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

[wbrejnia]

Booted with KICKSTART 1.2 (Original ROM) (** A ton of clues **)

So with the KICKSTART 1.2 ROM in place things are certainly different.

- FIRST, those Workbench disk that I thought were Totally corrupt and were crashing (ARE NOT CRASHING!!!) they Load!!

- I have to rebuild some new Workbench 1.2 Disks and Load up Bridgeboard Software.

BUT THIS what I get when I try to start with that original Working DISK Labelled  "AMIGA/PC"



** JANUS Handler Not Loaded !! Interesting **


- So looks like the true error message I was missing on the other Kickstart ROM.

Does this mean the Bridgeboard is BAD?  Probably not.  It's SW or something else.

- And what's interesting if I click on the PC WINDOW (8088 PC boots DOS6.2 up from the 5.25" Floppy)
** BUT the BRIDGEBOARD PC, is still having that C: Drive MBR pick up problem **

Does this mean I just need some disk fix up (who know what I did to it 2 years ago)
What I mean disk fix up.  It start Workbench built from Scratch Clean.

*** AT WHAT's really interesting, is the Bridgeboard install Manual SPECIFICALLY SAID I need to set 8088 PC memory to E000 for my 8088 bridgeboard (( A MUST, highlighted in the manual ))**  
*** When I had other Kickstart ROM, It kept defaulting to D000, and I couldn't change it VIA PC-Preferences, because PC-Preferences would CRASH attempt change to E000
**** I just tried the change NOW, and it worked Perfectly, It's set to E000 as it should be.  Maybe next boot might be good.

Lot's of work ahead of me.
At least I have the original Setup that used to work.

[wbrejnia]

** WOW !!! ***  Many of my 3.5" Floppy GAMES I thought the were AGE-CORRUMPTED are now working

When I was going thru my box of Original GAME disks, many of them were not working (INSTANTLY CRASHED the Amiga)

I was considering Formatting them to use as empty disks!! (since I thought they were bad)
Glad I left them alone.  They are working with the KICKSTART 1.2 (I recently read that some games won't work on higher kickstart ROM).  I have a bunch.

Super Cool, my Game Collection has just doubled.

Will be able to load up that GOTEK with some (Rare Games) if some of they are not available for Download.

[wbrejnia]

ANOTHER MYSTERY SOLVED (RLL Drive) Losing MBR (proven)

I put the AMIGA Workbench RESTORE aside. To much to do.

But since I noticed the same LONG  PULSING LED behavior on the RLL drive (using Kickstart 1.2), it got me thinking to test that drive more.

So I got the RLL drive recognized in the 486 using the 8 Bit Western Digital RLL Controller (and I still have a Floppy off the 16 Bit Hard drive Controller)

(The trick was exactly the same as the ISA-IDE Adapter)
----> DISABLE in BIOS all the Hard drive, Leave Floppy Drive active.

And to my surprise the drive acts just as weird as in the 8088 PC.

-> Same LONG  PULSING LED behavior at boot trying to pick up MBR.
-> I format it using DEBUG (Using LL BIOS Format on WD Controller)
-> After LL-Format.(Partition, Format)..Looks perfect.  Ran Ranish Partition Manager, DOS SCAN DISK. PERFECT 100%
-> Reboot computer a few times and MBR disappears.  C: drive gone.
-> ALSO after a good format (The Drive won't boot as a C: Drive, even if visible), exactly the same as on the Amiga 8088 Bridgeboard PC.
 
I have no idea why this is happening.
If the drive was defective, Low Level Format would pick it up.
If the drive was defective, all those INTENSE SCANS using multiple tools would have picked up something.

It's purely the MASTER BOOT RECORD, and BootSector of drive (which is on Sector 0)

SO BASICALLY the Summary is:

Bridge board is Fine, or at least the part about not booting from the RLL drive.  It tries just like the 486 but can't for a good reason.

The RLL drive is acting weird!! (on both computers).  It works perfect when MBR is Picked up.  Or when MBR is in DOS memory.

[wbrejnia]

I am starting wondering if your 8088 BIOS that it is so antiquated is afflicted by Year2000 bug so it sometimes causes conflicts when loading filesystem, or MBR.

I still own a 486DX2 clocked at 66MHZ and I never experienced problems of BIOS as it is enough modern it stores infos with correct MMDDYYYY format system, but I encountered problems with ancient computers storing date in MMDDYY format.

Can't be Y2K anything.
I haven't put the Coin battery into Amiga Yet, it's running 199x time.
And same problem with 486.

I'm going to try this (C: drive RLL) (D: drive ISA-IDE-Adapter IDE Maxtor Drive) in the AMIGA.

Basically, I block the C: drive channel using the RLL Drive, to make the ISA-IDE adapter work as a D: drive.  

(this works on the 486 as shown below)



If that works in AMIGA.  Then I have a HARD drive in my Amiga 8088 PC.  
GOOD enough if stable.

Stilll need a 5.25" Floppy to boot (my biggest drawback).

Can the GOTEK be a 5.25" Floppy with correct Firmware and jumpers?

If I can get that working with a D: Hard drive, I'm set (Gotek A: drive on 8088 (D: drive Has two partitions, DOS, Amiga)

[wbrejnia]

TIME TO install the GOTEK (in Amiga)

To make my life easier to get all Fresh copies of Workbench, BB, etc

I'm going to Install the GOTEK. (to be my DF0: DF2:, and I'll be able to use my A1010 External drive as DF3:) Correct?

Did I get this right from my reading? (The GOTEK will read .dms files)

All the stuff on Amiga.resource.cx is downloadable in (.dms) format.

Instead of downloading and converting to .ADF, can I just put the .dms file on the USB stick?

My Window98 PC has all kinds of Software I downloaded couple years ago.
-Amiga Explorer
-ADFOpus
-ADFread

I forgot how to use this stuff.

[wbrejnia]

WOW, the GOTEK setup was Easy (less than 10 minutes of effort from Start to finish).

-Just ribbon cabled it to where Floppy was
-Put int USB with ADF Selector (Selector booted and worked.  No files)
-Copied a few ADF files on to USB
-Booted again to Selector
-Picked an ADF file (Save and Restart)
-Amiga Booted (Gotek LED showed "001")
-Game booted.

Wish everything else was this easy.

Now how to get the (DMS files over) is next.

[wbrejnia]

No updates on testing yet.  
Really busy setting up everything for a clean start, having all the tools I need to stop the fumbling.

Put aside the RLL Drive and ISA-IDE-Adapter (Separate future effort & my go into DOS/DISK forums to solve this on 486)
Also will wait for IDE-USB Adpater to arrive to see if that works on 8088 Amiga PC/486. (mini-Converter-cable arrived)

Just working with the Bridgeboard and 5.25" Floppy.

At this point got myself setup with (Clean/Reliable Floppies) AND:

1) Win95-PC with Internet (for downloading)
2) Amiga Explorer on Win95-PC

3) ADFopus FileManager on Win95-PC
3a) re-Learned how Explore and convert/view/extract (.dms) to (.adf)
3b) Learned how to make EMPTY (.adf) Images.
3b) Learned how to Copy Amiga Floppies to (.adf) file on PC.

4) Downloaded and prepared Clean:
4a) AmigaJanus Disk
4b) PC-Install Disk
4c) Bridgeboard DOS programs/utiltites
4d) Workbench 1.2
4e) Workbench 1.3
4f) Workbench 3.1 (Complete Set of disks)
4f) Workbench tools (Notepad, More, DiskSalv, SysInfo, etc)

5) Understood Benefits/Usage/Features of GOTEK (and drawbacks)
5a) Got some stuff loaded on Gotek USB for mix of tools (AExplorer, WB1.2, WB1.3, SysInfo, DiskCopy, etc)

6) Experimented with WinUae
6a) Extracted my Amiga2000 Kickstart 1.2 ROM

7) Looked into HxC Gotek for DOS Floppy Emulation (5.25" 640k, etc) for 8088 Bridgeboard.

Ready to start the clean from scratch build and testing.

[wbrejnia]

Have you tried disabling 68030 at boot menu and run Bridgeboard software only with 68000 standard CPU?
I hope Win95 is being protected behind reliable Firewall and modern Antivirus still supporting that ancient version OS! O_O

Not sure what you mean 68030 vs 68000.  How do I that.

Yes I have a firewall, actually two Firewalls, but why would I worry about that OLD OS.  I'm trying to get DOS6.2 working !  But I guess it is safer with no network.

[wbrejnia]

A picture is worth a thousand words!  I proved my Bridgeboard is good.



The E-book will be on sale next week



Time for some Well Deserved Rest, till the IDE-Flash-Card- Adapter arrives.

WallyB

[wbrejnia]

QUICK UPDATE:

- I played with Low Level Formatting (Dynamic Parameters) on RLL Hard drive based on some reading, and it appears the RLL Drive is stable (MBR is picking up on Every boot so far )
- Still doesn't boot C: drive (could be other underlying reasons)  Autoboot??
- I don't trust things quite enough to start loading up software.

- I also played with the (Amiga df2: )HARD file setup that I have working to boot the BB-8088-PC
- Found out that plugging in Western Digital Controller doesn't change things. (still boots)
- BUT as soon as RLL drive is plugged into Controller (Active or NO-Active Partition) the AutoBoot disables on the Amiga (thus Hard File Booting stops working)

- I played with Aread/Awrite & Jlink (not working) but I am using old downloaded versions (Downloaded most current version and will try)

- I have a chance to see if the Bridgeboard PC will boot via the Lo-Tech ISA/IDE-Compact-Flasg-Adapter.
- The IDE to SD Card arrived today
   ---> http://www.ebay.ca/itm/231881879210?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
- The IDE connector converter (Large-to-Small) arrived today
   ---> https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA66K2043381&cm_re=StarTech_BRACKET25_Adapter_Kit_to_Mount_2.5%22_HDD_in_3.5%22_Drive_Bay-_-11-993-005-_-Product

[wbrejnia]

First Try will be 486 for ISA/SD-Card (Combo)

I have everything I need to try it out.
I was impressed that the seller included the Ribbon Cable (not shown in the Ebay Ad)

- Have to figure out 486 BIOS (Custom, or NO BIOS)
- Have to figure out how to Image, or will pure FDISK work?

We'll see. (This is a little bit of Mix-matched Technology).  Proper Compact Flash Adapter on the way.

[wbrejnia]

Darkage,

MANY thanks for E-Packet Idea.

I ordered a fish tank thing Dec 2016.
It never came (7 weeks waiting)  Two weeks ago I contacted Seller. They gave me refund (Package Lost)
I asked for replacement but this time E-Packet.
They agreed (Free Shipping).
It shipped Last Thursday, and Arrived TODAY (5 days from China-to-Canada)!!! INCREDIBLE!!

Many thanks!!!

[wbrejnia]

There is a network add on and tcp/ip stack for dos.  IIRC it was part of the NTserver resource kit.
I had it working way back in the 90's

As if I need more challenges (for Bridgeboard 8088 PC).  Thanks for the information anyway.

[wbrejnia]

Darkage,

MANY thanks for E-Packet Idea.

I ordered a fish tank thing Dec 2016.
It never came (7 weeks waiting)  Two weeks ago I contacted Seller. They gave me refund (Package Lost)
I asked for replacement but this time E-Packet.
They agreed (Free Shipping).
It shipped Last Thursday, and Arrived TODAY (5 days from China-to-Canada)!!! INCREDIBLE!!

Many thanks!!!

Never mind that point.
I contacted seller to thank him, but when I opened box, the quantity was wrong.  Turns out this is Old Nov 3rd, 2016 Order (Finally came)
New E-packet replacement is still on the way.

[wbrejnia]

Tests coming up.......

I don't want to just go ahead an pop things into the Amiga and hope things works.  Since if the don't I'll be left wondering.

So a few tests in 486 should help set the baseline and make sure I got connections properly done.

If this mix of ISA-IDE-Compact-Flash-SDcard doesn't work, my only hope will be the True IDE-CompactFlash-Adapter, which should arrive this week.

[wbrejnia]

[486] [BIOS-Enabled] :  [IDE] -> [IDE-SDcard-Adapter -> 8GB-SD] Working like a charm (486 Screaming Fast for Disk IO)

- I couldn't risk Frying anything, so I checked the cabling pinouts (twice)
- Checked that the StarTech 2.5" to 3.5" Power connections were proper

- First Boot to BIOS picked up the 8 GB SD card
- But after BIOS exit. The system Hung, Power reboots failed.

Finally figured out the boot sequence was (C: B:) in BIOS, so was trying to boot C: Linux [Since SD card was re-used from RaspBerry PI)
Flipped BIOS to boot (A: Floppy) first that FIXED.

Some issues with Partitioning.  Couldn't modify or remove partition.

Then I did a "fdisk /mbr", that put a MBR with a Partition Cover Whole 8GB SD Card.  (Still not modifiable)

Then I noticed in FDISK the Option to REMOVE NON-DOS Partition.
-Remove the 8 GB Partition.
-Created new Partition 32 MB (ACTIVE) with DOS 6.2 [Max possible was 500MB or so]
-Formatted /s  ( ***** LIGHTNING SPEED, never seen a DOS format so fast **** )))
-Rebooted with NO Floppy in Drive.

It booted to DOS6.2.

RAN a few Dos Disk Tools on the SDcard(C: Drive).
Couldn't help laughing out loud seeing them scream on the 486, compared to IDE, or RLL drives (that I watched before).

** Moving on, to Replacing 486 BIOS, with  Lo-Tech-Adapter  on the same 486 **