ACSI / SCSI / IDE drivers on the Atari ST/TT/Falcon family is a complex topic, mostly because many devices (i-e: SD card readers) introduce their own quirks into a system that had already not been fully polished by Atari at the time.
Therefore, no one driver fits all situations in the end.
Here is my recap of my experience with different drivers vs different situations. I plan to update this page as I make more tests.
TIP: It is possible to mix and match to some extent. For example: you can partition a drive with one specific partitioning tool and then access that drive with a different driver.
| Atari AHDI | ICD driver | HDDriver | Putnik’s drivers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tested version | 5.00 (1991) and 6.06 (1993) | 6.5.5 (1994) | 12.05 Demo (2024) | 1.00Ra (2013), 1.01, 1.02 (2022) and 1.03 |
| User interface | Intuitive but and because it’s very limited | Almost intuitive enough to use without doc | Rather complex (but globally makes sense) | A bit messy but intuitive enough. |
| Documentation | None | Text files on disk | No manual provided with the Demo version, some info on website | Text files and website are a total mess |
| ACSI2STM (MegaSTE) | ||||
| Can read/write SD Card | need more testing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Can copy files larger than 64 KB from an internal HDD to ACSI2STM | ❌ 5.00 | ✅ | ❌ 🚨 file corruption! | ❌ |
| Can continue to work once an SD card has been inserted into a Mac (which writes hidden files onto it) | N/A | need re-test | ❌ | ✅ |
| Can autoboot on ACSI2STM | need more testing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| SD IDE adapter (Falcon) | ||||
| Can read/write SD Card | ✅ 6.06 | ❌ (1 file max) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Can autoboot on IDE adapter (Falcon) | ✅ 6.06 | ✅ | ✅ (partitioning must be TOS only and NO byte swapping) | ❌ |
| Partitioning tool | ||||
| Partitioning tool | HDX.PRG |
ICDFMT.PRG |
HDDRUTIL.APP |
PPP*.PRG |
| Can partition SD Card on ACSI2STM | ❌ 5.00 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Can partition SD Card on IDE bus (Falcon) | ❌ 6.06 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Can make DOS+TOS partitions | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ but applies to all partitions, not selectively | ✅ selectively partition by partition… |
| Partitioning Scheme | MBR | MBR | MBR or GPT (GUID) | MBR |
| Autoboot | ||||
| Install tool | HINSTALL.PRG |
HDUTIL.PRG |
HDDRUTIL.APP |
AAC_*.TOS |
| Autoboot method | Boot sector loads SHDRIVER.SYSfrom a partition |
Boot sector loads SHDRIVER.SYSfrom a partition |
Boot sector loads HDDRIVER.SYSfrom a partition |
Entire driver written into the boot sector + following reserved sectors |
| Can uninstall | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Extras | Integrated FOLDRxxx, CACHExxx, JARxxx and SCSIDRV functionality | |||
| Blitter for IDE | depends on version | Optional blitter support | ||
| Boot drive selection | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ has limitations | ✅ remap drive letters |