Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!oliveb!olivej!dragon From: dragon@olivej.olivetti.com (Give me a quarter or I'll touch you) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Subject: Re: Atari XF551 comments and inquiry Message-ID: <20281@oliveb.olivetti.com> Date: 19 Apr 88 16:23:38 GMT References: <2426@mandrill.CWRU.Edu> Sender: news@oliveb.olivetti.com Distribution: na Lines: 49 in article <2426@mandrill.CWRU.Edu>, pjd@mandrill (dr. funk) says: > I hope the XF551 is available! I ordered one from Lyco > and they claim that the 551 is in stock. (Won't be either > the first or last time that I've been lied to, however :-) > It is shipping WITHOUT the new Atari operating system and > this may pose a problem for me as I only have copies > of 3.0 and 2.0 (not even 2.5!) [...] > What are the recommendations for a true double-side > operating system? I'm not partial to menu driven stuff, > so a command line interpreter is prefered (and then, > bride of Unix is prefered over son of MS-DOS.) I just got my XF551 yesterday. I must say I am quite impressed. I promptly unplugged the 5.25" mechanism and stuck a 3.5" 720K in; no hitches, but I haven't tried formatting it to 720K yet (I wonder if the controller can handle the Percom control codes). I'll get around to it this weekend. One thing that would have been nice is if Atari included an ST floppy connector on the back, making the drive dual usage, ala SX212 modem. Probably would only have cost about $10 to add, and I will probably do it so that I can use the drive on both the ST and the 8 bit, and have a 5.25" drive that matches the ST case. Recommended DOS: I prefer SpartaDOS. It formats most popular formats, if the drive you are using recognizes the Percom codes. It works with Ultra Speed on both US Doubled and Happy 1050s (the Happy is quite a bit faster) and the new version should support Indus and XF551 as well. My XF551 came with DOS 2.5. --Dean ---- Dean Brunette {ucbvax,etc.}!hplabs!oliveb!olivej!dragon {ucbvax,etc.}!oliveb!olivej!{dragon-oatc,lobster}!dean Olivetti Advanced Technology Center _____ _____ __|__ _____ 20300 Stevens Creek Blvd. | | _____| | | Cupertino, CA 95014 |_____| |_____| |__ |_____ 'Dancing, screaming, itching, squealing, fevered feeling hot Hot HOT!'