Demo Version

Get to know HDDRIVER and the tool HDDRUTIL for managing devices! The demo version contains a README file with installation instructions. Short and sweet: Launch HDDRIVER, then HDDRUTIL. Partition your drive TOS-compatible, if it is not yet partitioned, without enabling "Byte Swapping" in the compatibility settings. After a reboot install HDDRIVER by double-clicking on drive C: in the HDDRUTIL drive window. If you only want to try HDDRUTIL (e.g. combined with a different suitable driver), there is no need to install HDDRIVER. In case the driver of your choice does not support the required open device driver standards, HDDRUTIL will report this.
These are the main restrictions of the demo version:

HDDRIVER: Writing data is only possible on drive C: and the ramdisk, and is significantly slower than with the full version
HDDRIVER: The ramdisk can only be 1 MiB in size instead of 255 MiB.
HDDRIVER/HDDRUTIL: Not all options for increasing transfer rates are supported
HDDRUTIL: Formatting is not supported
HDDRUTIL: Partitioning only supports up to 4 small partitions
HDDRUTIL: No saving or loading of image files
HDDRUTIL: No copying of media or partitions
No additional tools like in the full version (CPX for configuring HDDRIVER, ACC for automatically parking drives etc.)
No English manual as a PDF file

HDDRUTIL is very portable and also works with drivers other than HDDRIVER, provided that they support the important SCSI Driver and XHDI standards. In terms of the hardware supported by HDDRIVER, there are no differences compared to the full version. If the HDDRIVER demo version does not work with your hardware, the full version won't work either.
Contact me if there are any issues with the demo version.

Demo version as ZIP archive

Using the ZIP archive is the best way of installing the demo version. Simply unpack the archive and read the README file.

Download HDDRIVER demo version HDDRIVER demo version as ZIP archive

Demo version as drive image

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 device. 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 prevent 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.

Download SCSI/ACSI image Demo version image for ACSI and SCSI
Download IDE/SATA image Demo version image for IDE and SATA

The full version can optionally be ordered pre-installed and bootable on an SD card or a floppy disk.