Hello,

This the readme/install file for NOAHDI.PRG.

NOAHDI.PRG is a AHDI.PRG V1.7 compatible driver for Atari harddisk's. Maybe
it can be used for other brand harddisk's if they have a Adaptec compatible
controller. If you have another controller and the driver does not work,
you only have to rewrite the lowlevel driver part.

I wanted to release this driver to the net for over a 2 years now. So now is
the time. I dont use my atari anymore, so dont ask for updates. You have
to do it yourself or ask other atari NOAHDI users if they have added
other nice features to the driver.

The driver is compiled with the Mark Williams C compiler V3.0.6
The assembly file HD_DVR.S is very MW specific. If you have another
compiler you will have to rewrite it (HD_DVR.S). Its only meaning is
make the driver bootable with the Atari harddisk utilities.

Installation:

        Place all the sources in a directory together with the makefile.

        Type make.

        If all went well you will find NOAHDI.PRG in source directory.

        If do not want a bootable driver, copy NOAHDI.PRG to your AUTO
        folder. It will initialize and install your harddisk from there.
        There will be no message on the screen if it has been intalled
        correctly. When the driver can not intall, it will print a
        message.

        If you want a bootable driver, copy it to C: root directory and
        rename it to AHDI.PRG. The normal Atari bootloader will pick it
        up and execute it at boottime.
        There will be a copyright message when the driver has installed
        correctly. When the driver can not intall, it will print a
        message.

NOAHDI worked fine for over a year now. I have an Atari 520ST upgraded to
1Mb with TOS 1.02 and a SH204 harddisk. Other users with newer hardware
reported no problems. The only thing that may trouble you are the new
ROM's (TOS) Atari released.


Why use NOAHDI.PRG:

        NOAHDI supports 2 drives/controller, most other drivers do not.

        NOAHDI supports up to 8 controllers.

        You can add support for other controllers.


Why did i write NOAHDI:

        I ran out of harddisk space one day and wanted to add a second
        harddisk. I found out that AHDI does not support 2 drives/contlr
        and used the ICD driver instead. Because of a bug in the host
        adapter the ICD not always functioned correctly. So i tried the
        AHDI driver from Atari which comes as a listing with the developers
        kit. It was out of date. I had 2 choices at that moment, extend
        the assembly source of the Atari AHDI driver, or start from the
        beginning in C. I decided on the last.


The following things must be added to NOAHDI:
 
        Update the driver to AHDI V3.00.
                Extended partitions.
                Compatible AHDI variables. See Atari AHDI update release notes.
                Support for removeable media.
                Add extra parameter to hrw() function. See Atari AHDI update
                 notes.

        Install, format and bootload utility.

        Desk accessory to configure or check on NOAHDI driver status. Special
        stuff for removeable media.

        FAT/Cache utilities to speedup disk writes.

        Add support for new (rainbow) TOSses.

        Add support for new SCSI bus on Atari's


Have fun with the NOAHDI driver.

My address:

        Ted Schipper
        Scharstraat 43
        1317 PN  Almere
        The Netherlands

        or

        ted@tedux.hobby.nl  (...!mcvax!hp4nl!hgatenl!tedux!ted)