**Need Setup HELP** with Classic Amiga 2000 HARD DISK (Bridgeboard)

[wbrejnia]

I think we're all hoping for that. Although you might want to prepare yourself for that hard drive being kaput. It is, after all, at least 25 years old. I suppose some obvious checks would be do you feel it spinning if you power up the system with the case open, any activity lights, etc.?

Hope all this effort is worth it!

The hard drive is working.  Spinning. and Does the Whirl Click Click Sound when powered up.  Even that Hard Drive LED that I wired ages ago, blinks.   It's ALIVE, I'm pretty sure.
 
 It's not the end of the world if DRIVE IS DEAD.  But would be cool to see what's on it  (Plus this is a challenge to me.  Like a puzzle to solve).

[wbrejnia]

The dual connection just means it's an RLL or MFM type hard drive, has nothing to do with the drive being visible on the Amiga side.

Do you have access to another Amiga that you could attempt to run DiskSalv on that bootdisk, with?

This Amiga is functional, and I have an external Floppy drive (make things easier).
 
 I will get DiskSalv and attempt a clone.
 
 In the meantime I can read the ORIGINAL WORKING DISK.  What file would I review to see what the boot sequence originally did.

[wbrejnia]

Boot with "OLD DISK in DF2"
 
 I booted off A Working Workbench Disk and on Other External Drive I can see the Original Workbench DISK.
 
 
 
 Will continue with instructions given above (thanks for helping)

[wbrejnia]

Here is the Original Workbench Disk that I used to Boot this Amiga With.
 
 s\Startup-Sequence file contents
 
 

[wbrejnia]

OK. You might never be able to boot off the PC disk to get the PC hard disk to get going, but you should be able to get access to the data. Very good chance of it.
How good you can get Janus going to mount the PC hard drive from the Amiga is just a question of getting the right components, after that, should access OK. Sounds like it. One attempt if the circuitry on the drive has died is to try to find an identical circuit board, that can be swap out replaced on most types. Spinning drive healthy or savable mostly..

 First.  IF any HW is broken, I give up (not worth it).  But I don't think so, other than age, it might be ok since my own.
 
 Hmmn.  I'm examining the Boot Sequence.  
 
 "DJmount" is missing.  I assume this is part of Janus.
 
 Where can I get the DJmount package?

[wbrejnia]

Thanks "Pat" and "Matt" for helping and providing inspiration.

My Name is Actually "Wally", and I'm not going to give up.

My next mission is DJmount. Startup-Sequece has it, but disk does not.

My mind is starting to hurt, and I need a break. Will be back soon.

Break Time

Tried these two Floppies. Still work. Wish the Workbench did too....

This is my all time favorite, Coin Op Clone of "Missile Command"


And of Course this one too.....



BOTH HAVE GREAT SOUND. Even my 15 year old was impressed and tried it.

Back soon....Stay Tuned...(Hope you are having fun tagging along).
 
 THIS (HARD DRIVE PEEK MISSION Game Isn't over Yet)
 

[wbrejnia]

I'll be back (to read all your great info).

Have an appoint to fix my wife car [tire]. (Higher Priority than my Toys)

I'll leave you guys with this. It's two Photo's of me, set in my Man Cave Office, On Top of my Box of Disks....( Background is Fish tank in my Office Wall, one of two Tanks).

Yup. Me and my Commodore PET, and Me and my Commodore 64.



I'm not as young as back then, but my spirit and enthusiasm for TOYS and playing is.

[wbrejnia]

That is an excellent point!

Do you remember back when you used to use this system, did you have to have a disk in both drives in order for it to boot? Odd system, in any case. Basically a bare-bones Amiga (not even the 1MB Agnus), but with a whole bunch of expansions added on the Bridgeboard/PC side. What did you use it for, back in the day? Mostly PC software, I would assume. :lol:

I can't remember exactly how I used it.  That is the biggest mystery.
 I know I played games a lot but that was probably from Floppies.
 I think I used it for School on the PC Side, for Enginering (DOS programs).
 
 We'll figure it out.
 
 I'm working on putting together the AmigaExplorer PC to be able to get Downloads.  
 
 BUT FIRST WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THE HARD DRIVE is properly hooked up with the ribbon cables (I think it's right).  But the Controller side ribbon cable can go either way as show below.  
 
 So there are 4 Possible ways.  I think one of the specs you sent show the proper ribbon connections.
 
 See below:
 
 
 The Hard Drive side fits only one way.
 
 
 
 I'll check around for DJmount.
 What is the command for doing a "Dir" but see is page by page.  My unix skills would say "dir | more" but that doesn't work.

[wbrejnia]

Both you guys know a lot.

I am digesting this and possibly thinking is more complicated than is it.

After checking Cabling (which I think is correct), I am going to go thru all my disks as See which has "DJmount"  or download it and run it (to see what happens)
 
 I'm also going to read up on AmigaDos Command and what editors I can use. (Hey it's been a while).  I'll catch up quickly.

[wbrejnia]

OK, but another way if DJ mount isn't working is to start with a DOSbooting disk from the DL and put a DOS driver and mount command for the PC to fire up from floppy and access it.

Sound like I have a couple options:

1) AMIGA SIDE (DJmount and hopefully have access to JH0: )
2) DOS Side (Boot DOS from Floppy, but Need Driver for Controller and have access to C: Drive).  I looked for DOS Drivers few years ago, but no luck.  Will try again.

I have a 3rd option to suggest (LAST RESORT)

I have a 286 Fully loaded PC (with Hard Drive, CD) All on a similar ribbon Cable (IDE I think). I tried this before with no success but hooked up the Hard Drive (replace the CD drive) on that 286 Machine. I gave up, but still have that 286 Windows PC. I think it didn't work since this is NOT a IDE drive.

[wbrejnia]

The dual connection just means it's an RLL or MFM type hard drive, has nothing to do with the drive being visible on the Amiga side.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST-506 (see the picture of the controller connected to the drive)

Perfect.  I compared my cables and everything matches.  Thus my labeling from couple of years ago is correct.  
 
 ** HDD to Controller CABLING ALL GOOD, moving forward **

[wbrejnia]

STUCK (but I got really FAR ! )
 
 Compiling Screen Shots and progress.

[wbrejnia]

So here is how far I got.

Basically I have a working Bridgeboard disk that I can actually boot from.

-> I used the disk to boot, followed instructions from README

-> PC Booted MS DOS from Floppy (Which is nothing new)

-> Then I ran the SAME commands like on my WORKBENCH DISK

Things Worked.

-> But no HARD DRIVE PICKED UP by Either the Amiga or the PC

Could this mean Hard DRIVE IS TOAST / Maybe Controller Board?
* NOT GIVING UP THAT EASY. I think they are fine **

There are Install Scripts on that Bridgeboard disk that copy stuff to a working Workbench Disk (personal one).

I like the idea of making a new WORKBENCH disk and copy over what I had, and see if things work.

My SUSPICION is there are config files missing on the GENERIC "Bridgeboard DISK". Drive Mappings, Mount points etc.

HERE ARE SHOTS of What I did, and how things worked

Any idea's on next steps???







I have BLANK Floppies ready.

Over to you guys for your advice.

[wbrejnia]

HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS (So I can sleep without thinking about this too much) :

a) I may need a DOS driver for the Hard Drive Controller

b) Maybe the Hard drive is assigned another letter other than c:

Could try more drive letters, or run some kind of DOS utility to discovery what drives are available

I have a full suite of MSDOS disk available (in 2.5" disk format), and I could copy them over to a 5.25" disk to run on the PC-Amiga

c) I've been thinking of an Alternative (Use the OLD 286 Standalone PC and maybe put the WD Hard Drive Controller Card into it and hook of the HARD DRIVE in the Amiga
- If it has a slot that matches the Controller Board. (It should)

d) Build up a NEW WORKBENCH disk (from bits and pieces, including my OLD WORKBENCH disk and the BRIDGEBOARD DISK.

e) SOMETHING ELSE

[wbrejnia]

Have you tried all this with your old ROM chip? Maybe parts of the software aren't working correctly with 3.1...perhaps DJMount isn't. I don't have such a setup but perhaps others can answer this.

 I have old ROM chip, I could pop in.
 But waiting for more input since don't want to take things apart quite yet.

[wbrejnia]

Here is a clue.

The MS DOS Floppy disk that I have has the "fdisk" command.

I ran it, and it doesn't pick up any disks as below. (Below is MS DOS window in Amiga). THERE IS A 5.25" MS Dos Floppy in there or else it doesn't boot (so PC is fine)



So until that PC side see's the Hard Drive, I see no way the Amiga side could see it. (Even running PCdisk on Amiga side, would only pick up Drive available on PC Side).

"DJmount" as show above runs fine. (NO Error Messages, it enables bridgeboard to work perfectly. And doesn't see any Hard Disk, and that could be fine, just like no Controller Card/HDD)

I played around with the (Controller-HDD) ribbon cables since the picture showed one flipped around. Doesn't help.

I wonder if a Controller driver is needed for the HARD DRIVE to work with the Controller card.

** IDEA#1: I'm thinking is either Borrow a working Controller Card from the 286, maybe even the Hard drive, since that 286 has driver software **
** IDEA#2 Reverse: Put AMIGA's Controller Card & Hard Drive into 286PC. Both with that Same 5.25" floppy and run "Fdisk" **