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

[Raffaele]

One of my former Amiga friends, Giuseppe, has at parents home one working A2000 with Janus 386 board and both he owns a non functioning bridgeboard 486sx, and both cards are with complete disks and manuals in italian.
In that remote age I helped him replacing standard 5,25" Floppy with 3,5" frame model on PC side and he put ISA IDE board into PC side, so he had no any of your problems with HDDisks and floppies, but sure I will ask him for a image of the floppies.

Dunno when he could find some spare time to retrieve all the material back tough, so you must be patient.

[Raffaele]

@Wbrejnia

In your first post, when you originated the thread, you said HD woke up with loud click-click sound...

This make me think one of drive heads has gone.

Hard disk should had woke with noisy gentle whirl sound... Noisy, but sure gentle, not clicky...

[Raffaele]

I wonder if DOS version of Ranish Partition Manager could be of some help, as it reads many kinds of Hard Disks values.

P.S.

@Admins. I am surfing these pages with Firefox on Android tablet and today is the first time it happens site loses my log status.

I mean I logged in, then site loses my logged in status every page I turn. For example when I am on page 14 when starting loading page 15 I must log in again... I made no any changes to cookies settings, so I wonder what's happening on. I repeat. First time I experienced this.

[Raffaele]

Raffaele,

I downloaded, read up and tried the Ranish program.  Nice Lite program.

Help file is Super to describe DOS File system in detail

It seems it reads your Disk geometry correctly, but the fact it does not recognize any partition is a problem.

I remember a version of Ranish caoable of imposing HD to impose manually DOS type when this feature was corrupted, but maybe I was wrong.

Also I do not remember if Verify option in Ranish returns just infos or if it attempts rebuilt corrupted sectors.

[Raffaele]

Raffaele, I'm not expert (YET), but if you have having boot problems, have you set the IDE drive Partition to Active, and installed  Bootstrap code?

If I remember well I used Ranish because I wanted to install Linux as second OS on my Pentium 266 MHz and I resized partitions giving any a different identifier.

Some went wrong with Windows partition but I managed to solve it.

Now it had been passed more than 20 years. I do not remember if I rebuild FAT table or I need to enter the cylinders/sectors/head where it started phisically the Windows partition that hard disk electronic assumed it should start at another position.
I used mainly Ranish and another tool I forgot the name. But I did it... All with my bare knowledge of MBR and Fat problems with the risk of loosing all my data. ;-)

If I remember well elder versions of Ranish had more features for imposing DOSType hex in the start sectors of the HDD and for tricking DOS where partition had to start. It was potentially very dangerous for non-expert users, but very useful.

I wonder what could happen if you put your MFM HD Controller on a Linux Machine and starting play with it with modern tools like GPartEd and KDE Partition Tool, or using a Linux Rescue CD from a Windows Machine... Sure they could give you the hint if patition is out of its cyl, secs original bounduaries.

[Raffaele]

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...

[Raffaele]

[DIAGNOSTIC IDEA]

The only Ideal I have is one of the PC Norton Tools I tried shows the DOS OS system details and I believe interrupts.

If I put in the Western Digital Controller (which I know works on the AmigaPC) and see if the Tool picks it up.

Then I put in the ISA/IDE adapter and see if it is picked up.

No hard-drive needed for this comparison.

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...

[Raffaele]

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?

Yes. it should transfer files flawlessly!

Try some gif images, simple text documents and maybe an AmigaDOS command like DIR or EDIT, verifying if it works again when copied back into Amiga side.

Text Document Files obviously must be with CR+LF (CarriageReturn + LineFeed) to be read by Text readrs on PC Side.

I do not remember name of DOS command to use to complish this task... But yes! it should be ARead and AWrite commands.

[Raffaele]

[ 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.

Yes it is a just a simple formatting issue originated by modern parameters settings.

[Raffaele]

YAY! I am on the Dummy Book! ^_^

[Raffaele]

I found this DOS Tool from SEAGATE called SEATOOLS. It performs various types of checking disk surface tests, including "acoustic" one! WOW!

It is capable to mark bad sectors, so then you can perform simply a Format on it.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/201271en

BTW!

Are you perfectly sure sectors are bad? I still believe that something mangled Table of Partitions making disk believe partition started outside its bounduaries.

[Raffaele]

Infos on Old Hard Disk Formatting:

http://ftp://ftp.seagate.com/techsuppt/misc/drivetyp.txt


(This is very interesting as refers to internal controller CMOS that have various types HDDS definition it it and maybe CUSTOM Option also defining the one that users mounted. If you alter that value, you are unable to read partitions as if you entered valid but alien geometry parameters.
I remember I encountered such a problem once on a PC by a Peecee friend.)

What is inside a MBR:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/STDMBR.htm

Other infos:

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-39928.html


The Hard Drive Bible:

https://archive.org/stream/CSC_Hard_Drive_Bible_Edition_8_1996/CSC_Hard_Drive_Bible_Edition_8_1996_djvu.txt


Two great utilities: Disk technician and SpinRite!
Spinrite seems to be still active developed, or at least it was sometimes ago!


Disk Technician infos (check where to download it)

https://winworldpc.com/product/disk-technician-gold


SpinRite! I read of it. It is great software or so it seems!

https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm


And in the end, if any other system fails:

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/200-ways-to-revive-a-hard-drive/1/

[Raffaele]

C: Drive Scans done.  (READ/WRITE) tests come back 100% clean.

Rebooted Amiga-PC without Floppy, but still wants Floppy for boot ??

Time to RE-READ the AMIGA Bridgeboard Manual and do all the setup steps.

Amiga Kickstart 1.2 can't boot from Hard Disks... Only Kickstart 1.3 and above machines can. If I remember well you said your A2000 is 1.2.

[Raffaele]

Part I:

With KS 1.2 you need a "HD-Boot" floppy disk. This must contain the necessary Amiga files to mount the harddrive and to move the system/control over to it (e.g. with the command "movesys dh0:").
What this "HD-Boot" floppy disk does is a "minimum boot", so to say.
The "full boot" into Workbench is then done from the harddrive.

Of course it does. I omitted the HD Floppy Boot part you added at is seems me obvious. At least i remember how worked Kickstart 1.2.

Also if I remember well Movesys command was good utility from Fish Disks, either you must do all Assigns by adding it on S:Startup-Sequence (and Startup-Sequence only as User-Startup did not exist in 1.2).

[Raffaele]

@ Wbrejnia

Now we have some scenarios:

Scenario A

1) Boot Amiga from floppy and run PCDISk

2) it initializes Bridgeboard ad activate ISA Slots

3) PC boots from PC Floppy A. or B:


Scenario B:

1) Boot Amiga from floppy and run PCDISk

2) it initializes Bridgeboard ad activate ISA Slots

3) PC boots from C: partition on Hard Disk mounted on ISA Controller

Does it or Are there any issues?


Scenario C:

1) Boot Amiga from Floppy, Initialize Bridgeboard, Initialize Amiga HD DH0:

2) Floppy movs all System to Amiga Hard Disk (running but no booting)

2) On Amiga Hard Disk or other Amiga Partition RAM:, Df0:, etc., you can put Virtual C. File and make PC boot from it.

It should be made visible to PC with an option of JDisk (if I remember well)


Scenario D

1) Boot Amiga from floppy and run PCDISk

2) it initializes Bridgeboard ad activate ISA Slots

3) PC boots from C: partition on Hard Disk mounted on ISA Controller

4) JDisks make Amiga aware it exists virtual partitions files JF0: JF1: Etcetera upto 7 on PC Hard Disk partition C:


Scenario E

1) Boot Amiga from floppy and run PCDISk

2) it initializes Bridgeboard ad activate ISA Slots

3) PC boots from C: partition on Hard Disk mounted on ISA Controller

4) JDisks make Amiga aware it exists virtual partitions files JH0: JH1: Etcetera upto 7 on PC Hard Disk partition C:

5) Amiga can transfer system from Floppy to JH0: as Dandy says, just as like any other Amiga real Hard Disk DH0: but it requires some time to boot and make all virtual partitions JF-X: visible back to Amiga side

6) Amiga will use JH0: As any normal real Hard Disk for the entire time of the session (remember it requires partitioning and formatting).


Scenario F

1) Boot from Gotek Floppy Drive Emulator

2) Gotek ADF 1 virtual Amiga Floppy boots the Amiga computer, initializes Bridgeboard with PC Disk and activate ISA Slots so then PC Hard Disk becames visible

Unfortunately Booting from Gotek does not makes the CF Card visible as an Amiga Hard Disk. It mounts upto 999 Floppy drive images ADF visible to Amiga as if were 999 separate floppies each of one visible at a single time...
So you csan only boot from ADF 1 and then mount and make visible files present on another ADF like when Amiga prompts INSERT DISK Name_XXX.

So then...

3) You can put Virtual C: partition on a file on ADF 2 or above numbering SLOT on your Gotek virtual drive, but you have to do lots of assigns and joking with inserting/removing virtual floppy ADF and made right instructions to JDisk command.


If you want to use your Amiga-PC in a different way, please explain better what you want to do.