Atari 8bit sd/cf/ide solutions

UberFreak

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AmiBayer
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Sep 28, 2009
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Israel
Hi

It was always my dream to have all my old systems up & running, mainly to watch demos on the various platforms.
I'm trying to find a suitable solution for my 8bit Ataris (800XL, XEGS), so far I've found the following:

1) SIO2PC - requires a PC connected
2) SIO2SD - standalone solution, has its own small LCD screen to navigate files
3) SIO2IDE - not much info (in English) on this one, havent seen any LCD in the pics so no idea how files are selected
4) MyIDE cartridge version

Out of these, the MyIDE is reported to have many compatibility problems with various Atari software, especially with ATR files (disk images), which makes it a poor choice for demo watching, I think.

Option #1 requires a PC running windows, so that goes out the window as well. :D
This leaves options 2,3, both cost quite a bit more than the others (I currently found them for sale only at afs.atari.org).

Anyone have experience with them, either positive or negative?

Thanx! (y)
 
hi mate,

i have few Atari XE computers and so far have only used the SIO2SD
never had any issues with it hardware and software wise.

i purchased mine from Poland

so far i have mine as an external but soon will try and install it inside one of my Ataris
 
i have a home made (thanks to my old dad 10 yrs ago) SIO2PC, then I use that to program the atrs or prgs I want to an ATARIMAX flash cart.

That cart is so good i ended up buying 2 and now hardly ever use the SIO2PC.

My SIO2PC is serial, but you might want to look for USB as well.

Iain
 
Hi Iain

My only problem with the flash cart is its limited storage space :)
I might give the SIO2PC a try & build my own serial cable, although I really dont like needing a PC nearby...
 
I have NEVER had a problem with my MyIDE, but I have the INTERNAL version for my XEGS. I also have an SIO2PC USB edition from AtariMax, and using those two together works fantastic. The way my system is set up is with a 6GB 2.5" disk inside my XEGS, powered from the power switch. It is divided up into 8 16MB partitions, from which I use MyDos as a standard DOS and MyPicoDOS to launch exe and other executable files. Furthermore, the MyIDE interface allows you to allocate the unused space after the 8 16MB partitions as image space. You hold down a certain key on bootup, and you then enter the image management interface. It allows you to read in new ATR images. I use my SIO interface to read the images in. In addition to allowing you to launch single disk images, it also allows you to use multidisk images by saving them in consecutive image slots and use a key combo to load the next image. I have never encountered a program that couldn't run using one or more of these methods. The only drawback of the MyIDE interface is it is 8-Bit, and so any hard disk you use will be halved in capacity, for example I have a 6GB hard disk, but only 3GB is accessible. With the low price of hard disks these days it's no big deal though.
 
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