Newbie (well oldbie that forget everything) help....

[Tenacious]

Great stuff Mike and Dan!

If you are going to upgrade to OS3.1 and install a new drive anyway, consider Gulliver's "BetterWB".  He has compiled a package of many of the best OS updates without penalizing system performance.  You can tell I'm a fan.    The trick is to install immediately after the new OS (before you and SW installers alter the OS).

More info can be found here: http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/BetterWB.htm

[Tenacious]

Well, at this point is it worth getting a replacement SCSI?...what is the lifetime expectation for 80's vintage SCSI drives?  My thought was it would be better to get a CF drive...  Though those bridge boards that support IDE Hard Drives are expensive.  Plus I could then relocate the CF to a panel on the back of the machine to have easy access to it....?

I still have SCSIs HDs running in most of my systems.  I'm fond of Quantum drives that are less than 4 GB and they are easy to setup.


EDIT:  Ok, I finished dinner.  SCSI drives made in the late 90s are in the range of 2 to 4 Gigs.  If installed in a hobby system that is not left ON 24/7, I would think some of them have a great deal of life left.  If you are concerned, buy several.  Connect the spare periodically and backup to it.  I wouldn't leave the spare connected full-time (I learned that the hard way!).

Another means of file transfer between other platforms and Amigas is Zip drives.  They can be found for cheap on eBay with all the different interfaces: SCSI, IDE, and USB.  Food for thought.

[Tenacious]

The CDR worked with the previous hard drive and it continues to do so....I just finished checking again...to be sure the drive hadn't become damaged.

The CDR and the 2.1 GB HD don't play together.  the CDR is SCSI ID 3, the HD is SCSI ID 0.  The BUS is terminated, the CDR is the last in the chain and it's terminate Jumper is set.  (which works with the other drive).  I'm not sure what Active or Passive means, but I'm guess it means without a terminator at the end of the cable? and just using the drives jumper to terminate?

If you are using the new HD with a fresh install of OS3.1, could the stock CD0: icon in devs: be specifying SCSI.device (I think this is the default for OS3.1) instead of GVPSCSI.device?  You are using a GVP SCSI controller, right?  Which is used on the old HD for the CDrom drive?

[Tenacious]

That is probably it.  On 3.1 you have to change it in the actual CD0 device file yeah?  Not in the tooltype for the icon information like on 3.5+

Yes, you will probably have to use a text editor to change the Device = SCSI.device parameter, if this is the problem.  Double checking the same file on your old HD with OS2.1 should remove doubt.

EDIT:  oops, you've already done this.    Wait, you've read the text in both files (not the icon info) of both HDs  and they both use the same device?

I've used AsimCDfilesystem in the past.  It's good AND it handles long file names well (part of its charm).  It also installs a lot of bloat!  I mentioned BetterWB many post ago.  It also is supposed to come with a CD files system (and a CD player, etc) that can read PC-style long file names.  I haven't confirmed this yet, but, it sure looks like a much cleaner installation and solution.

[Tenacious]

I'm sorry, Ive edited post #30 and you're responding fast .  You did confirm the text, not the icon?

It doesn't make sense that you have a hardware problem if the old HD and CDrom work together but not the new HD and CDrom.  

OTOH, did you ever mention what version of ROM is installed on your GVP SCSI interface?  Maybe it's old and marginal with a 2.1 Gig HD.

[Tenacious]

Oh... and on the GVP card it is an older version of the rom (but it worked before!!!) I am have a friend burn a new rom for me with the latest one though....

Ok, my money is now on the old GVP ROM.  It seems there were some docs on the net about the versions and their shortcomings of the older ROMS.  However, I think you have a great idea about swapping the 2 Gig HD to the end of the internal SCSI chain, if only temporarily for testing.

Congrats on increasing your HD space by a thousand times.