[hatari-devel] Attaching an ACSI harddisk: 3 x Why

Hi,

I'm wondering why Hatari should require a reboot if a harddisk image is attached? It does not (of course) if a floppy image is attached. So why with a harddisk? With real hardware, you could have switched on your (for instance) Mega ST, and switch on the (for instance) SH205, since it's a separate unit, only after the Mega ST has come up with the desktop.

I have been coding software, including hardware emulators, for over 30 years, but cannot imagine any solid reason for this restriction.

So, I hear you ask, why should anybody want that?

I do have a problem with it right now. Those decades ago I have severely hardware-hacked my Ataris, to the point where they won't boot to the desktop if not the correct (self written) drivers are run during boot from the AUTO folder. I have images of the harddisks, they include those drivers, and using them I want to resurrect that hacked system as a Hatari emulation. However, if I attach the image, regardless if I check or uncheck the "Boot from HD" flag (why is that?), Hatari boots from that image, and crashes, as those drivers do not find the corresponding hardware hacks. With real hardware, the solution would have been simple: Boot the (generic) machine without the harddisk, then switch the harddisk on, and run the harddisk driver from floppy. Now I could access the harddisk to activate and deactivate AUTO driver programs to eventually make the image boot. With Hatari I cannot do that, as it requires a reset if I attach a harddisk image.

I thought of a second way. I could have run the offending image as the second harddisk, as on the ACSI bus harddisk units can be daisy-chained. I do have an image of another harddisk that boots just fine in Hatari. Woefully, Hatari only supports one ACSI harddisk image. Why is that??

Cheers Peter

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