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The Icon Bar: General: RiscPC offered / hard disc unused area erase?
 
  RiscPC offered / hard disc unused area erase?
  rjamesd (16:53 27/3/2008)
  filecore (18:59 27/3/2008)
  brevimanu (07:53 29/3/2008)
    filecore (09:09 29/3/2008)
  brevimanu (15:19 29/3/2008)
    filecore (16:39 29/3/2008)
      Cogs (22:49 29/3/2008)
  rjamesd (13:39 8/4/2008)
    rjamesd (13:45 8/4/2008)
      filecore (14:12 8/4/2008)
      johnboy (11:29 5/6/2008)
 
R J Message #106909, posted by rjamesd at 16:53, 27/3/2008
Member
Posts: 3
Hi,
I no longer need my Acorn RiscPC 600. So I would like to offer it to someone who does.

However for privacy I'd like to erase unused areas of the hard disc before I give it away, with just the standard programs etc. on the drive.

I'd like to give the machine away as it is - in working order, and not remove the hard drive - because I think compatible hard drives might be hard to get, no? Also for this I'd need the standard RISC OS hard disc install of programs on there too -and for that I'd need a compatible CD ROM drive.

I'm guessing that recent PATA 100/133 IDE hard discs and CD-ROM drives would not work with the machine perhaps due to physical interfacing, newer ATA/ATAPI (5,6 etc) protocols and large size of disc (?)

By the way, who would be interested in having a machine? Charities, hobbyists, enthusiasts, museums etc?

If no offers it may go to computeraid.org

Thanks.
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Jason Togneri Message #106910, posted by filecore at 18:59, 27/3/2008, in reply to message #106909

Posts: 3867
I'm nowadays rusty on the technical aspects, but as far as I'm aware:

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot. OS and basic programs all reside in the ROM chips, not on the hard drive. It's entirely possible to run a useful copy of RISC OS with all basic apps without a hard drive at all.

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot. The machine is probably either SCSI or IDE. Either way, you should be able to use any old drive, although I think there were issues with sizes (not supporting over 256GB?).

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot. Again, depending on what sort of interface you have (eg the Cumana CD ROM interface), you can just bung in a standard IDE CD ROM.

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot. For privacy, it's straightforward enough to use something like !HForm to format the hard drive, or if you're extremely security-conscious and it's compatible, stick it in a PC and fill it with zeros though something like Knoppix.

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot. As for who'd want it - usually hobbyists, but there have been a lot of them being offered here recently. You'd have to give a lot more information first - how much RAM, how much VRAM, what OS version (probably 3.6 or 3.7 on a RiscPC), what processor (ARM7 or StrongARM, if the latter which version), how many slices, etc.

Good luck!
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
john wade Message #106911, posted by brevimanu at 07:53, 29/3/2008, in reply to message #106909
Member
Posts: 26
hi is the risc pc strongarm or 3.71 and how
much ram is there plus has it 1 or 2 mb of vram.
if it is strongarm plus 2mb vram i would pay postage costs.
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Jason Togneri Message #106912, posted by filecore at 09:09, 29/3/2008, in reply to message #106911

Posts: 3867
Oh, and does it (quite importantly for many) have an ethernet card?
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john wade Message #106918, posted by brevimanu at 15:19, 29/3/2008, in reply to message #106909
Member
Posts: 26
is there any software with it
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Jason Togneri Message #106919, posted by filecore at 16:39, 29/3/2008, in reply to message #106918

Posts: 3867
is there any software with it
Can you please learn some basic level of grammar?

I'd like to erase unused areas of the hard disc before I give it away, with just the standard programs etc. on the drive.
There's your answer.
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Dan Maloney Message #106920, posted by Cogs at 22:49, 29/3/2008, in reply to message #106919
Member
Posts: 3
If it has RISC OS 3.5, the standard apps (Draw Paint etc) are supplied on disc, not in ROM. RISC OS 3.5 is also limited to 512MB disc partitions (Yes, megabytes, not gigabytes). If it has RISC OS 3.6 or later things are a lot better.

CD ROM drives with RISC OS are a bit hit and miss. Some are supported, others aren't.

computeraid.org would probably reject the machine as below the minimum acceptable specification.

Even if it's basic spec, you will probably find an Acorn fan who'll gladly have it though.
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
R J Message #106994, posted by rjamesd at 13:39, 8/4/2008, in reply to message #106909
Member
Posts: 3
It's got an ARM6.
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
R J Message #106995, posted by rjamesd at 13:45, 8/4/2008, in reply to message #106994
Member
Posts: 3
I bought it late 1995/early 1996 if that helps anyone work out which OS version. It has the original ROMs.

- ARM 6
- 486SX 2nd processor
- 1Mb VRAM
- 8Mb RAM
- 800Mb hard disc.
- Standard Acorn MIDI podule
- NO ethernet

Software
- Windows 3.1 on 486SX
- Easy C/C++
- Midiworks
- magazine cover floppies
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Jason Togneri Message #106996, posted by filecore at 14:12, 8/4/2008, in reply to message #106995

Posts: 3867
I bought it late 1995/early 1996 if that helps anyone work out which OS version.
If it's a RiscPC but only with an ARM6 then it's probably RISC OS 3.6. You can check by going to the task manager (the acorn in the bottom right of the task bar), and click on it with the menu button, then select the Info item (first item at the top of the menu). That will give you the OS version for sure. Here's an image in case you need it.

[Edited by filecore at 15:13, 8/4/2008]
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
John Pritchard Message #107564, posted by johnboy at 11:29, 5/6/2008, in reply to message #106995
Member
Posts: 1
Hi
Did you get rid of it? I could do with one to recover files from an ADFS formatted disk that came from a RiscPC that now seems to be dead!
Thanks
John
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The Icon Bar: General: RiscPC offered / hard disc unused area erase?