Amiga 4000 install problem

[gdanko]

About a year ago I picked up a free Amiga 4000 030/25 desktop machine that is in pretty nice shape!

It had a 1.2 GB drive and a single floppy. I was never able to boot the machine and after plugging in an 800k floppy drive I realized the internal floppy on the 4000 was dead.

I installed KS 3.1 and a new hard disk, then booted off a 3.1 WB disk using the 800k drive. I was able to partition the hard disk using HDTool.

When I tried to install the OS I got to about 12%. The installer asked me to insert the Workbench floppy. After inserting the floppy and clicking proceed, the screen flashed as if I had put in the wrong disk. Thinking my 3.1 disk may be bad I tried to install off 3.0 disks. Same deal.

It looks as if the floppy drive did not update itself when I put in the WB disk. I installed to my A2000 using the same method.

Am I doing something wrong?

[Matt_H]

It sounds like something is weird with your floppy drive. You said you already replaced it? Make sure the drive is jumpered correctly and also make sure it's connected to the correct part of the floppy cable (before the twist, if I remember the user's manual correctly).

If that doesn't work, you may be able to reset the drive manually after swapping disks with a DISKCHANGE DF0: command in the shell. That may only work for 5.25" floppies, though, I don't remember if it's valid for standard 880K ones.

[mpiva]

   Hmmm.  First off, you should never have to click "proceed" when switching disks.  The OS will autodetect the disk change and kill the requestor for you.  However that being said, clicking proceed, while being unnecessary, should still work unless you're clicking proceed too quickly and the OS hasn't recognized the diskchange yet.

   If you don't run the installer and swap disks.  Does the Workbench recognize the diskchange?  If not you can try opening the Shell and typing "Diskchange DF1:"  That should force the OS to recheck the disk inserted into DF1:

[gdanko]

Hmmm... I can boot off the drive into a workbench disk but removing the disk and inserting a new one does not update in the GUI.

I will try the diskchange command tomorrow evening.
Hopefully that will get me installed.

[gdanko]

Thanks Matt, I will also doublecheck the cable. Wish me luck!

[mpiva]

If that doesn't work, you may be able to reset the drive manually after swapping disks with a DISKCHANGE DF0: command in the shell. That may only work for 5.25" floppies, though, I don't remember if it's valid for standard 880K ones.

  It works for any drive.  I use it for multi-volume CDs all the time.  DISKCHANGE CD0: pops up a list of all the volumes on the CD and than you just select the one you want to use.  Works great!

[gdanko]

Well here is the final answer on the install woes. The original FZ-357 was *not* bad afterall. After a call to my local Amiga shop (yes, we have one here) I confirmed someone's earlier post. On the A4000, DF0 has to be plugged into the MIDDLE outlet on the floppy cable and not on the end. When I plugged the FZ-357 into the correct outlet on the floppy cable everything worked. The floppy drive spun back to life and disk swapping worked.

One weird glitch came up during install. It did not cause the install to fail but it has me alarmed. I have two 4 GB partitions on the disk. These were created by the Amiga's HDToolbox default configuration option. After inserting the "Extras" disk during install I get a message something along the lines of:

There is not enough space on the target disk to copy the Amiga system fonts. You may copy the fonts after freeing up space by dragging the disk Fonts: on top of the disk System:

I can Abort or Proceed. If I proceed the rest of the install completes, including copying files from the Storage disk and more files off the Install disk. Has anyone ever seen this weirdness? Is 4 GB too large to install 3.1 to? I am able to boot the 4000 afterward and everything appears to be working.

My 4000 is a Rev. B if that matters.

[PPC]

if i remember correctly the first partition on the drive (seen from left to right in hd toolbox)for 0s 3.x should not be bigger then 2 GB.
hope this helps you solve the last weirdness.