-----Original Message----- From: Shawn Rutledge <ecloud(a)goodnet.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, June 03, 1998 8:07 PM Subject: Re: Atari hard drives? The actual Atari Answer :) :) just low-level To my knowledge all drives that are MFM are ST506 interface.As far as the lowleveling you just gonna have to play with it. Chances are the BIOS in that controller you have was only designed for one specifice drive. i'd just through one in and try to format it, and see what happens. Chances are it will just use it at the old settings, Better to through in a drive with paramaters larger than the old drive that way you won't damage it buy using it at a lower capapcity. If it were my machine, I'd go with the SCSI ICD controller personally. Best thing would be to try to dig up another drive like that one. But that drive he has should have come with a utility disk. If you go to irc.stelath.net and join #atari. They will probably know more than me, They are also very helpful. as far as the memory goes, I've never played with a 540, but I could still do everything I do now when my 1040 had only 1meg. If you search on Yahoo for ATARI a lot of european sites will come up. The Big on you want is the STING home page. STing is the Atari ST TCPIP stack. On that page are links to all the other software you will ever need. This computer is still very popular and supported in Europe. The 540 part concerns me though, but you might be able to get buy. Ethernet, at this point is still out of the question so far. There is supposedly an ATASCI ethernet adapter, but I have personally never seen one, and they run for more than 500.00 so Im told. Even if you only have 512K you can for sure use it for IRC, and Mail. I think you need a meg to do the browsing. But systems for tomorrow will know about what you can upgrade to what. They might even give you a credit for a trade. Like I said, I traded my extra 1040 for an ICD controller. There are also all kinds of MODS for these machines, they were popular enough, alot of folks have made home brew modifications for them that have been tested and work. If you go to the #atari channel on irc.stealth.net, tell them TheDM sent you and you will assuredly get some help, Look for SWE, or DRACO, or evl, or MRATARI. They are all very knowledgable and helped me alot. If you see Flinny, he wrote STik, the other TCPIP stack. if you see LB he wrote the ATari IRC client himself, another good resource. IM telling you, this machine is COOL! If you need more information, email me privately and I will give you my phone number and we can talk some. Where are you located anyways? still yes, ICD used spending FTP, can ecloud(a)goodnet.com http://www.goodnet.com/~ecloud \__________________________________________________________________