Installing Workbench onto a GVP Impact Series II A500-HD+?

[Tenacious]

@Mick

You really need some documentation! Amiga OS is famous for its eligant design and features.  This includes the textural Command Line Interface (CLI or Shell) as well.  The syntax is easy and well thought-out, one of the best on any platform.  You can issue any command with a ? after it (that's COMMAND space question-mark, grin) to get a listing of valid parameters, but, you need some info to interpret the listing.  OS 1.3 relied more heavily on the CLI to suppliment the features of Workbench.

You should find some books on e-bay.

"The Amiga Dos Manual"  any edition, the commands are the same

"The Amiga Companion" Rob Peck, excellent tutorials and useful examples

"AmigaDos" Commodore, very good, many copies published

"Introduction to the Amiga 500" Commodore, general operations

Any of these would be an excellent reference for the CLI, writing script files, etc.  I don't know how you'll get along without one.

"Best Amiga Tips and Tricks" Denny Adkins, not about CLI but excellent anyway

@ anyone

Are any of these books reproduced on-line?  I didn't see these kinds of specifics on Amiga-wiki.

[Tenacious]

An alternative to the CLI is to use a Dir Utility like Directory Opus (on Aminet).  Again, the Amiga platform is blessed with the best dirutils on any platform, this is no exaggeration!  Dopus was cloned to Linux as Worker for this reason.  Windows Explorer is a very pale excuse compared to the top 10 such programs on the Amiga.  Some choices available on Aminet for free include:

Directory Opus, ver 4.1x, very good and most popular

Ordering, rediculously fast even at 7Mhz, requirs few resources

Disk Master

ClickDos


All are pre-configured but can be customized with the commands you use most.  This is were those manuals come in handy again.  Many people have uploaded their Dopus configureations for others to study, improve, etc.

[Tenacious]

You have been reporting a loud hard drive and strange floppy behavior all along.  Unless you are running a strange trap-door memory card, like the one from ICD, there should be no memory conflict with fast memory.

Replacing the hard drive would solve one problem.  Mating the GVP to the A500+ might solve the other if its floppy is more reliable.  Yes, you can still load Workbench 1.3 to the HDD while running 2.x roms (for compatibility with both roms).

As you may notice from other threads here, replacement floppy drives are in short supply.  Maybe a cleaner disk will help.

This would be a no-brainer for me.  The A500+ with greater memory and newer rom would make better use of the GVP