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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Phoenix on November 22, 2002, 08:24:20 AM

Title: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 22, 2002, 08:24:20 AM
Ive just bought an A1200 with a dead internal floppy(external drive works fine) Can I swap it for my A500 internal drive???
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 22, 2002, 08:41:56 AM
Help
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: on November 22, 2002, 08:47:30 AM
AFAIK it should be possible to use the A500 drive.
 It might be a little harder to make it fit nicely into the amiga.
Think the floppy eject button might not be the same as the 1200 one, but just give it a try....

Greets
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: tonyw on November 22, 2002, 11:31:11 AM
I didn't answer this before because I don't know about 1200 drives - are they DD or SD? The 500 drive is SD and is electrically compatible (if not mechanically), but it's only single density (880 kb discs).

If the 1200 is DD, the old 500 drive won't give you that functionality. You'll be able to use it for 880 kb discs, but not 1760s. On the other hand, if the 1200 drive is only SD, you should have no problems except mechanical ones.

tony
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: game_fan on November 22, 2002, 11:36:29 AM
I thought all Amiga Drives were Double Density (880KB), except the A3000/A4000 which had High Density Drives (1.76MB).

An A500 drive should work(not 100% sure), but it will not fit into the case properly.
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 22, 2002, 12:29:38 PM
I may keep the drive external if the cable is long enough and hope that it doesnt cause any problems, This A1200 seems to have another glitch sometimes when I switch it on the screen is blank (no animated floppy) if i hold down the left Amiga key and the left mouse button the boot screen appears.
Could this be related to the floppy fault??

Where can i get cheap hardrive cable from??
Will a Toshiba laptop hardrive work with A1200??
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Quixote on November 22, 2002, 12:48:34 PM
Quote
Phoenix wrote:

[Snip!]

Will a Toshiba laptop hardrive work with A1200??


;-) A laptop hard drive should work just fine in your A1200.  It will need to be reformatted, of course, and Workbench 3.1 and under cannot reach beyond the "4.3 gigabyte barrier."  A lower capacity drive would work just fine, or you could use WB 3.5 and up.
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 22, 2002, 12:53:25 PM
I remember something about the cable being cut a pin 1. Directions would be useful!
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: SilvrDrgn on November 22, 2002, 01:52:10 PM
Quote
I remember something about the cable being cut a pin 1. Directions would be useful!

You should only cut pin 1 of the IDE cable if your computer has trouble booting from a warm reset (Ctrl-L Amiga-R Amiga).
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 22, 2002, 03:25:17 PM
Does anyone have a spare Amiga cable with a diagram for installation??

If not i will try and get one from eyetech, but not sure from there web site which is the correct cable??
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: on November 24, 2002, 01:38:04 PM
The only reason to cut pin 1 (its actualy wire 1) is because on the amiga it doesnt allow enough time for the Hardrive to spin up before it carries on with its boot up process. So the amiga has done all its checks and thinks there is no hardrive installed because the drive is not ready. So your options are get 3.1 roms which make the the amiga wait longer before finishing its boot (not usually long enough anyway). Do a warm reset (CTRL + Left Amiga + Right Amiga) this would work if it wasnt for pin 1. This when you reset the amiga the hardrive resets aswell. So it stops spinning and spins up again but this starts the recognise process again so the drive doesnt spin up in time for the amiga to recognise it. The answer is cut pin 1 (wire 1). Pin 1 is responsible for the reset of the hardrive with this cut the drive does not reset or spin down so it is still spining at full speed when the amiga looks for it and hey presto the amiga can see it. What you actually cut is the wire on the IDE cable which is red in colour (this is wire 1) but check on the amiga motherboard that it is plugged in the right way round. There is a number 1 printed on the motherboard next to pin 1 and only bother doing this on the very first piece of IDE cable on the machine as this then cancels it on any others linked up after that on the machine. I hope this helps any probs email me.
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 25, 2002, 10:41:52 AM
Going back to the orignal topic of this thread, swapping A500 DF0 FOR A1200 DFO is notgoing to well.

I seem to remember someone changing the df1 to df0 on there Amiga 1200. Help?
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: duesi on November 25, 2002, 10:54:38 AM
I know that in some AMIGA's is a jumper
to set the external drive as df0: (A500, A4000....)
But i dont't know the 1200 has one
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 25, 2002, 01:04:45 PM
Has anyone got any jumper schematics??

Cheers
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 25, 2002, 03:45:13 PM
[color=993300]HELP!!!!!!!!![/color][/b]
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: SilvrDrgn on November 25, 2002, 04:01:04 PM
@ Phoenix,
Quote
Has anyone got any jumper schematics??

For the Amiga 1200??  I believe I have schematics for it somewhere on my Amiga at home.  Being at work right now, I cannot help you at the moment.  However, I believe (from memory, so not sure) that there is no such jumper on the A1200 motherboard.
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Tesral on November 29, 2002, 07:50:43 AM
Quote

Phoenix wrote:
Ive just bought an A1200 with a dead internal floppy(external drive works fine) Can I swap it for my A500 internal drive???


Yes and no.  Wireing and mechanicly, yes, it will work.  However you are not getting it in the case, nothing lines up.  Solution is leave it out, build an enclosure for it or hack the case.  You might try E-bay.  Or, I have a spare I'll sell you for 50 US plus shipping.
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Damion on November 29, 2002, 08:08:45 AM
Yeah, it would honestly save some pain and
frustration. I would just buy the right one;
you should be able to find a reasonable deal
somewhere.

Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on November 29, 2002, 01:25:30 PM
Can  I get a longer floppy drive cable, Ive seen some on the uk Eyetech site, but I dont know the specs of the cable that i need.

Thanks tesral :-D
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Stom on November 29, 2002, 04:55:13 PM
Quote

Phoenix wrote:
Can  I get a longer floppy drive cable, Ive seen some on the uk Eyetech site, but I dont know the specs of the cable that i need.

Thanks tesral :-D


I am trying to think at the moment if I have a spare floppy drive cable or not (one of the longer ones). I know I have one in my Tower as it stands, but for some vague reason I seem to think I saw another in my 'bits' box also (guess about 9" long)

Wouldnt a PC Floppy drive cable out of interest? If so I am sure you should be able to find plenty at a local PC hardware shop

Infact, thinking even more (ouch!) They are normal PC floppy drive cables (the escom floppy drives were PC ones of some sort were'nt (erk, bad english!) they? So a PC floppy cable should work I would have thought.

Cheerio
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Ilwrath on November 29, 2002, 05:14:58 PM
The A1200 is a Low Density drive, like that of the A500.  It is slightly different shaped, and I didn't have a ton of luck transplanting a floppy drive out of a dead 500 into a 1200, but I think that drive may have been damaged.  It SHOULD work.  I have not, personally verified that it WILL work, though.

Quote
Does anyone have a spare Amiga [HD] cable with a diagram for installation??

This is just a straight-through cable.  Attach from pin 1 on Amiga to pin 1 on the HD.... done.

Quote
Wouldnt a PC Floppy drive cable out of interest? If so I am sure you should be able to find plenty at a local PC hardware shop

Yep...  The ends are the same... just make sure you have the proper Amiga twists for whatever model you're hooking it up on.  Also, make sure you set up pin 1 to pin 1, and you're set.
Title: Re: Swapping drives
Post by: Phoenix on December 03, 2002, 07:44:31 PM
Thanks to everyone here at the org, youve been all been most helpful. Gonna leave it outside the case for the moment.

I found it far too difficult to get the A500 drive into the A1200(yes I did take the outer casing off)

Thanks  :-D