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From: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Latest Atari hard disk formatter/partitioner?
Message-ID: <5186@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 22 May 91 09:53:21 GMT
Sender: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk
Organization: SPRU, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Lines: 26


What is the latest version of Atari's own hard disk formatter?  I am
about to buy a second-hand Atari Megafile 60, and would like to reformat
it with up-to-date software.  My current hard disk (SH205, same as a
Megafile 20, I think) has been formatted with HDX301, which was written
in Summer 89.  Has there been anything since?  Does anyone have strong
feelings about whether a different formatter (Supra, ICD, GE-Soft, Claus
Brod's driver, etc.) would be better?

I will be using the Megafile 60 with an early STE which probably has one
of the - how shall I put this? - suboptimal DMA chips.  Allegedly, these
chips should work fine with Atari's own hard drives, but will probably
cause other manufacturers' drives to lose characters in transmission. 
My STE is under warranty until July, so I intend to soak-test the drive
then, if all is not well, send back the STE for chip replacement. 
According to a recent report, Atari UK are now are now willing to admit
there was a problem with some batches of DMA chips and are readily
replacing them for free.

Cheers,

Graham

ps. Thanks to all the people in the Southern & Western USA who
acknowledged a previous posting.  It's reassuring to know that our news
feed is sending messages out as it should.