**Need Setup HELP** with Classic Amiga 2000 HARD DISK (Bridgeboard)

[wbrejnia]

Why don't you try making a new floppy disk installing FREEDOS on it? It is fully MS-DOS compatible but it sports real multitasking (not cooperative like MS-DOS), better text based command shell, supports 32bit design, and lots of advanced features including reading disks with advanced geometry.

[EDIT]

Question: I wonder inspecting Tools like Snoopdos from Amiga side what say about Bridgeboard card?

Also I will try moving files from an Amiga formatted disk in Amiga side to a PC formatted disk on PC floppy reader and vice-versa in order to check if they copy and move smooth from an environment to another (68000<->8088) or they arrive in someway corrupted in size and contents...
It could be a good test to check if Bridgeboard is fully functioning in trasferring data...
This is important to check indirectly if Jdisk a.k.a. JanusDisk command parameters starting from Amiga side pass directly to PCSide...
I know it is really empirical but it worths a try...

Are you saying YOU will try and do a Awrite/Aread?

Or I should?
I tried  before and it didn't work from PC Floppy to Amiga Floppy.  Or Amiga Floppy to PC Floppy. (I will try again)
SHOULD THAT WORK?

[wbrejnia]

As I said previously if I was in your shoes I had had inserted MFM controller on a modern PC with ISA bus cards  and had had run any Linux partitioning software like GPartED capable to detect multiple kinds of partition types and to check if they exceed their sectors bounduaries...

I did try putting in the WD MFM controller into my 486 with ISA slots. (Earlier)
It hangs the machine.
Even the ISA/IDE adpater hung it, till I changed the jumper.
I have to play with BIOS options.
But it's the conflict with two Hard Drive Controllers.
That PC doesn't have a Floppy Controller on Motherboard, so very limited.

I just need to do my RLL Drive copy the hard way.  Using Floppies.
Then LL format the Octacon RLL drive with COntroller BIOS.
If I get the drive to work, I'll have DOS on HD, Amiga OS on HD.
Things will get easier than living in Flopppy world.

[wbrejnia]

SPLITTING THIS EFFORT in to [3 Projects+]

This is getting too complicated for this single thread.

Splitting this into 3 Projects (with 2 new threads)

1) This [PROJECT 1] The RLL Drive recovery
** Efforts will continue in this Thread *

2) [PROJECT 2] The Lo-tech ISA/IDE Adapter in AMIGA 2000
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?p=822026#post822026
** I contacted "Lo-tech" vendor for support **

3) [PROJECT 3] The Lo-tech ISA/IDE Adapter in 486 PC
** coming soon **
** I contacted "Lo-tech" vendor for support **

4) [PROJECT 4] Possibly try the WD-MFM Controller/RLL Drive on the 486
*** Future *

[wbrejnia]

[SETUP SANITY TESTING]  PLAY-PC and two DRIVES ((** TEST IDE drive not working with ISA/IDE Adapter,  IDE Drive not working in XP PC) same cable.

I need to set some working baselines since too many unknown bits and pieces.

- So I put back the (TEST) IDE Drive back into the PLAY XP PC.
- I booted from floppy
- Drive is recognized just like before.

- Then I put in the TRUE IDE Drive from the 486 on the same IDE-CABLE
- Booted from same floppy
- DRIVE IS NOT recognized by (Motherboard BIO or by FDISK )

So there is something special/different about drives. Possibly the (TEST) IDE Drive.

I need to get this working before expecting the ISA/IDE adapter to work.

[wbrejnia]

[SANITY TEST 2]  TEST IDE Drive NOW WORKING in 486

I setup the 486 with just the (original HDD/FD) Controller.

I cabled the 3.5" and 5.25" Floppy to the controller

1 Hooked up the TEST-IDE-Hard drive.

It took some fumbling with BIO (AutoRecognize HD) but I got it working.

Setups are picky.

Now I will try putting in the ISA/IDE controller into the 486 after getting a 2nd-TEST-HARD DRIVE Setup.

[wbrejnia]

 GOT Lo-Tech ISA/IDE Adapter WORKING (NO 486 Hang) and Recognized in 486 PC

It was tricky, but I basically tested all Drives separtely on the 486 HD Contrlloer

Making sure the cables were all correct (orientation and working)

But biggest advance was going into BIOS and (removing the Drives that were not there) and SAVING to BIOS

Then the 486 Booted, and you can see the LO-Tech Adapter IDE Bios Pick up.  

486 Boots from Floppy.

I didn't hook up any drives to Lo-Tech Adapter, since taking this one step at a time.




I learned that I have to take this in very small piece part steps.
Things are sensitive and dependant.

[wbrejnia]

[ ANOTHER CLUE:   on TEST IDE/DRIVE   Format ]

While I have the TEST IDE/HD hooked up to the 486 Controller, I ran NOTON DOS on it.

Right away it picked up a problem.



Don't exactly know what this mean, but I'm assuming my Formatting of the Drive using an more Modern XP computer created a DRIVE not support back in Legacy/Stone Age Days.

I need to parition and Format this drive the OLD way using OLD DOS etc.

Then I can possibly expect it to work on OLD DOS, OLD BIOS, and OLDER 8088 Bridgbeboard PC.

[wbrejnia]

NO matter what IDE-HARD disk I put on the ISA/IDE adapter, the ISA/IDE BIOS won't pick it up.

Hoping that Flash Card-Adapter when it arrives will get picked up (I ordered a local Large to Small IDE cable) should arrive very soon.

I think if I get over this hurdle, the ISA/IDE adapter will work in the AMIGA Bridgboard PC.

[wbrejnia]

What do you have hooked up to the lo-tech card ?

If its hdd, please note -

Hard Disk Device is Not Detected

Only hard disks supporting ATA-2 command set can be used.

https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/Lo-tech_ISA_CompactFlash_Adapter_FAQ

Older IDE hard drives have more chance of working then later model IDEs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA#EIDE_and_ATA-2

If not already I would test with a CF card attached.


It might be more productive if you can provide less posts that are rich in straight to the point information.   I find it hard to follow this mega thread with what you have done and not, etc.   You could probably create a book from the thread

Also I would make an account at the following forum, http://www.vcfed.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?3-Technical-Support

they might be able to help with PC/XT side of things ?

Yes, I am going to start making my Future posts more simple.

The details were good at the beginning when things were going well.
Some of the history of information is quite useful to me.
But my posts have certainly spiralled out of hand.

I did check the Ebay Listing where I bought the Adapter.http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Assembled-Tested-Working-Lo-tech-ISA-CompactFlash-Adapter-IDE-for-8-Bit-PCs-/282312406702?hash=item41bb2176ae:g:9HYAAOSwL7VWoBxq

It does say clearly it specifically made for Flash Cards.

[wbrejnia]

Quick update.

I spent a lot of time hoping to not have to do the Chunk Dump of the RLL drive manually, by trying a ton of software.

Basically nothings works on this 8088.

Testdisk was my last hope. But it wanted a 386 CPU, and didn't work.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

So got myself setup with Norton Disk Edit and bunch of floppies.
It allows me to dump 1000 Sectors at a time (512 bytes per sector), which fit nicely into a 760K formatted 3.5" disk (writing to my External drive off the Bridbgeboard PC).

At the beginning (first 7 sectors) where the Hard Drive is corrupt, I learned when a Sector read failure occurs i(DiskEdit Tool) fills the missing locations with "00" which is perfect. (Everything is spaced properly in the image file)

It's working well, since the "Write-Image-to-Disk File" Tracks the last Sector I dump and next file dump starts off at next sector (1000 Sectors at a time).

Painfully slow, but working.  I've done 10 dumps, 60 more to go.
Even slower since after ever few dumps, my old floppies die, so I picked out some of the best I have.

Once done, I'll concatenate all the Mini Image dumps into One or two Image files (2 images: for both PC & Amiga Partitions), or (1 image: for the whole ALOK disk).

With these images on a Modern PC, I'll have many tools to try and extract the files.  I can try many time without risk to original copy.

Either way, since I can't get the WD-RLL Controller to work in my 486 (which limits my tools to the 8088), I'll do the Low Level Format of the RLL drive, and see what happens (Hoping a reallocation of good/bad sectors restores the drive. I will be a few sectors short).

If I manage to re-format the drive clean, then I'll have choices.

1) Build up a new setup (DOS and Amiga)
2) Do above but try to dump the Backed up Images back.
3) Somethings else

Stay tuned.  I am running mini dumps, every time I pass by the computer.

[wbrejnia]

LUCKY BREAK ( 2nd IDE Drive in 486 PC Picked up by ISA/IDE Adapter)  ** Low-Tech Adapter Working with an Hard Drive. **



I got tired waiting for these Mini Image Dumps, so I thought I'd try the 2nd IDE Drive in that OLD 486.  It's only 250MB so thought maybe older IDE-2.

I hooked it up to IDE/ISA Adapter and it picked it up.

Now I got to try in the AMIGA Bridgeboard PC.

If it works, so will FLASH CARD  (( And I can do a Full Image Dump!! ))

If it doesn't, then   Again.

[wbrejnia]

I can't seem to get Two-In-A-Row lucky breaks.

The Lo-Tech ISA/IDE Adapter on first try DOES NOT work in the Amiga.

I tried (adisk) (fdisk) even (Norton DiskEdit - Physical Disk)

NO FIXED DRIVE FOUND!  (Weird, why wouldn't it work)

If I don't resolve this, then CF won't work, and thus back to FLOPPY Disk Image dump.

...and I am left with One Last and only HOPE (Low Level Format of the RLL Drive).

(The only last ditch effort I have is switch the Address Jumper on the Lo-Tech Adapter, but last time the Bridgeboard complained about Signals)

Darn!!

[wbrejnia]

NOPE, ISA/ESA Adapter BIO ROM Jumper setting change doesn't do anything.

This is getting to be too painful and time consuming, possible another disappointment on the horizon.

I have no more strength left do do 40 more Floppy disk Image Transfers.

Going to think about it a bit and I'll just LL-Format the RLL drive.
With my luck it won't work.

We'll see, my luck has flipped flopped during this whole thing.

[wbrejnia]

I did some more testing but no luck.  Tried to un-partition the Drive in case it needed to be partitioned on the AmigaPC.

As I prepared for a WD BIO Low-Level Format, an email came in from Steve Pierce of Lo-tech.

He asked for details which I sent so I'm waiting for his reply.

Holding of on format, and re-started Chunk Image Backups each time I have a moment to flip-flop disks.

[wbrejnia]

It might be more productive if you can provide less posts that are rich in straight to the point information.   I find it hard to follow this mega thread with what you have done and not, etc.  
You could probably create a book from the thread

I couldn't resist ....( if any of you don't like this bad attempt at humor, just PM me, the image can be removed)

Wasting time waiting and flipping floppies.  4 or 5 more to go.
Then I try the Low Level Format..




I am stopping at the end of the First DOS partition for the IMAGE DUMP.

Too painfully slow when I had my mind on a single dump.

What if it doesn't work.  This way I'll be half disappointment or half happy.
I go the thesis, I have one image to attempt the hack recovery.

And maybe I can move forward on something more interesting like the Gotek or a working RLL Drive.

[wbrejnia]

ALL DOS Image Dumps Done!!   Forget the Amiga Partition.

When I was reading up for the Format I came across the Jumper Setting of the WD Controller.


http://www.coleskingdom.com/files/WD1002.TXT

Playing with these might enable me to put the Controller into the 486 without it hanging due to Other Controller Conflict.  
(Wish I payed attention to this last time I read the manual...Should be in the Dummy Book)


Plus I don't really know what to put into these (two) the LL-Format parameters (rrr ppp).


Must read up before I destroy the Drive.