Those are all my ideas. So, it looks like I better get a less than double digit GB drive, or less than 30GB at least, if I want one that will spin up. Unless I can find a Seagate or Hitachi maybe :-). Or there's CF drives- I wonder if those work at 30GB+.
I tried a 2.5" fujitsu 20gb the other day & apart from not booting from cold, it still spun up and booted if you reset the amiga. It's a pity kickstart doesn't check for a hard drive when the floppy animation is displayed (hopefully aros 68k will).
However the reason I tried it was my 3.5" drive wasn't working & I was trying to work out why. Eventually I tracked it down to the 2.5" cable from the a1200 to the 4xbuffered ide adapter. Although it worked sometimes with the 2.5" drive it never worked with the 3.5" drive. It was rather annoying tracking it down, because each part worked on it's own. I even connected the 3.5" drive to my pc using the 4xbuffered ide adapter and a 3.5" to 2.5" converter and that worked (and I could access it with winuae).
I ordered a flexible 2.5" cable from amikit. So far I've not twisted it, because the ends are connected differently to the original and it sits better if you don't twist it (the 3.5" cable is now folded however so I might have to deal with that next). But at least it's back working & wasn't something more serious.
So my advice if you're having problems is to try another ide cable.
