Tried to upgrade my A1200T's HDD, now it can't find any HDD or CD-ROM

[marcfrick2112]

Hey, I hope someone can help me. I should have known that sooner or later my somewhat tricked out A1200T would have a problem. OK, I needed a bigger hard drive, I installed the new HDD as Slave and my original 8.5GB HDD as Master to copy OS3.9 over, etc. Went fine, until I put in the new drive as Master, and my CD-ROM as Slave, now my Amiga doesn't see any drives, but the floppy and my SCSI drives. I really need access to that 8.5 GB drive as I don't have enough room on my SCSI drives.

 I tried Early Startup menu, HDToolbox, no joy. Tried 3 different HDD's. OK, so is the IDE cable bad, or could I have messed up the IDE port? The cable is a 40-pin to 2 44-pin type.

Any ideas? If I have to, I can send my A1200T to be repaired, but I dread sending miggy's through the mail  :-o

Specs:
A1200 Power Tower, 8.5GB IDE HDD, OS3.9 w/BB 1 and 2, 192MB RAM, 1260/50MHz+SCSI module, Teac 40X CD-rom

[marcfrick2112]

Thanks for the quick reply, Thomas. OK, I'll try to explain...
My original 8.5GB hdd is 3.5".... I have some sort of IDE adapter cable that plugs into the motherboard IDE port and gives 2 40-pin connectors (I think I got 40- and 44-pin mixed up in my original post.) My original config. does not work anymore. I can hear my original HDD spin up, the LED on the CD drive blinks, but I get the purple 'insert disk' screen. When I boot with a floppy that has a CD-rom filesystem on it, I still don't have CD-Rom working. No combination of new/old HDD's weather Slave or Master seems to work. On a reboot, all HDD's I have tried make the same noise, a quiet 'click-click' sound. The CD only flashes its' LED for a short time after a reboot. The tray doesn't open on reboot.

[marcfrick2112]

@rkauer: Well, I suppose it could be the PSU, but this system was working 100% only yesterday. Not sure what wattage the PSU in Power Towers is, but it must be fairly good, as I have run an '060/ 192MB RAM, 8.5 GB HDD for literally years, with no problems.

[marcfrick2112]

Hi Thomas, OK, did a quick check... the CD tray does open when the button is pressed. I double-checked the cable to the motherboard, it seems to be in OK, but may be damaged as you say. Some time ago, I remember having the same problem with the purple 'insert disk' screen showing up. I found a place that has one of those adapters for $6.00, I'll try one first before I send my 'baby' off to be repaired. Thanks very much, Marc

[marcfrick2112]

She Lives!! Whoo Hoo!

Again, thanks Thomas... I got an adapter cable locally a couple of hours ago, all is well. I really think I will need a replacement drive soon though, my 8.5GB is getting on in years.

Any recommendations regarding IDE hard drives?

(Although I don't really want to open my miggy up yet again  :-o

[marcfrick2112]

@ rkauer: I didn't see any battery on the motherboard. There is what looks like a lithium battery in my 1260 board, those types don't leak, correct?

Again, thanks everyone  :-D