A500 External fdd problems ...

[nickoteen]

Hiya all ...
 
I have three (yeah, I know, three! They weren't that much expensive so ... ) external Cumana drives attached 2 my A500 ... and here's the problem:
 
When under Workbench (v2.1 at the moment), I experience problems when trying to use second or third (df2 and df3) device. For example, when trying to format a disk, when trying to read something of a disk inserted in any of these drives, WB states either the disk is write protected (when actually it's not) or returns some error code when reading a disk (any disk) in any of those drives.
No problems when working with df1 (or df0 for that matter).
 
Now for the weird part.
 
When using these drives outside WB (loading a 4 disk Mortal Kombat II for example or any other multidisk game that has the ability to use multiple drives), the drives are working without any problems. When disconnecting the chain of three, and connecting them separately, one by one, and checking them under WB, they all perform well. So, it's not a hardware issue, the drives work. All three of them.
 
Soo .. wtf ? My cards are on WB (a configuration of some sort ? Adding a line or two in some config file maybe ?) and/or my lack of knowledge and expirience when it comes to using/configuring WB.
 
Any idea greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[nickoteen]

Nobdy, huh ? Bummer ...

[nickoteen]

You're Kickstart2 then or 3? Not that it matters that much, but the more info you provide then something may occur to someone. I can't say I've ever used more than 1 external drive, so I can't help you here.
I know drives have write protection switches on them, are you sure they're all in the "write" mode? If they're not then you can't write to them, only read.
 
How much RAM do you have? Maybe you have a weak PSU or something, and so it's struggling to power all 4 drives in your system together. Do you have anything else attached to the Amiga? Or is it just the extra drives?

 
KS 2.04, WB 2.1
 
Yes, the drives don't have wp switches, just the on/off switches. I don't have anything else attached to my Amiga, just those 3 external drives.
 
If Amiga itself supports up to 3 external drives by default then I believe the original PSU should be sufficinet enough to power all three of them. I might be wrong, offcourse ...
 
As for the RAM, 1meg only ...

[nickoteen]

Do all drives show up when you hold both mouse buttons down on cold start/reboot?
Do you have another Workbench disk you could try? Have you tried testing the drives with tools like x-copy or d-copy?

Yes, they are all visible and can be enabled/disabled. The drives separately work just fine. It's not the drives. We can roule that out.
 
I did try the scenario in which I'm using x-copy and  drives connected in a series of three. I can perform tasks like format / copy with no problems at all.
 
The problem is in WB ... somewhere ... somehow.
Before using WB 2.1, I was using WB 2.04 ... the same thing.
Don't remember what the behavior was under 1.3.
So you see ... I thought I needed to configure the workbench in some way, say somewhere ... look, I have 3 external drives ... start using them. Donno.
 
One more thing comes to mind, but it's probably not the case. I have three identical drives. Same manufacturer, same model. Maybe that's what's causing WB the headache. Just a thought.

[nickoteen]

The original power supply was meant for max 0.5 meg mem expansion + 2 extra floppy disks. Have you tried with just 2 extras?

Really ? Wasn't aware of that ... fact. Nevertheless, will try this asap. Thanks.

[nickoteen]

The original power supply was meant for max 0.5 meg mem expansion + 2 extra floppy disks. Have you tried with just 2 extras?

It's a no go. Tried it with 3rd drive disconnected. The same behaviour occurs. I tried it under wb 1.3 as well. Starts formating the disk, then on the 15th cylinder it says ... please replace the disk. The disk is write protected. I'm clueless ...

[nickoteen]

That's what's bugging me. All drives, when connected as a stand alone, work just fine, so I don't think it's the drives or the cables that's faulty here. I can't believe nobody has three external drives connected to Amiga like I do.
Anyway, since nothing else comes to mind, I'm starting to think that my "All popular" KS 2.04 is the source of problems. Donno. Will confirm/eliminate when my 40.63 arrives.

[nickoteen]

Now, here's an idea. Haven't thought of that although now that you've mentioned it, it actually sounds probable. Thanks. Will check it out asap. (greets from Croatia btw.)

[nickoteen]

I tried changing the order of the external disks but to no avail. The thing is, it's not working in X-Copy either. Funny how I thought it did. On top of that, as from yesterday, My A500 works under KS 3.1 and WB 3.1, but that didn't help either. Guess it must be the PSU thing then. If that's the case then this post is in a wrong place. Sorry 'bout that. Well ... just to let you know.