PAR Hard Drive

[Bigbronc]

I have a DPS personal animation recorder that the hard drive has failed, the unit was used that I got from E bay. It does no show how to build a HD or what format it is, I am sure it is IDE. My question is does anybody know how to build a PAR HD. I have a CF card reader and 4 gb cards so I was thinking that if I can find the info to format and install then maybe I could just use the CF card instead of a real HD. If the CF card does not work then a HD is just as good. Does any body have a PAR that maybe I could get a copy of the HD, I am thinking that it only supports a few limited HD ? Any PAR experts out there?

[Tcheko]

Just plug any IDE device to the PAR. Only the first 4GB will be used (32bit limit...). No need to format/install the harddrive as far as I remember. PAR software will ring some warning if something is wrong.

[Bigbronc]

If that is the case then my card must have failed, I tried several things and it never see's them. thanks for the help.:pint:

[magnetic]

Hmm did you get the manual with the PAR?

[glitch]

Actually I remember those cards being extremely fussy as to which hard drive models they would or wouldn't support.  I seem to recall some sort of configuration file that listed the models that DPS has tested them with.  The Quantum Atlas was one that was a favorite of the PAR and the Flyer in that era.  Let's hope someone else that has one chimes in with some more info.  Good luck!

[wawrzon]

yeah i remember mine picky. try to use max 4-8gb drives.

[magnetic]

Microplis A/v rated drives were the recommended drives for PAR afaik

[Bigbronc]

Yeah I have the manual, and all the parts, the thing booted up once, thing is I didn't have a TBC IV that it needs to feed signal to it. So I shelved it till I got one. Bingo got the TBC hooked everything up and the HD never was seen again. I tried several differant HD's and The CF card. It fail the startup process when the HD is not seen, least that is my best guess, some day I would like to use it as a animation station. I know I will never get a flyer set I was tracking one on ebay and last time I looked it was $1500. Thank you for all the replys any way Amiga.org is the best by far.:pint:

[Jeff]

In my opinion you can get a Toaster/Flyer combo for less than that if you are patient and shop carefully. I know how you feel, I waited YEARS until they came down before I bought mine. I would suggest getting a T/F pair that were working together already instead of buying them individually. The Par-TBCIV combo is also neat to have. I have had pretty good luck with mine by using drives in the 8-10 gig range.

[Flipflop]

The original DPS PAR software uses some special manufacturer IDs (most of the companies are ofcourse out of business today) for several harddisks and modells up to 4GB. Except for patching the software and changing the strings normally you won´t have a chance to use some different drives and especially CF cards! Too bad I have lost the sources some years ago but there should/could be a version 2.70 (AFAIR) somewhere in the WWW without the manufacturer restrictions but still limited to 4GB due to its HW firmware (old Z80 asm code...).

Another solution could be using ADPro and NECOS but the last one wouldnt be anything easier to find........