Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!SFAUSTIN.BITNET!Z4648252
From: Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Hard drive synchronization with the ST
Message-ID: <890427.09095442.063770@SFA.CP6>
Date: 27 Apr 89 15:09:55 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 25


    A couple of years ago, I build a hard drive sequencer for a few locals
in Dallas and Houston which allowed the ST to power up automatically when
hooked up to a hard drive.
    For BBS operators, this addressed a special problem:  when a power
failure occured during the day when the SysOp was away at work, the
sequencer would allow the system to come back up, hard drive and all. Normally,
when a hard driven ST is powered up, the user has to power up the hard drive
first, allow it to build to speed, and then power up the ST.  With the
sequencer, that is not necessary, it does that for you and is totally
external.  The user merely plugs the power cord for the hard drive and for
the computer into the sequencer's special power outlets.
    Ok, all of that intro was necessary for the following questions.  I'm
getting requests to build this thing again and am wondering if TOS 1.4
is a bit more 'intelligent' in that it detects a hard drive during power
up, thus delaying the startup sequence of the CPU until the hard drive is
up to speed.
    If TOS 1.4 does indeed include the hard drive sequencer via data line
detection (or sumptin') then I'll back off the project.  To be frank, I
burned myself out on the sequencer last summer after building nearly 300
of the things and need to know before I save up funds to build enough
capital to get parts and all of that.
    Thanks for any info, folks!

Larry Rymal <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>