Syncro Express/Disk Utility/Commercial
From: Marc A. Lombardo (aa400@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 05/07/91-06:15:16 PM Z
From: aa400@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Marc A. Lombardo)
Subject: Syncro Express/Disk Utility/Commercial
Date: Tue May 7 18:15:16 1991
Syncro Express
Written by Scotty Meredith
Copyright 1990
I have owned an Atari ST for several years now. When the ST
first came out, I heard how powerful it was. This machine can do
it all! I saw the graphics, sound and all the other features that
the original eight bit system could not match. After getting the
system home, Unpacking it, and putting it all together, I was
ready to "Unleash the power" of this fantastic machine. After
buying some software to take advantage of the features, I ran in
to a problem. There was no real disk copier that would back up
these valued gems. How could this be??!! The eight bit line has
a happy drive to copy ANY disk, and this new machine with all it's
power does not? "It will only be a matter of time" I said to
myself. "Surely with all that memory and power they will have
something"!
Finally, a program called ProCopy came along.
ProCopy was fine, but with new software titles came new
protection, witch lead to new ProCopy's. Soon there were a dozen
versions of ProCopy. Another problem was, when you bought an older
title (Don't laugh, I just bought Infocomm's The Witness last
week!!) you would have to try each version of ProCopy until you
found which version copied it. Contrary to popular belief, the
latest version of ProCopy will not copy every title that older
versions would. Micro League Baseball is another problem. I am
not giving a course on how to pirate software, but Micro League
Sport's Association has a really good method of copy protection.
Before you ask, YES, I OWN THE ORIGINAL! I still have not sent my
warranty card in..... But I do have a store-bought original. If
you copy the disk, and load the copy, it works! or does it?
Sometimes you can make it through a complete game with no
way through the game, the scoreboard will say "WXYZZZ DOES NOT
WORK!" and the players will run out of the stadium, out in to left
field. It is disappointing to be throwing a no-hitter in the
bottom of the ninth, and never know what would have happened.
Then a friend introduced me to SEX. No, not the kind that
teenage girls are discovering at a younger age, but SEX on the
computer. How can you have Sex on a computer? The average male
weighs 200 lbs. and the average female 120. That is 320 lbs!!
Can the ST support all that weight??!! The fact is, I
have had SEX on my computer for a couple of month's now, and it
has never ran better! Even a backup copy of Micro League
Baseball works! Ok, before I get the parent's of America sending
me nasty letters, let me explain. SEX is short for Synchro
EXpress. A new disk copier from Coast to Coast Technologies. The
package comes with a disk, and a over-sized printer connector
with a disk drive socket and a tail with a disk drive plug on
it. I have heard of a similar device called the BLITZ cable,
that you can make yourself. I cant bring myself around to believe
that a disk copier that claims to copy it all, would be free
(except for parts). I have had bad dreams about BLITZ, actually
being a hardware virus. THIS IS NOT A FACT OR AN OPINION, IT
IS ONLY A DREAM. I am not saying it is or is not, I just can't
figure out, why someone would develop a product as wonderful as
this, and release it for free. Getting back to SEX (sorry),
Synchro Express.
This is the disk copier I have been waiting for. I have
only ran across one program that it would not backup. That
being GUNSHIP. I don't know why, but I could not copy it. I
even tried twice. But it DID copy dozens of other
programs. The real advantage to SEX, is it does it FAST! A
single sided disk is copied in 22 seconds. A double sided in 44.
The destination disk does not even have to be formatted! I have
two Indus disk drive's on my system, and it was something to see
both track indicator meters displaying the same number all the way
through the entire copy. As i Said, Synchro Express plugs in to
both the printer and disk drive port of your ST. If you are one
of the poor souls (like myself) that have the old 520, there is a
problem. You plug Synchro in to the printer port, but the drive
connector plugs in to the back of your second disk drive. In
other words, you leave drive A plugged in to the back of your ST,
Synchro plugs in to the back of drive A, and drive B plugs in to
the back of Synchro. You have to set drive A on top of your
computer (by the function keys). Since I do not make daily back-
ups, I can live with this small inconvenience. If you have any
other model ST, you have a relatively easy setup. The one problem
I was disappointed to find out is, You can not leave Synchro
connected. You will not be able to access drive B. If you do not
use drive B for anything, you can leave it connected, but I have
other uses for my second drive. All in all, Synchro is a great
product. It works as advertised. Also included on the disk is a
program to format your disk's to load quicker. I personally have
not tested it. I am happy with the standard TOS format. If you
have any questions on Synchro Express, you can write me at
Internet: AA519@Cleveland.Freenet.edu.
--
Marc A. Lombardo User Address:aa400@cleveland.freenet.edu ~ ~ ~
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Atari ST, MIDI, Music ~~ ~ ~~
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