Conference hydra::amiga_v1

	After a visit from the Guru and a couple error messages, I've
    found the following -

	AddBuffers DF1: 10 

    should NOT be added to the startup-sequence.

	If you use the command from the documentation -

	Mount DF(x): From DEVS:MountList.AE

    where (x) is from 0 to 3 (low density drive numbers) you get error
    messages and no action.  Inspecting MountList.AE shows that (x) should
    be from 4 to 7 (high density drive numbers).

	No fan so no fan noise.  Drive noise is higher pitched and less muffled
    then the interal drive noise on an A500.  No external power supply.  That
    may mean I'm going to have to upgrade the A500 power brick...

	Don't have any HD diskettes on hand so I haven't checked that part out 
    yet.

	It has already saved me several hundred disk swaps just being a second
    drive.

    Re: *
    
    Not to spoil your fun with this nice piece of hardware, but you'll never
    be able to read/write the MS-DOS 1.44 MB HD format with that drive.
    I talked in length with an AE fellow on the AmiExpo in Cologne about
    this and that's his final word. But the HD stuff (1.52 MB) is works
    nice. 
    (And no MB is not a unit for for measurement of Marc Barrets - UseNet
    joke ;-)
    
    <CB>

    
    Is there a 5 1/4 drive available that can read/write 1.44?
    
    Any way to hook up a RX33?
    
    Sure would be nice (probably an understatement).
    
    Dennis
    

    Re: .3., .4
    
    There's the 1.2MB format for 5.25" disks and the 1.44MB format for
    3.5" disks under MS-DOS.
    
    The only solution I currently see to get the 1.44MB format is to get a
    floptical disk drive (SCSI) which supports this format in it's
    compatibility modes. However, this will cost you dearly.
    Hopefully somebody else can fill blanks like actual retail price,
    address of manufacturer and some more details on the drive.
    
    <CB>

    in theory, there is another way.
    
    Do the same thing the ibmpc clone industry does... somebody makes a
    floppy controller board to talk to higher density disks and figures
    out how to integrate it into the system.
    
    The catch is the cost for a third party vendor to do that, when CBM
    is supposed to be working on a way to do 1.44M floppies for their Unix
    system.
    
    Might be better to wait until they do that, then figure out how to
    get AmigaDOS to use it.
    
    Dave

	I was about to put CrossDOS on my system and found a problem as I
    was reading the documentation.  Both CrossDOS and the AE high density
    support patch TrackDisk.device.  I called CONSULTRON who are responsible
    for CrossDOS to see if there would be a problem.  They allowed that there
    was and they informed me that AE had a new version of the driver available.

	I called AE and they said that the current version of their software 
    was Version 2.0 and they would send it to me for $5 shipping and handling.
    The new version provides a seperate driver rather than patching TrackDisk.
    I checked to make sure that it was still compatible with AmigaDOS/exec 1.3
    and they assured me that it was.  They also wanted to be sure that I knew
    that it would NOT handle 1.44MB IBM formated floppies even when using 
    CrossDOS.

	I'll send them the money for the new version and use MSH for my disk
    transfers until it comes.

	I decided to wait since MSH took care of my needs and I've been doing
    less with MS DOS lately.  Turns out to have been a good move in a way.

	I just put 2.04 into my A500 and the HD stopped working in HD mode.
    Not a real supprise.  What was supprising and anoying was the run around
    I got from AE.  First I tried their BBS (214) 241-6677.  NOTHING there on 
    the amiga drive that I could find.  Then I called their old tech support 
    line.  It had been changed to a 900 number.  Next tried their main number.
    That got me their sales line (214) 241-6060.  They gave me an AMIGA 
    specific support line (214) 241-6084.

	After that they had the gaul to tell me that their driver would not 
    work with the released version of 2.0 and that they didn't want to spend
    the 3 days of engineering effort needed to fix it until there was more 
    call for the upgrade.

	So, If any of you have the AE HD, please give them a call and raise a
    little hell, even if you don't plan to upgrade to 2.0 immediatly.

					Max Woodbury

    There were snips on this problem in a few of the mags. AE is dropping
    the Amiga line, and it said they would not be upgrading to support 2.0
    Of course you know this now. The article stated that the bad part was
    AE continued to sell to the amiga Market knowing this would happen. 
    A sad state of affairs indeed.
    							bill
    

	What is real sad is that the hardware is pretty good.  The least they
    could do is release the specs so the Amiga community at large could keep
    the software up to date.  Better yet would be to have them release the 
    driver code to the public like DEC does with obsolete products to DECUS.