A590 Oddities

[Matt_H]

Hmmm. If you already eliminated Kickstart 1.2 as a possible cause then I agree you're probably looking at a hardware issue. The next question is whether it's a hardware fault (i.e., something broken due to age) or a hardware bug (my understanding is that the rev. 3 500 is pretty buggy).

Just to make sure you're not overlooking the obvious, is the drive known to be 100% good?

DMAC is worth looking into, as you say. Big Book of Amiga Hardware says the 590 typically shipped with DMAC -01, but it can't hurt to try DMAC -02.

To close the book on possible software issues, give the 2091 v1.30 disk a try if you haven't already, along with 7.0 ROMs if you have them (or track down the disk-based version if you don't).

[Matt_H]

One other thing I just remembered... maybe.

I have an A3000 with the 1.4 dual-boot ROMs. I've reconfigured the hard drive a few times, but I seem to recall there was one iteration ages ago where booting into 1.3 produced dummy icons on the Workbench like you have in your first post. I think it was something to do with the partitions being set to FFS Intl (DOS\03) while only having plain FFS (DOS\01) in the RDB, or having the wrong version of FFS in the RDB. Or maybe there was no FFS in the RDB at all? I don't remember, exactly, but I did eventually solve it.

I think the OS 2.x/3.x versions of HDToolbox might default its partitions to FFS Intl instead of plain FFS, which might explain the issue in your first post.

So try prepping the drive under OS 2/3 again, but make sure that the DOS Type of your partitions matches the DOS Type of the file system in the RDB.

Also, if you have a 2.04/2.05/2.1 Install disk, there a newer disk-based version of FastFileSystem on that disk that's designed for 1.3 compatibility--might be worth a try.

[giZmo350]

Hmmm. If you already eliminated Kickstart 1.2 as a possible cause then I agree you're probably looking at a hardware issue. The next question is whether it's a hardware fault (i.e., something broken due to age) or a hardware bug (my understanding is that the rev. 3 500 is pretty buggy).

Yeah, I'll bet they are fairly buggy. Plus, it's hard to dig up relevant information on the Rev3 machines these day as most people have probably dropped them to the wayside, except for maybe collectors. I've owned the Rev3 for 15 years and other than floppy based use, this is the first time really digging into it.

Just to make sure you're not overlooking the obvious, is the drive known to be 100% good?

As old as it is, I seems to be healthy. Another thought I had, and I've seen this before, is that the controller on the hard drive may have been replaced from another drive that does not have the same geometry as the Conner CP3500 platters - however, I doubt it. 

DMAC is worth looking into, as you say. Big Book of Amiga Hardware says the 590 typically shipped with DMAC -01, but it can't hurt to try DMAC -02.

Yeah, I might try that too just for fun. But, like you said, maybe it's just what it is and I probably should take what I can get - 80MB that is. I think I'll also try another SCSI drive and repeat the small partition process and see what happens - that might expose or eliminate the Conner drive as a suspect.

To close the book on possible software issues, give the 2091 v1.30 disk a try if you haven't already, along with 7.0 ROMs if you have them (or track down the disk-based version if you don't).

Thanks for A2091 hint Matt. I located that SW and DL'ed it today. Will for sure try that 1st thing. . Yes, I've been using V7.0 ROMS except for one test of swapping in the V6.6 ROMs. BTW, did Commodore put out official V7.0 ROMs? The ones I have were burned that I got off ebay at least a decade ago.



I'll get back to this in a couple of days now that I can perform some compatibility tests much quicker. I did quit a bit of research on the DMAC today but didn't really find a reason why I should have them. Update to follow - hopefully won't be so long winded! 

[giZmo350]

One other thing I just remembered... maybe.

I have an A3000 with the 1.4 dual-boot ROMs. I've reconfigured the hard drive a few times, but I seem to recall there was one iteration ages ago where booting into 1.3 produced dummy icons on the Workbench like you have in your first post. I think it was something to do with the partitions being set to FFS Intl (DOS\03) while only having plain FFS (DOS\01) in the RDB, or having the wrong version of FFS in the RDB. Or maybe there was no FFS in the RDB at all? I don't remember, exactly, but I did eventually solve it.

I think the OS 2.x/3.x versions of HDToolbox might default its partitions to FFS Intl instead of plain FFS, which might explain the issue in your first post.

So try prepping the drive under OS 2/3 again, but make sure that the DOS Type of your partitions matches the DOS Type of the file system in the RDB.

Also, if you have a 2.04/2.05/2.1 Install disk, there a newer disk-based version of FastFileSystem on that disk that's designed for 1.3 compatibility--might be worth a try.

Ah! I did not pay attention to make sure that the DOS Type of the partitions matched the DOS Type of the file system in the RDB the first time I set it all up - which may have resulted in the dummy partitions. I do have an original WB2.1 Install disk - I'll try this again as the first time I was able to use the full 510MB with the Rev3 machine. Thanks Matt!

[scuzzb494]

Hi

If you don't have this then might be handy.

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/car_libs_012.htm

PS getting those DIP switches set up right is real important.

[giZmo350]

Ah yes...  RTFM!    Already have it but, thanks scuzz.   

[Jope]

One other thing I just remembered... maybe.

I have an A3000 with the 1.4 dual-boot ROMs. I've reconfigured the hard drive a few times, but I seem to recall there was one iteration ages ago where booting into 1.3 produced dummy icons on the Workbench like you have in your first post. I think it was something to do with the partitions being set to FFS Intl (DOS\03) while only having plain FFS (DOS\01) in the RDB, or having the wrong version of FFS in the RDB. Or maybe there was no FFS in the RDB at all? I don't remember, exactly, but I did eventually solve it.

It's because of a too recent FFS version. After some point (perhaps v39?) FFS no longer played nice with 1.3, giving the dummy icons.

[giZmo350]

CASE CLOSED! 

Jope and Matt's instructions are superb!
I can perform different install scenarios without failure.

However, I screwed the pooch on one instruction from Jope EVERY SINGLE TIME!

"Always always format quick when formatting hard drives."

Final install; Used WB2.1 Install disk w/Rev6a machine & V3.1ROM*.
Partitioned DH0: 100MB. DH1:348MB
Formatted partitions QUICK.
I plugged the A590 into the Rev3 machine. No dummy drives as in post #1.
Installed WB1.3.3. from A590 Setup Disk using Rev3 machine. DONE!
No dummy drives as in post #1 after I plugged in the A590
The whole process took appx. 30 minutes.

Thanks much guys!

*Could this all have been accomplished with just using the Rev3 machine? Well, WB1.3 GUI does not present a "quick format" option. I tried using a WB1.3 SHELL command and the FORMAT command does have a QUICK format switch however, the FORMAT command doesn't seem to work at all even using the simplest syntax [format dh0:] - not sure why.

Therefore, use the following syntax (exactly) when formatting the partitions. This will format DH0: with the name Workbench and DH1: with the name Work respectively.

Format DRIVE DH0: NAME Workbench QUICK
Format DRIVE DH1: NAME Work QUICK

Hope this helps someone else out there!

@P81....  "Install Disk"  LOL Right? I meant "Startup Disk" 'er... "BIOS Disk" 'er... Oh Yeah! Setup Disk! 

[Matt_H]

Alright!

Glad it didn’t turn out to be a hardware issue.

To your final point about the Format command, as I recall, it’s one of the few commands that needs to be run with just about every keyword/argument from the command template. So a simple ‘Format dh0:’ won’t work, by design. Probably a good thing from a security standpoint so that it’s harder to wipe out your hard drive by mistake!

[paul1981]

Formatted partitions QUICK.
I plugged the A590 into the Rev3 machine. No dummy drives as in post #1.

@P81....  "Install Disk"  LOL Right? I meant "Startup Disk" 'er... "BIOS Disk" 'er... Oh Yeah! Setup Disk! 

The Dummy drive icons were trying to tell you something!