A question I should've asked earlier

[curtis]

Okay, I'm attempting to put my Amiga 2000 together with my brand new Buddha board and I'm getting nowhere.

The board recognizes my hard drive, but when I go to prep, format and install system on it, the computer doesn't see the drive.

Looking through the manual on the floppy, it sounds like I need a hard drive already installed to install the Buddha drives.  Is that correct?  I need a hard drive to install a hard drive?

So my question is, do I need a formatted SCSI drive and controller to install the Buddha board?  If so, that sure is dumb!  I was wanting to use the Buddha board so I could make use of the gazillion old IDE drives I've got laying around.

I do have an Oktagon board, but the drive on it is toast and I don't have any drivers for it.  So that won't do me any good as I don't have any SCSI drives.

I'm attempting all this with WB 2.04.

[curtis]

First, forgot to identify the exact model.  It's the Buddha Flash Phoenix.

I bought this brand new from Amigakit.  I have the driver.  However, whenever I click on the Install icon, it starts the process then stops saying I only have 28K of space on my system folder and it needs 200K (I think).  Since it's booted from a floppy, I can see where there wouldn't be that much space left!

My question is, is there a way to boot from floppy and prep, part, and format the IDE drive then install WB onto the hard drive without having to go through a SCSI drive/controller?  That seems to be what it wants me to do, which makes absolutely no sense!

According to the manual, I SHOULD be able to use the installed Prep, part, format program that comes with WB.  But when I try, it says there's a problem opening SCSI device #6.  Since I don't have a 2091 installed, I can see where it might have a problem opening that particular device!

I think you're right about needing to install scsi.device on the boot disk, but as stated above, I don't have the room to do so.

I'm beginning to feel like I"m stuck in a loop.  You need to have a hard drive installed to install the hard drive!  HUH?!??!?!?!?!?

[curtis]

save2600, you may have just saved my sanity!

All along, I've been using an original WB 2.04 Install disk.

HDToolbox.  I was using the prephd, formathd, utilities not HDToolbox and it was failing miserably.

I had been running the scan utility from Buddha and it always found the drive.  Except for when I was trying to use an IBM 512Mb microdrive.  Guess I'll contact Amigakit for the correct CF to IDE adapter.  More money!  : (  

Once I went into the right spot, I was able to correctly get the drive identified, low-level formatted, and partitioned.  Drive is formatting even as I type.

Hopefully after the format, I'll be able to install system and go from there.

BTW, the Buddha disk is NOT bootable.

Will report as I stumble further along.

Ya know, trying to recall memories from the '90's is a bit painful!  It's been that long since I"ve done anything with the Amiga.  Unless you count playing Lemmings and Faery Tale Adventure...

[curtis]

Well, after finding the correct tool, drives formatted and system installed.  Boots just fine.

Next step, find a way to get the 512Mb IBM microdrives to be recognized and then do it all over again!

After that, add the bridgeboard and install DOS and then get my vintage disk image back up and running.

Thanks to all who have contributed to my sanity by helping me solve this problem and jostling the cobwebs out of my memory.