I've just broken an ATAPI MO drive

[beltrixx]

Hi there,

I've been using an Iomega ATAPI ZIP 250 drive on my A1200 without problems for years but today I've tried to replace it by an internal ATAPI Fujitsu Magneto Optical drive I purchased years ago. After verifying the MO drive worked fine under Windows, I've installed it on my miggy just to break it forever.

I read the Amiga MO faq but it mainly referred to SCSI MO drives so I didn't know how to configure it. I copied the mount file PC230 from MO Faq distro to devs/dosdrivers but it wont run...  so I decided to try with another mount file, the one called MOC... and when I restarted my A1200, the disk inside the MO Drive started to spin at an incredible speed and the drive unit broke, it's no longer possible to insert a disk. As a result I feel frustrated but I would like to know what have I done wrong just to learn a bit from all this mess...who knows whether I'll have -or not- the chance to buy another atapi mo drive.

The ATAPI MO drive was connected as slave -as was my Iomega ZIP- but I would like to know how to configure the Unit Number and the device tooltypes for an atapi MO drive (for my ZIP drive these where unit=7, trackdisk.device).

Any help should be appreciated.

Thanks in advance;)

[golem]

I can't really help much but I am interested. When you say Magneto Optical that makes me think of MiniDisc. I didn't know you could get these for use with an Amiga or even PC. I have a 2Gb Jaz SCSI drive working with mine but I think Jaz like Zip is just magnetic.

[beltrixx]

I can't really help much but I am interested. When you say Magneto Optical that makes me think of MiniDisc. I didn't know you could get these for use with an Amiga or even PC. I have a 2Gb Jaz SCSI drive working with mine but I think Jaz like Zip is just magnetic.

Fujitsu MO drive was detected without problems under Windows and, as it was ATAPI, I thought it could be configured using an appropriate mount file but I didn't know chosing the wrong mount file could kill the drive as finally happened. The Unit drive was this : http://www.cnet.com/products/fujitsu-magneto-optical-mcc3064ap-mo-disk-drive-ide/specs/

I got mountfiles for the MO drive from : http://aminet.net/docs/help/Amiga_MO_FAQ.lha

Kind regards,

Beltrixx (Manel).

[B00tDisk]

Fujitsu MO drive was detected without problems under Windows and, as it was ATAPI, I thought it could be configured using an appropriate mount file but I didn't know chosing the wrong mount file could kill the drive as finally happened. The Unit drive was this : http://www.cnet.com/products/fujitsu-magneto-optical-mcc3064ap-mo-disk-drive-ide/specs/

I got mountfiles for the MO drive from : http://aminet.net/docs/help/Amiga_MO_FAQ.lha

Kind regards,

Beltrixx (Manel).

They're not super-rare or anything; a quick google search shows plenty for sale, and on ebay you can get the model you had for $75USD.

Now, if you'd broken an old Xetec writeable optical drive, yeah, that'd be a bigger problem...!

[beltrixx]

They're not super-rare or anything; a quick google search shows plenty for sale, and on ebay you can get the model you had for $75USD.

Now, if you'd broken an old Xetec writeable optical drive, yeah, that'd be a bigger problem...!

Yeah I know they're not as rare, particularly in the US, but if you include shipping and customs rates to Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) the cost easily increases to > EUR 100 and, taking into account we're talking about a piece of vintage hardware, I'd rather purchase some USB hardware (ie RapidRoad) for the same price.

I was wondering if someone here has an ATAPI MO drive attached to the IDE port of an Amiga 1200 (I use an Elbox Powerflyer controller) and, if this is the case, how can I figure out the configuration for the mount file :
which device to use (trackdisk, atapi, scsi), unit number and so on...

Thanks everybody for your replies

[B00tDisk]

I totally get the draw of old vintage hardware.  I spent months trying to track down the weird, unique and ultra-proprietary 2.5" HD that goes in a Mac PowerBook 130, found a NOS surplus store that had one, and they wanted $210 for it.  I looked on eBay and saw an entire working 130 with MacOS 6, Microsoft Works and a bunch of other stuff bundled with it for $100 BIN.  So I gave up and bought some needed upgrades for my desktop PC...!  So, while it stings, you're probably better off with USB addons in terms of moving data around.

[amigakid]

Not sure if it would help but I have an extra Iomega Zip 100 plus drive I would be glad to give you, but you would have to pay the shipping costs from the US.

[beltrixx]

Not sure if it would help but I have an extra Iomega Zip 100 plus drive I would be glad to give you, but you would have to pay the shipping costs from the US.

Thank you very much for your offer, I really appreciate it, but I also have two Iomega zip 250 drives. I had one installed on my A1200 and another drive on a Windows PC in order to transfer files between them (it's easy to surf the web on a modern platform) when I decided to "update" my miggy by installing a Fujitsu ATAPI MO drive -which I kept in a drawer for years- to replace the ZIP drive, but I did something wrong with the mountfile and fried the unit

I can always go back to the old configuration (zip drive using trackdisk.device, unit=7) but I would like to try an MO configuration provided I can find an affordable ATAPI MO drive to attach to the secondary IDE port of my Powerflyer controller (I can't see why it shouldn't work). I also have no idea on getting the appropriate mountfiles, configure them (which device? which unit number? is it necessary to patch scsi.device or similar?) to set it up correctly.

I'd love someone could answer these questions, because I wouldn't like to buy another drive just to fry it again XD

Kind regards,

beltrixx (Manel)

[ncafferkey]

I think it's very unlikely that choosing the wrong mount file caused damage to the hardware. It's more likely that it was a coincidence that the drive broke when it did. I can't be sure of course, but I thought I'd give my opinion since I'm the first person here to respond who's actually used an MO drive on his Amiga (mine is SCSI however). I've also done some ATAPI programming.

Also, are you sure that the device specification of trackdisk.device unit 7 is actually being used in your ZIP drive configuration? AFAIK trackdisk.device itself is only used for floppies, but IDE drivers (such as the A1200's scsi.device) are compatible with the trackdisk API, so trackdisk.device is sometimes used as a default driver.

[scuzzb494]

When you say inside I assume you have a tower. I have one of these drives in store somewhere, quite fascinating. My ZIP on the other hand is on an SCSI kit off the Blizzard. I prefer the SCSI.

Anywhoo.... There was an MO group for the Amiga and you might read through if you haven't already. They talk of editing the mount files. May help.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/amiga-mo/conversations/messages?messageStartId=200&archiveSearch=true

Be interested to know if you can get it running. Things don't last by the way, so don't be too angry with yourself. Dust yourself down and start over.

[beltrixx]

When you say inside I assume you have a tower. I have one of these drives in store somewhere, quite fascinating. My ZIP on the other hand is on an SCSI kit off the Blizzard. I prefer the SCSI.

Anywhoo.... There was an MO group for the Amiga and you might read through if you haven't already. They talk of editing the mount files. May help.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/amiga-mo/conversations/messages?messageStartId=200&archiveSearch=true

Be interested to know if you can get it running. Things don't last by the way, so don't be too angry with yourself. Dust yourself down and start over.

Almost five years after... turns out the MO drive works perfectly.

It seems everything was related to power supply issues. I have a desktop A1200, not a towerized one, but I used an HTPC case because I needed a couple 5 1/4 bays for a CD-ROM drive and a ZIP or MO drive; both are ATAPI compliant. I used the standard ATX power supply inside the PC case with one of these adaptadors from Ian Stedman. Flat data cable for both devices was connected phisically to my Amiga 1200 through an external IDE connector I have on the left side of my miggy (my A1200 came with this mod when I bought it about 10 years ago).

I always had problems when booting up my Amiga. Sometimes it was necessary to make three or more attempts to get it running because it did not power up properly. This summer I acquired a brand new power supply at Amigastore.eu and problems with these "false bootings" disappeared.

So, yesterday and all of a sudden -I had totally forgotten it- I found the Fujitsu ATAPI MO drive in a drawer and attached it to my Amiga just to try. It seemed to "spin" correctly when powered up and allowed the insertion of a 230 Mb MO disk. Drive was configured as slave and both HDToolbox and my Elbox Fasta ATA preferences program detected it ...

I edited the PC230 mount file (bundled with Amiga_MO_FAQ)  to use scsi.device and configured tooltypes to set unit = 3 (slave at secondary channel) and that's it... everything is running now. After a soft reset, a NDOS icon showed up on the workbench desktop and I just selected it and formatted the disk using the Icons --> Format disk menu option.

So yes, it is perfectly possible to use an ATAPI MO device with a standard A1200 although I think it should be necessary to have an IDEFix, FastATA or similar controller which allows the attaching of 3.5" devices because the standard IDE port is intended for 2.5" drives.

Kind regards,

Manel (beltrixx)