installing workbench 3.0

[Franko]

Hi have a 4gb cf hard drive fitted in my amiga 1200 which works very well,but having a spare 4gb cf card i thought i would have a go at installing workbench 3.0 on it ,so as to learn a little, so i replaced the cf card with my spare one and inserted the amiga install 3.0 disc and all went well untill it asked for the workbench 3.0 disc which i then inserted and it did not read it ,so i cancelled it,but when i now boot up to try again theres a Dos screen waiting for me to input some text lol,and i dont know what to put, i think maybe i have done some thing wrong,and had better put the good cf card back in ,any ideas?

Hi mrmoonlight

First thing to try, is put your working CF card back in, (assuming that one has OS3 on it and is usable). Then put the Workbench 3.0 disc in the drive and check it for errors. I don't know what sort of disk utilities you've got for checking disks, but xcopypro was always a good one that I used to use for error checking floppies.

Failing that try copying the entire disk into RAM: if you have enough RAM. Or create a new drawer/folder on the working CF card and copy the disk into their, you can easily delete the folder afterwards.

If the disk checks out ok or copies without any errors, you could try reformating the failed CF card and try reinstalling it again.

If the disk has errors though, you'll either have to try fixing it or sourcing another copy of the disk.

Hope this helps...

Franko

[Franko]

Hmm.. It's been so long since I had to install a version of OS3.0 that I can't remember the order the go in. When your asked to insert the workbench disk does anything happe, ie:- can you hear the drives heads moving back & forth trying to read the disk, does the floppy led come on.

Try inserting all the disk one after another when it asks you for the workbench disk just in case your inserting the wrong disk, although it doesn't sound like it.

It could be the CF is not formated properly or has errors/is faulty is there any way you could format the CF on a PC for example, as there was another thread running where someone was having similar difficulty as you and after he had formated the CF on a PC then reformated it on the Amiga everything went fine for him.

If your not getting any further an the first install disk then when you try to boot up with that card, you won't get anywhere as their will no Workbench installed on the card and all you'll get on bootup is a plain on cli window.

Sorry I can't be much more help at the moment, but I'll have a look around the sites and see if I can find something to help you.

Cheers

Franko

[Franko]

Hi Franko ,thanks again for your help,and thats a point,up to now ihave been formating it on the pc,lol not sure why,mind you will i be able to format it on the amiga with it not working right , and yes the floppy lights come on for a short while,but up to now i have not had a problem with the floppy drive, is my 3.0 floppy workbench out of date now ,should i be looking for something a little more up to date?

Hi mrmoonlight...

Sounds to me like that the problem, If you've only been formating the card on a PC, then you need to format using your Amiga now. I can't remember if you can run HDtoolbox or HDInstall directly from the floppies. If you can't you'll need to create a new floppy with HDtoolbox or HDinstall and boot up from that floppy then you should be able to format the CF for use on your Amiga no problem.

I don't use CF's myself only Hard Disks, hopefully someone else with experience of CF drives will be able to tell you a quicker way of doing it. But if your able and willing to give my suggestions a shot in the meantime, then you might be able to get it up and running.

Cheers :drink:

Franko

(just a quick thought did you not get an install/format disk with the CF drive when you bought it !!!)

[Franko]

If you have managed to format the CF on the Amiga then the CF will be completely blank.
However if somehow you do have some stuff on the CF, then you could boot up from probably the install disk. (you'll have to boot with no startup-sequence ie:hold down both mouse buttons and select 'boot with no startup') and when your presented with the cli screen, type DIR ALL to see if there's anything on the CF. If their is then youd can use the DELETE ALL command to remove them.

[Franko]

Hi i think this is where it all went wrong when i first put the install 3.0 install disc in all the information ,came up such as install etc when asked  if i wanted to partion the drive i said yes,but it said cant do this,so like a clown i carryed on,and created no bootable partition,and now i cant get back to the install bit again

Hi me again...

Not quite clear on what you have done here. you need to clarify what you mean by 'cant get back to the install bit'

Franko

[Franko]

Hi mrmoonlight

Glad you got everything sorted,

Enjoy your Amiga... :cool: