The HDDRIVER software package supports a wide variety of hardware and has many features that no other software offers. The demo contains a README file with installation instructions and information on how to partition a drive/memory card. Short and sweet: Launch HDDRIVER, then HDDRUTIL. Partition your drive TOS-compatible, if it is not yet partitioned. When partitioning, "Byte Swapping" in the compatibility settings must be disabled. After a reboot install HDDRIVER by double-clicking on drive C: in the HDDRUTIL drive window.
These are the main limitations of the demo version:
- Writing data is only possible on drive C:
- Writing data is much slower than with the full version. Data are read, though, with maximum speed.
- HDDRIVER cannot be booted into TT-RAM
- Formatting is not supported
- Partitioning only supports partitions up to 2 MiB
- No saving or loading of image files
- No copying of media or partitions
- No saving of HDDRUTIL settings
- No additional tools like in the full version (CPX for configuring HDDRIVER, ACC for automatically parking drives etc.)
- No English manual as a PDF
In terms of the supported hardware there is no difference compared to the full version. If the demo version doesn't work with your hardware, the full version won't work either.
Note that the demo version only detects ACSI/SCSI/IDE ID 0 with its default settings. It can to be configured, e.g. with "Auto Configuring", if there are devices with IDs > 0. Please also refer to the README file.
Using the ZIP archive is the recommended way of installing the demo version. Simply unpack the archive and read the README file.
If you cannot transfer the ZIP archive to your Atari, drive images with a pre-installed bootable demo version are available. There are two images because on IDE/SATA devices the Atari stores data with a byte order different from the one used with ACSI/SCSI devices.
With Linux or macOS, the dd command line tool can write the image to a memory card or hard drive. The Atari can then boot directly from this drive/memory card. The required commands are:
>sudo diskutil umountDisk RAW_DEVICE (this command with macOS only)
>sudo dd if=IMAGE_FILE of=RAW_DEVICE
The raw device on Linux is usually /dev/sdX, on macOS it is /dev/rdiskX. Ensure to use the correct raw device to avoid overwriting data on other drives.
With Windows the Win32 Disk Imager, for instance, can be used to write the image.
If Windows or macOS complain about the format of the image, simply select the option to ignore the file contents, so that these systems do not modify any data in the file.
Demo version image for ACSI and SCSI
Demo version image for IDE and SATA
The full version can optionally be ordered pre-installed and bootable on a memory card or floppy disk.