Very Computer

Thanks in advance,

    www.nleaudio.com/css

With this device you can use SCSI drives. Depending on the type of SCSI
drive you use, you will need a controller card. You can use older RLL/MFM(?
is that what they are called?) type drives. Check the postings here from the
last week or two, William Moeller had a few Adaptec 4000a controllers that
will work with these type drives for sale. Then there are the Seagate STxxxN
series drives, which have an embedded controller. With these you only need
the Black Box and the drive and power for the drive. You could use an
external SCSI drive case or a PC power supply. I have a Seagate ST125N drive
that I have used in the past. I have a Seagate ST225R (I think it's R)
attached now with an Adaptec 4070 controller card. CSS could possibly set
you up with a complete hard drive system with Black Box, drive, and
controller card. I don't know if they still do that now but they used to. I
got the controller card I'm using from them about a year ago or so. You can
also get the Black Box with an optional floppy board installed. With this
device, you can hook up standard PC type 5.25 and 3.5 floppy drives in
either 360K, 720K, 1.2M, or 1.44M flavors. I am very happy with my Black
Box. Haven't had any problems with it. Well, no problems that were CSS's
fault anyway. I fried my floppy board :(. But the hard drive interface still
works fine.

There is also K-Products(?). They also sell a device that you can use to
attach a hard-drive to. I don't know if they have a website or not. Don't
know much about their product.

There are some 'home brew' IDE type devices. I have no clue how well they
work or where to find information for them. Someone will probably come along
here and provide that information. I think there was an IDE device that was
produced by a company too. I believe it was in Germany. Don't quote me on
that one tho! :)

There are lot's of solutions. I couldn't tell you how cheap it is to make a
home brew IDE device but I suspect it would be MUCH, MUCH cheaper than
buying a Black Box. Those are around $200.

Hope this helps and I didn't mis-inform too much. :)

David

Quote:> I would appreciate some input on what the cheapest and/or easiest way to
> hook a hard drive up is.  I already have an SIO2PC, but I would like an
> actual drive set up.  I don't care if it's scsi or ide or if I lose half
the
> capacity of the drive due to the 512/256 thing.  As you can guess I'm
kinda
> new at this, but willing to learn so please spell it out.

> Thanks in advance,

Quote:> I would appreciate some input on what the cheapest and/or easiest way to
> hook a hard drive up is.

http://www.atari.myweb.nl/hardware.htm

David

Quote:>I would appreciate some input on what the cheapest and/or easiest way to
>hook a hard drive up is.  I already have an SIO2PC, but I would like an
>actual drive set up.  I don't care if it's scsi or ide or if I lose half the
>capacity of the drive due to the 512/256 thing.  As you can guess I'm kinda
>new at this, but willing to learn so please spell it out.

>Thanks in advance,

Someone reading this group may have a complete MIO setup for sale or a MIO
by it's self.

I have seen adverti*ts in electronic mags for those Adaptec 4000A boards.
The run around $15-$25 dollars.

Even if you don't run a hard drive on the MIO you can still use it, as it
includes a printer port, RS232 modem port up to 19200 Baud and you can setup
several Ram Disk(s) or 1 great big one. It also allows setting up a printer
spooler of your choice of memory size.

I did have my 1 meg unit up for sale awhile back which included everything
one needed. But have decided to keep it. It's in storage right now but I
will be setting it back up soon.

Hopefully someone will write some software that will allow me to connect it
to the Net. If that happens, I'd have it set back up very quickly!  8-)

I've heard good things about the BLACK BOX and would mind having one myself.
But I don't have any experience with it.

If you happen to get a MIO and need some help, advice or whatever then give
me a hollar and I will try to help ya out if I can. There are others here
that know the MIO as well.

BTW, I've seen the MIO manual on a FTP site awhile back. Maybe someone can
give the URL. That way you can read up on the MIO and see if it would suit
your needs/wants.

Well as far as I can tell, it sounds like the MIO or Black Box is the way to
go.  I've looked at a couple of the IDE hacks and them seem very system
specific and involve milling around in the computer itself.  I like the idea
of MIO or Black Box because I have a couple of different 8-bits.  130xe,
800xl, xegs.  If any one who reads this group has either of these devices
they'd be willing to part with, for trade, cash or both please let me know.
Thanks for the help everyone.