Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!ginosko!aplcen!haven!h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu!a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu!jlf
From: jlf@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (Jack L Forester)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Supra 45meg
Message-ID: <464@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu>
Date: 22 Sep 89 02:14:56 GMT
References: <32314@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Distribution: usa
Lines: 55

In article <32314@ames.arc.nasa.gov>, tran@orion.arc.nasa.gov (Andy-Cuong Tran) writes:
> To fellow netters and Supra Corp.:
> 
>      I recently bought a Supra 45 meg hard drive for my ST

Ah.. a fellow Supra owner (mine's a 20 meg)

[stuff deleted]

>      1).  The cable from the drive to the ST is only 28 inches
> long!

Your's is longer than mine (please no jokes! :-) 

>      2).  The on/off switch is in the back of the unit.

Only a minor annoyance for me.

       3).  I cannot boot off my floppy disk when the hard drive is
> off and connected to the ST, even when the hard drive has not
> been set to autoboot.  This is important during extended periods
> of game playing.  Is this a characteristic of the Supra host
> controller or of all devices connected to the DMA port?

Really?  I don't have that problem.  Anybody?

>      4).  My last and most serious complaint is the amount of
> noise my Supra hard drive generates.  The problem is not with the
> built-in fan, but with the drive mechanism Supra used in my
> model.  In my case, it was a Miniscribe .  The noise, I believe
> is created by the constantly rotating platters.  Is it typical
> for the platters of a drive mechanism to be in constant motion?

I'll agree about the noise.  It is definitely a lot louder than most other HDs.
But the noise is coming from the actuator unit which moves the head assembly
across the disk.  The disk platters are always in motion when th HD is on.
The spinup time is too great to have the disks spin only when they are being
accessed.  On mine, when there is no disk access, the fan is the loudest.
You can't hear the drive motor.

>      If anyone out there has a Supra drive or has any suggestions
> or comments, I would like to hear from you.  The noise is
> especially unbearable during long wordprocessing sessions. 
> Thanks in advance...
> 
> tran@orion.arpa

I need a copy of SUPBOOT.SYS.  It seems that somehow I've lost it.  I re-
formatted the disk about a week ago and when I tried to reinstall autoboot,
the program couldn't find the file.  Now I have to boot with the floppy.
(Not that's a pain, since I *rarely* use the floppy anymore.)

Jack Forester
jlf@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu