"Preparing HD for AmigaOS3.1" for beginners ... or not ????

[Thomas]

I hope the low-level-format didn't work because IDE drives usally are destroyed by llf commands (there is no llf command in the IDE standard and different drives do different things when receiving such a command). However, if you did the llf to one of the 4GB LUNs then it hopefully was ignored by the Powerflyer.

Well, what does FastATAPrefs say about the drive's unit ? Perhaps something like "Split mode enabled but drive was partitioned in non-split mode" ?

Did you run FastATA.driver in your startup-sequence ?

Does partitioning of one of the other 4GB parts work ?

What happens if you disable split mode and try to partition the entire hdd ?

How did you clean the drive so that you were able to install it again ?

What were the problems you had with the drive initially which made you try to start all over again ?

Does the drive work on the internal IDE bus ?

Did you check the correct placement of cables and jumpers ? A loose cable can well cause strange effects.

Why doesn't your emergency floppy work ?

Bye,
Thomas

[Thomas]

-Does partitioning of one of the other 4GB parts work ?
Didn´t try it because the A1200 looks at the first 2 Gb of any harddrive, doesn´t it ??

The A1200 looks at the first 4GB ob any harddrive. And as it sees five harddrives in you case, it can access the first 4GB of all five drives. That's the purpose of the FastATA's split mode.

-What happens if you disable split mode and try to partition the entire hdd ?
Now this is interesting because to my surprise the option "split" is disabled ... don´t know why ...

Well, I'd like to make the drive completely empty, but I'm not entirely sure how to tell this to the FastATA software.

If it is possible, you should connect the HDD to a PC and create a partition on it. This should delete all Amiga partitions and FastATA settings on the drive.

For an Amiga-only solution I would use this procedure:
boot from the install disk,
open a shell window,
run fastata.driver from whichever disk it is on,
run FastATAPrefs and make sure the split mode is off,
save prefs but don't reboot,
run HDToolbox to check if split mode is off,
even if not, kill the RDB anyway. Here is a program for that: http://home.t-online.de/home/thomas-rapp/killrdb.lha

I'd also check if the drive keeps data written to it, or if there is some fault. Perhaps it has a serious read error in the beginning and therefore the new partition table wasn't written permanently. However, I cannot suggest programs for this task because I usually write small utilities for that myself, if needed.

Bye,
Thomas