A2000 can't boot hard disk

[Malakie]

I tried booting my 2000 yesterday after a long hiatus but was unable to boot from FS3:, the disk mounted on the A2091.  Doing a L+R mouse boot, the only devices listed there are the floppy drive and QDH0:, which is a second hard disk daisy-chained on the 2091.  It contains a copy of the boot disk, but if I select it and boot, I just end up in AmigaDOS and can't give any commands.  I can successfully boot a WB 2.1 from floppy though.

I also have a CD drive with AmigaDOS 3.9 in it but I can't boot from that either.  The CD drive isn't on the boot device list.  I could use some help on how to proceed from here before I make things worse by randomly poking around.  Is my boot disk toast or is this a controller issue?  Is there any diagnostic I can run?  Is there a way to boot from QDH0: into WB?  Any help would be most appreciated.

See if you have your cards install boot disk on floppy.. (if not you can find a download of the latest a2091 install disk on a few websites out there but you DO NEED a working floppy disk OR Gotek Drive ADF image of that disk to accomplish an attempt to repair)

 Boot the system from that disk.  Load HD Toolbox.  Once it loads, does that HD appear in the list?   If so, that means the drive is still available but something probably corrupted the boot sector and/or directory table.   If the drive itself no longer appears in the list at all, the drive most likely failed.

If it does appear however, you can try to repair the boot sector of that drive a few tools like diskdoctor or QBTools.  They can both repair a damaged boot sector so it may be worth to try to fix the boot sector IF that HD does appear in the HD Toolbox list as available. 

If that does not work, your next option is to go back into the HD Toolbox and try to fix JUST the boot partition by removing just that partition and recreating it.   If that is not able to be done, back up any other partitions that may still be available on that HD before doing anything else.

Once you do that and as long as that HD does appear in HD Toolbox, perform a FULL LOW LEVEL format.  Not a high level or OS level format, not yet.. There is a button in HD Toolbox to perform a full low level format.   It will take a while depending on drive size.

Once the low level format is complete, reboot again using the a2091 install boot disk.

Go back into HD Toolbox and if that HD does appear, click it and then the DEFAULT setup button.  DO NOT select boot option yet.

Let it set the defaults, save the changes to the drive and exit HD Toolbox.  Reboot again.

Once reboot is complete, now do a regular FULL format.  DO NOT use quick format.  Do a FULL format to insure all bad sectors get mapped that the low level format found.

Once that is complete, go back into HD Toolbox, click on that HD again and then set to BOOT, save changes to the HD, exit and reinstall the OS to that boot drive.

If the drive is still functional, you should get through all of that without any errors and be back up and running from it..  If you start getting consistent errors as you work through all this, the HD may be going bad and quickly (the a2091 failing too is a possibility but the last case possibility)

[Malakie]

Hi, There is a program you can use on both a PC and Amiga to either make an ADF out of a floppy or make a floppy from an ADF file... Can't remember it's exact name, maybe someone here knows or has a direct link they can post.....

If you have a gotek, that is the easiest though.. just place the ADF file on a memory stick and it will boot off it as if it were a floppy..

You can find the A2091 ADF file on a few different archive sites.. or again maybe someone has a link they can post here for you...  Look for version 1.3 at minimum..  Then use the HD Toolbox on that disk (I think it is in tools or utilities on that version if I am remembering right)  The ADF/Floppy for that IS bootable either gotek or floppy if you make one.

[Malakie]

bah need a delete message option

[Malakie]

I have one for my A2000 and as far as I know, connection wise they are all the same.. You want one that does say A2000 just to insure it fits in the floppy slot because the outer case is slightly different for different machines.   They also make TWO versions.. One has a small screen that only shows 3 numeral digits and nothing more, another version has a fill OLED display though, that tells you what disk you are loading, shows the tracks as they are loading off a disk and more.  This is the one I chose.


What's nice is you can set the gotek to emulate a single drive or to just copy a buttload of ADF files to a memory stick and scroll through them to find the one you want.. it then loads that one automatically as if you put a floppy in a drive.. So far the use has been flawless and is also faster than a floppy drive itself of course.  You can also set the gotek as a boot device, i.e. DF0: which I did.  My actual floppy drive, I changed to DF1: then.   The gotek plugs right into the same power and cable as the floppy you have now using the same cable for both.


The Gotek is available both brand new and on Ebay from what I am finding.   So make sure to compare prices.


Also a couple other points..   There are no decent instructions on using the thing..   I am learning how to use it by trial and error.. Why someone has not actually written up a comprehensive manual is beyond me.. Especially since it has multiple modes and I have yet to figure out how to use some of those other modes it has.

Finally, your memory stick you use, it has to be formatted to fat32 to support Amiga and the Gotek.. If you format it any other way, it won't be recognized.  I just bought a $5 pack of a dozen cheap 64gb sticks and they work great.  And of course with 64 gb.. well you can pretty much store the entire Amiga library on one...  Although I am organizing mine now for games, applications, utilities and so forth.