is using ID:0 and ID:1 on the SCSI chain and my internal is probably on ID:0

 

I don't know enough yet but thats my hunch... That would explain why my internal drive is disappearing when I turn the US on.

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all valid partitions internal and external can be mounted at the same time (i think no more than 24 partitions though?) but demo versions of software are limited anyways.

 

Full version of HDDRIVER as long as you enable the driver to look for all devices it will work fine.

 

ICD PRO should be good also.

 

Not used Pera's so can't comment.

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1 minute ago, TGB1718 said:

Yes, they all have to be different ID's , not sure what ID's you can set the US to, but I would make them 1 and 2 for now

SO the DMA port on the STacy is sharing the same bus as the internal ACSI/SCSI hard drive? Im scouring the internet trying to confirm this.

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yikes

 

the config tool readme...

 

VERY ACSI device must have UNIQUE ACSI ID! Two devices CAN'T have 
the same ACSI IDs. If you setup two devices on ACSI bus with the same IDs,
they might get damaged!

 

This may be why its behaving different now and wont even mount anymore.

 

I hope I didn't damage my internal hard drive.

 

The problem now is the config tool is an ST program ( US_CONF.PRG)... I cant config the drive without it being mounted. check / egg syndrome.

 

 

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The "damage" if 2 units are the same id would more than likely be corruption of the hard disk, not physical

damage, but "garbage" could be written to sector thereby corrupting the disk.

 

Personally I've never seen it happen as 2 devices trying to talk on the same ID would pretty much screw

the driver and more than than likely you just wouldn't be able to see the devices on the bus.

 

The only way your going to see is just leave the internal drive connected, remove the US and boot with your

original floppy and see what happens.

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That’s why I’m a little worried because things are behaving differently. Before I could get the US to mount using a bootable floppy and trashing then driver the hard disk so it didn’t autoboot. 
 

also hard disk started spinning up and down in a loop and making sketchy sounds while I was playing with that method. I thought I killed it a couple times but managed to get it to show back up when booting from floppy and copied the shddriver.sys file back to the root and stopped messing around. 
 

everything is back to normal now it seems. 

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Well I cannot get the Ultrasatan to work on the STacy.

 

I created a new disk image and sd card and connected the US to my atari 520 ST and it comes up on there but intermittently. i have to reboot several times and then it will show up eventually.


I then ran config and changed the id’s to 1 and 2 instead of zero and 1.

I plugged the US into the stacy and then the machine boots to a blank desktop. my internal drive nor the US show up.

 

And then my internal drive starts spinning up and shutting down in a loop and never shows back up and i disconnect everything and my internal drive doesn’t come up.. just keeps powering down and back up..I then start to panic and try booting from floppies and see if the drive mounts and no luck... eventually after 10 minutes or so my internal drive starts working again. I hope the Ultrasatan has not done permanent damage to my Stacy.

 

-Tavis

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8 hours ago, sideburn said:

And then my internal drive starts spinning up and shutting down in a loop and never shows back up and i disconnect everything and my internal drive doesn’t come up.. just keeps powering down and back up..I then start to panic and try booting from floppies and see if the drive mounts and no luck... eventually after 10 minutes or so my internal drive starts working again. I hope the Ultrasatan has not done permanent damage to my Stacy.

That sounds like your hard drive is dying. I doubt it will break your STacy, but it could cause read/write errors that you are seeing. Next step would be to disable the internal hard drive, but I'm having a brain fog right now about how to do it...

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4 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

What driver are you using ?

 

What I would do is disconnect the internal drive and boot from floppy with ICD Pro drivers with the US connected and

see what happens, I think it should boot and detect the US, you should then be able to format/partition the US.

I’m using the test boot image that has the PP driver. Here:https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=48 on the faq tab for troubleshooting. 
 

And it’s loading ok on the Atari 520 st. 
and I was able to use the config app for it and change the drive ID’s to 1 and 2 using the 520 ST. 
 

that made no difference on the STacy 2. 
 

yeah when I take the STacy apart I’ll try disconnecting the drive. It’s just strange to me that I cannot have multiple drives on tge STacy. I mean what’s the external hard drive port for then?!

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I've never had much success with PP's demo drivers, at least ICD Pro is the full product.

 

How about trying this, remove the autoboot from the internal drive and hook everything up, then boot using ICD Pro

on floppy, it's just possible the hard drive is trying to boot and conflict with the boot image that's using PP's driver.

You would also have to remove the test image that uses PP's driver too, so just booting from floppy with no chance

of any hard disc trying to boot.

If it works, I believe you can set ICD to boot from any drive/partition you choose.

Edited by TGB1718
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I tried removing the drivers from the hard drive. But didn’t try the icd pro driver. 
 

I’m afraid to plug the US back into the STacy at this point. 
 

When I just plug the US connector in and keep the US turned off the internal drive is gone. 

 

Wgeb I power up with the US on, the internal drive starts making weird noises and spinning down and spinning up in a loop and then I unplug the US and pray that the internal drive will come back up. 
 

it continues to spin up and down like it’s dead. 
 

it takes several reboots and booting from a floppy and eventually the drive comes back to life and then it’s stable again like nothing happened.
 

It’s very strange. it’s like the US punches the drive in the face and knocks it out and it goes unconscious. And then after 20 minutes of CPR its heart starts beating again and you dodged a bullet. 
 

it’s done this about 4 times now each time I’ve plugged the US in. 
 

Now I don’t want to push my luck. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey all,

 

Just an update on what I've figured out:

 

A) My internal drive is just giving out once in a while and i have to give it a smack and it comes back.

B) I figured out how to get the US to boot. First I made a bootable floppy with SHDRIVER.SYS on it it and then if I rename the SHDRIVER.SYS on the internal drive C : to SHDRIVER.BAK so that the internal drive doesn't mount, the external US mounts instead. Then when I want to switch back to the internal drive, I boot from the floppy which mounts the internal drive.

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I've not been involved in this message thread simply because I've never used an external drive with my STacy.

 

(well, that's not exactly right - I did have the first Satandisk with my STacy but the original hard drive was

already dead and unplugged at that point so it doesn't really apply here)

 

So...with no experience there, I've nothing to offer except that, as others have mentioned, any devices on the

chain *have* to have separate drive ID's to function correctly.

 

My personal recommendations are:

 

1. Bite the bullet and pay for HDDriver 11.x or if that's too expensive, buy P.Pera's full version (it's cheaper).

 

2. Take your time, follow the online guides, take your STacy apart, remove that old (ancient!) original hard drive

and replace it with an internal Ultrasatan with the accompanying adapter from Lotharek's web site:

 

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

 

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

 

Do this, and you'll have a great machine with plentiful storage space (2 card slots!) and the ability to interchange

SD cards with Windows or Linux computers.

 

Win - win - win...    :)

 

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Yeah I figured I’d convert my external to an internal when my stock driver kicks the bucket. 
Min going to order that adapter. I asked him if there’s any difference between my cased board and the internal board and it’s just the power connector. 
 

Right now it’s kindof nice having an all original Stacy and being able to toggle back and forth between the internal drive and the US. Just having to rename the shdriver.sys and boot off a floppy is kindof clunky. Be nice if there was a software solution. 
 

One thing still puzzling me is the sd card from lotharek works but the generic satan.img (from lotharek faq page) i have on a second sd card gives me a system bomb on the STacy But it works on a 520st. Can’t figure out what the differences are other than the lotharek sd card is preloaded with games and stuff. 

 

both of these images are the PPera drivers. 
 

what’s the benefit with the HDDriver?

 

Edited by sideburn
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HDDriver is the de facto standard, as far as I'm concerned. It's been around a *long* time, and  is

still fully supported and maintained by Uwe Seimet. However, for a first time buyer, it is the most

expensive option.

 

Here's the website:

 

https://www.hddriver.net/

 

You can even get an app for your phone to notify you when there's an update.   :)

 

Not knocking P.Pera's version, I actually bought it and played around with it but still use HDDriver

on every Atari related mass storage device I have. Personality quirks aside, he's a very talented

programmer.

 

Atari's AHDI and ICD's ICD stuff are still capable but not supported and just...old...

 

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