A2000 hd install problem

[Matt_H]

I'm guessing the Supra software was designed for 1.3; try prepping the hard drive with HDToolBox if you can. I recommend using the HDToolBox version from the 3.1 Install disk, since it has a few improvements. It works under Kickstart 2.x. Use the Tooltypes to change it to scan for Supra's device driver (which is probably something other than scsi.device).

It sounds like the Supra software messed something up with the RDB, so you'll probably want to recreate it from scratch. Once you're in HDToolBox, change the drive type, define new, and read the drive parameters.

Also, you shouldn't need to low-level format drives anymore - that's a vestige of 80s hard drive manufacturing techniques.

[Matt_H]

The OS3.1 install won't work with KS2.04

True. I was only talking about HDToolBox, which does work with 2.x.

@ utri007

So, to clarify in case there's any confusion, boot from a 2.x Workbench disk, then insert a copy of the 3.1 Install disk and run HDToolBox.

Keep autoboot enabled. Otherwise the driver won't be loaded (and you won't be able to work with the drive), unless you have a software version in SYS:Expansion. If you've had autoboot disabled this whole time, it's possible that whatever software version of the driver is in your Expansion drawer is older/buggier than the ROM version, which could also explain some of your problems.

[Matt_H]

And I was only responding to the question, "Will OS3.1 run on KS2.0?"  

I used OS2.04 last year on an A3000 I was restoring and it was so frustrating that I set it aside until the 3.1 ROMs came in from overseas.  Then I was actually able to finish that project, blood loss and all.

Ah, thanks. I'd missed that part of the original post.

I never actually used 2.04 back in the day. I went straight from 1.3 to 2.1, then to 3.1. Apart from Datatypes/Multiview, there wasn't a whole lot different between 2.1 and 3.1 on the surface. More recently I did actually boot up 2.04 and I was quite surprised at how much I took for granted in 2.1 wasn't there. I understand your frustration

[Matt_H]

@ utri007

Good find on that old Usenet thread. It looks like several Quantum drives of that era don't autodetect the drive parameters correctly. Did you see this post/try these settings?

I too had a problem setting up my new Quantum LPS270 hard drive.  HDToolbox
doesn't read the information from the drive.  I originally came up with the
following settings:
                        Cylinders - 4130
                        Heads     - 1
                        Blocks per Track - 135
                        Blocks per Cylinder - 135
 
which gave me 272 megs of disk space and it would format correctly.  I called
Quantum's tech line and the amiga tech guy told me to use the following
settings:
   
                        Cylinders - 944
                        Heads - 14
                        Blocks Per Track - 40
                        Blocks per Cylinder - 560
   
which gives you 257 megs.  When I asked if there were really 14 heads he said
"no" but it is only a mathmatical abstraction.  I can't remember exactly but
it is the number of cylinders times the number of heads times 512 (or
something of that nature) and whatever gets you closest to 272 meg will work.

I'd start with the second set of settings from Quantum's ancient tech support.

[Matt_H]

Reading through this thread again (and looking at some weak advice I gave ), I think this is a really strange card. Apparently only some revisions are actually RDB-compatible. So I'm wondering if it has to be prepped with Supra's own tools and if it only works with FFS from OS1.3? I have a gut feeling FFS Intl. would give this card trouble.

Otherwise there's the obvious checks: latest ROM, terminated, etc.

[Matt_H]

Strange! At this point I'd guess that there's either something wrong with the card or it's one of those that's so old it doesn't know how to work in anything other than very specific 1.3 A2000 configurations.

There are a few versions of SupraBoot on the hardware database - maybe a different one would work? There's also SupraTools, but I don't know what the difference is.