Someone please help me out here

[scuzzb494]

Hi

The ZIP drive on the Amiga. Great when it works, hopeless, obviously when it doesn`t. Anyway I have the ZIP drive working on an A1200 with Squirrel and 3.9 OS, on an A1200 with 3.0 and a Blizzard plus the SCSI Kit, and on a towered A1200 with 4 way interface running 3.1, so we have a good range here. First thing I would say is that the Power Flyer should auto detect. Which suggests you have a conflict. Secondly I would suggest that your HDToolbox is picking this up as a hard drive... Sadly this can cause probs cus as you have pointed out you can`t swap the disk out while mounted. You can use a bit of software, which is a pig, cus each and every disk has to be named and formatted in exactly the same way.

Not sure if you can use IDEFix on the Powerflyer ( I wouldn`t be without it to be honest )

The way IDEFix gets round this is to put the ZIP on the second channel off the interface and use a mount command in the startup so you C:LoadIDE before the SetPatch on the startup-sequence. I have the CD and the ZIP on the second channel with the two hard drives on the other. ZIP then becomes UNIT 2. IDEFix is a great bit of software and may help. The device becomes an atapi.device. If I recall I had to install the device as an LS120 device using the tool icon that came with IDEFix. ( holds in hand Power Computings 4 Way IDE Buffered Interface ).. Power admit in this document that many devices claiming to be IDE didn`t work together. They certainly recommend using IdeFIX software to use ATAPI devices ( CD ROM, ZIP Drives etc )

.....going on a bit now sorry...

To correctly install and use an LS120 or ZIP drive you must first connect the hardware then run the INSTALL LS120 program. This is usually installed within your IDEFIX97 drawer on your hard drive. You use the same installer for both LS120 and ZIP drives. During the installation process it will open the FindDevice program and should correctly identify the device. You may need to select ATAPI.DEVICE and then click use. When the installer has finished it should have added a new line to your user-startupto mount the drive. You may get two icons appearing PC4 and DF4 - these are two dosdrivers to allow the reading of AMIGA or
PC disks. Tou can prepare either by QUICK format on the appropriate icon

.............. end quote from blurb.

Reading the PowerFlyer stuff it suggests that although an Amiga formatted ZIP will be autodetected a PC ZIP will not. Therefore an appropriate mount file like my ZIC one below will work. However it states that the device name is

device=scsi.device

Interestingly ( also ) the ATA3Prefs will not operate ( ie run ) while the ATA3.driver or any other software colliding with the ATA3.driver ( eg IDEFIX, ASIM.device etc ) is running.

Just a thought, have you got the ZIP set to auto-booting in the ATA3Prefs settings. ( have a play, but restart to make changes work )

Saying all that I have two ZIP mount files in the DEVS drawer one called ZIC for CrossDOS PC ZIPS and the other called ZIP for Amiga disks.

The icon for the ZIC on the 3.9 machine reads
ZIC(Project)
344Bytes
C:Mount
Stack Size 4096
Activate=1
Startup=1
Device=squirrelscsi.device
Unit=5

On the Tower
C:Mount
Activate=1
Startup=1
Device=atapi.device
Unit=2

Using CED or text editor the mount file
read:

FileSystem=L:CrossDOSFileSystem
Flags=0
Surface=1
SectorPerTrack=32
SectorSize=512
Reserved=0
Interleave=0
Buffers=128
BufMemType=1
MaxTransfer=0x01FE0000
Mask=0xFFFFFFC
BootPri=-127
StackSize=8192
Priority=10
DosType=0x4D534400
LowCyl=1
HighCyl=6143
Mount=1
Activate=1
GlobVec=-1

The ZIP File differs to the Mount File

FileSystem=L:FastFileSystem
Flags=0
Surface=1
SectorPerTrack=68
SectorSize=512
Reserved=2
Interleave=0
Buffers=136
BufMemType=1
MaxTransfer=0x001FE000
Mask=0xFFFFFFE
BootPri=-127
StackSize=1024
Priority=10
DosType=0x444F5303
LowCyl=2
HighCyl=2890
Mount=1
Activate=1
GlobVec=-1

..........................
Sounds like you need ZIC but not ZIP
Locate in DEVS:DOSDrivers, if you have
icon then check INFORMATION from drop
down menu to set device to scsi.device
The unit number shouldnt conflict with
any other devices I guess ( the PF manual
doesn`t say though it does say...
Primary Master Unit 0
Primary Slave Unit 1
Secondary Master Unit 2
Secondary Slave Unit 3
..........................

With 3.9 you get the ZIP tools box which
is useful, but the old traditional HDToolbox
has been junked. I liked the old HDToolBox cus
you could edit the ToolType to search for
any kind of device. You simply add lines that
say ( under information search from menu )

SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=xxxx.device
SCSI_MAX_ADDRESS=6
SCSI_MAX_LUN=0
XT_NAME=XT

This kind off interogation tools
method is why I stay under 3.5 ( retro )

Also if you use a tool like SYSINFO
you can check on all the devices and
drives you have mounted.

I junked my PowerFlyer by the way and
simply use the 4 Way interface and IDE-FIX.
The other thing to do is get an SCSI card
and run the SCSI ZIP from this. The ZIP you
have is the IDE version for internal use
is it. ( silly question, sorry )

Mounting the ZIP as a hard drive is hell. You
need to get it reading as a floppy. That is where
your problem lies. Sadly I can`t help you with
the powerflyer, though I do have the manual. To be honest there is very little I don`t have, check out the site.

Have fun sorting your problems. And I wouldn`t blame the manufacturer or supplier. Makes all the more the joy of making it work. You will.

scuzz
http://www.scuzz.org.uk/amiga/a_amiga_inframe.htm

[scuzzb494]

Hi

I hate to say this but I think you have a hardware conflict. I use to get similar problems with an Apollo and a CD ROM. I resolved this by swapping over to a Blizzard and all was fine. What other kit do you have on the machine. Infact give us the whole breakdown of what you are running there. Plus some info on the ZIP drive.. As much info as possible please. I mean the whole darn shooting match.

The icon images are defined in your Prefs/Env-Archive/Sys/ drawer... well they are under 3.1. I use these prefs to self define the action a certain icon instigates by clicking. Like say BMP icon to launch say FastView.

Un-initialising isn`t about the icon. The actual drive has not been mounted, and the disk is not understood. But this could be a hardware conflict.

What do you mean by Bump... or did I miss something.

scuzz-retro
http://www.scuzz.org.uk/amiga/a_amiga_inframe.htm

[scuzzb494]

Hi

You have an SCSI controller on the Blizzard so I would avoid using the scsi device on the ZIC or ZIP tool. I think that, to use the disk your gonna have to set this up as an atapi.device. The other way is to get an SCSI ZIP drive and run it off the SCSI, that way you can define the UNIT No quite clearly. Maybe, just maybe ( long shot ) you have a conflict on the way the Blizzard handles things and your getting two trains crashing in the station. The powerflyer is wanting to treat the ZIP as a hard drive. There is a utility on Aminet called ZIP4MAT if I recall, that gives a good guide on how to use these drives. You have to edit the mount file, but works just fine. I have a ZIP set up like this on an A4000. Problem is my other Amigas won`t see the disks created on the 4000. Sexy icon for the ZIP though, and you have to have the ZIP in the drive on boot. Great for running extra apps. I even have DOPUS set up on the ZIP drive.

To get the ZIP working as you do I think you need IDEFix97, LoadIDE in your startup after the SETPatch, and an atapi.device as the tool type. That way the ZIP is mounted through the DEVS and not through the HDToolBox as hard drive. If you check the HDToolbox it'll scan for devices and I guess it'll find the ZIP when you boot.

The thing the disk is missing is a small file called disk.info. If you check the hard drive on the machine you will find disk.info on each and every partition. Without disk.info on the disk the HD mount on the Amiga will register the disk as uninitialised. The way you get round this is to get the Amiga to read as a floppy. You do this through the DEVS: DOSdriver, but to load an Amiga Disk you would need an actual SCSI driver and device, or an atapi.device.

Long way round the houses but I do believe your gonna struggle. See if you can get hold of ZIP4MAT and format your disks with this. The software will find the disk, even if not showing on the workbench screen. It's a pig but it will work.

Pure SCSI is much better, or IDEFix97 and atapi.device.

Have fun.

scuzz

[scuzzb494]

Hi

Have had this response from an Amiga guy I know, may help a bit more.

[ quote ]

The Power Flyer differs to the usual 4-way splitters (IDE Express etc.) in
that it physically patches into the Kickstart roms and the Gayle chip, and
it doesn't require IDEFix. The driver is loaded at the start of the
startup-sequence, and lets the A1200 boot in the normal way, then applies the
speed-up patches for the Fast ATA. Four IDE/ATAPI devices can be run from
two channels, without the need for IDEFix software.

It is my understanding that ATAPI devices (CD-Roms. Zips) run without any
special ".device" software on the Flyer, unlike other splitters which use
"atapi.device".

On any Amiga, Zip drives can be used two ways; as fixed hard-drive devices
(as your friend is doing) or by way of the Dosdriver system (as you have
done with Zips and IDEfix). I too have come across the problem of being
unable to eject disks with the drive's eject button. I can't remember the
circumstances, but it may well have been when using "hard-drive" Zip disks.

The answer is, of course, to use the Dosdriver system. OS3.5/9 comes with Zip
dosdrivers. I don't think 3.1 did, can't be sure offfhand as I don't have a
bare installation - I seem to have added 3.9 dosdriver icons on my 3.1 boot
partition.

Anyway, it seems to me that whatever OS your mate is running, it is possible
to load dosdrivers from 3.5/9. Set the tooltypes for "Unit number" to 1 for
primary slave or 3 for secondary slave. I'm pretty sure the device tooltype
will be "scsi.device" since the Flyer patches the roms. In any case, the
Flyer software would  include a ".device" if it doesn't use scsi.device, and
the tooltype would be set accordingly.

OS3.5 also includes the IomegaTools software, which can be used to eject
stubborn disks if he prefers to stay with the hard-drive format disks. You
can set up a hotkey with ToolsDaemon, or a button in AmiDock. so that it is
only two clicks to eject a disk.  

Hope this helps.
BTW   There is supposed to be a very good manual with the PowerFlyer.

[ end quote ]

Well there you go.

scuzz