Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!bryan
From: bryan@cs.utexas.edu (Bryan Bayerdorffer @ Wit's End)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Hardframe experiences
Message-ID: <167@mothra.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 8 Feb 89 20:43:24 GMT
Reply-To: bryan@cs.utexas.edu
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	Email response to my remarks about the Microbotics Hardframe has been
such that I've decided to post a slightly embellished version of my standard
answer.  Here goes:


	iC's phone # is 214-988-3500.  They have an ad on page 131 of the
December AmigaWorld, and I think they have one every month, though I don't
subscribe.
	The only thing I have to say about installing the Hardframe/Quantum,
or, more generally, the Hardframe and any drive, is to pop in the disk that
comes with the Hardframe and click the readme icon before you do any hardware
installing.  There were no paper instructions with the Hardframe, so I just
bolted on the drive, connected the cables, and plugged the whole thing into
the bus.  THEN I checked out the disk and discovered the documentation.  It
turns out that I had done everything right, but that might be only because I
generally know what I'm doing when it comes to micro hardware.  Microbotics
really should include a simple little card that says, "The docs are on the
floppy disk."
	Prepping and formatting the drive are very easy--the prep software
realizes that you have a Quantum 80S and sets all the defaults accordingly.  The
only default I changed was to set the Hardframe boot priority at 5 rather than
the 0 default, so that the machine would boot from the hard disk even with a
floppy inserted.  If you play games that require you to boot from a floppy then
you won't want to do this.  I only buy games that will at least load from a
hard disk, so I don't want to have to pop out the disk every time I apply the
neck pinch.
	There really ought to be some boot-time key combination that forces a 
boot from floppy no matter what all the autoboot devices are saying, e.g.
chickenhead-Amiga-f == boot from floppy.  Then I could set up my boot
priorities the way I like them, and still boot from a floppy if something
breaks.  As it stands now, I might have to pull the Hardframe out if it starts
to have boot problems and I can't alter its boot priority, even though it might
still be accessible via a mountlist entry and Mount.  If anyone knows of such a
key combination, please enlighten me.
	In addition, the machine should be smart enough to attempt to boot from
the next device in the priority queue if, for example, the floppy drive
contains a non-bootable disk.  Otherwise, this boot priority is not really a
priority at all; it's just a selector.  Fi this is what's suppoes to happen,
then there's something wrong with my Amiga.

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