Anyone tried installing an Elbox Fast ATA 1200 MK-III?

[Fester]

Hi there,

I installed this Fast ATA 1200 MK-III controller in my towerized Amiga 1200 as per instructions. I also installed the Mediator. The 1200 does turn on and displays the initial screen. So far, so good.

I am not sure how to re-connect the 2.5" hard drive that originally came with the Amiga 1200. This hard drive has the OS on it. It's a Conner CP2088 2.5" hard drive. When I connect it to the Fast ATA 44 pin connector, should the Amiga automatically boot from it? Right now, the Amiga doesn't boot. It just displays the initial screen, as though no hard drives were connected. Any ideas?

Fester

[motorollin]

Is anything else connected to the FastATA interface? What are the jumper settings on the hard drive?

--
moto

[Homer]

I don't know this interface, but I do know you don't normally get jumpers on a 2.5" drive. Is this interface OK with that ? Do you have a 3.5" drive you can test the interface with ? Is there another port you can connect the 2.5" drive to ? Does this interface need software to activate it to even see the drive ? Pheooow, I'm off for a drink :pint:

[adonay]

are you shure you put the cable the right way around i use a mkIII every day and it has worked with 6 different hds in the 2.5 port and yes it should auto boot as long as it is conected in the 2.5 port on the mkIII and there is NO device in the pimary 3.5 port if you use a cd rom use the secondary 3.5 connector since the primary 3.5 and the 2.5 on the card is the same port hope this helps

[Fester]

adonay wrote:
are you shure you put the cable the right way around i use a mkIII every day and it has worked with 6 different hds in the 2.5 port and yes it should auto boot as long as it is conected in the 2.5 port on the mkIII and there is NO device in the pimary 3.5 port if you use a cd rom use the secondary 3.5 connector since the primary 3.5 and the 2.5 on the card is the same port hope this helps

Whoo hoo! That might be it! I have a CD drive in the primary! I'll go disconnect that and try again. Oh I'd be happy if this machine booted!

Festering like crazy...

[Fester]

I tried disconnecting the CD drive. It didn't help. I'll disconnect the FastATA MKIII and backtrack to the point where I could boot with the hard drive...

I sent an email to Elbox as well but not response so far...

[Fester]

Elbox replied to my questions regarding installation of the FastATA 1200. Some of you already have responded with these tips, but I am pasting the Elbox suggestions here if it may help anyone else with a FastATA 1200 installation.

Your 2,5" Conner should be connected to the 2,5" port of FastATA controller. Amiga should boot from it without any problem.

If it is not the case check the following:

1. If the 2,5" ribbon is connected properly - the red wire must be connected to the FastATA pin market "1" - it is placed opposite comparing to the original A1200 IDE port.

2. The FastATA 2.5" port and primary 3.5" port share the same resources.

You cannot install more than 2 devices to these port. One must be jumpered as "master", the second as "slave". If you have only one devices attached it should be jumpered as "alone".

[darksun9210]

sounds like you have the drives all hooked up ok.

can you boot off of floppy and run HDtoolbox or something (without the elbox drivers) and see if the harddisk is at least seen?

i had to switch the cable round on the hard disk end too.
most 2.5" drives do have jumpers. that little block of four pins to the side of the ribbon connector. master/slave/single drive and all that malarky

the fastATA is autoconfiguring/booting in as much as it'll allow the primary master drive to operate at PI/O mode 0 without the drivers loaded. it occupies the same address and I/O range as the onboard IDE device, and so can operate as such from the OS roms.

if you can see the hard disk in HDtoolbox, good stuff, and ALSO the partitions, after booting off of floppy, then you're luckier than me.

i had to recreate the drive drefinitions in HD toolbox, and then recreate the partitions after connecting it to the fastATA. bye bye data. if you can, before you move your drive to the fastATA, save your RDB.

i hope you have the version 8.4 drivers for the fastATA as 8.0 had a few "issues"... haha  :angry:

if you just used elbox's installer script, then the stuff it puts in the startup-sequence with crash IPrefs, so your machine won't boot. either that or crash when it got to mounting the CD device...

i edited the startup-sequence changes i got from my 4way standard IDE adapter to get it to work. but as with all things, YMMV.

also if using OS3.5/3.9 use the SKIPROMUPDATES SCSI.DEVICE on the setpatch line, and in devs:nsdpatch.cfg hash out every line to do with scsi.device, (and any other devices you don't think you'l be using) as the elbox drivers do their own patch of scsi.device. else setpatch will disable the elbox drivers, or not allow them to load depending on if they are loaded before or after the setpatch line.

when the elbox drivers are successfully loaded, in HD toolbox scsi.device should show as version 50.0

I'll only use the 3.1 version of hdtoolbox as for all its faults, it is at least stable.

personally, after loosing my hard disk a few times, getting pee'd off with the IDE drivers, i'm going to get a couple of SCSI2IDE adapters and using a fully DMA capable interface at a better speed than any amiga IDE adapter without hammering the CPU or having to load drivers :lol:

or at least, that is the idea...

[Fester]

Hi darksun9210,

You have good ideas in that email. Sorry for the late reply. I've put the Amiga and its parts in storage. So I'm not going to have a chance to try these new suggestions for a while...

My wife and I plan to move so we are spending a lot of time fixing and cleaning up our old house, to put it up for sale.

I plan to send the whole Amiga and the parts I purchased to an Amiga dealer/service shop and have them finish the job of putting it together. I think I'll do better learning to use the OS first once the machine is up and running.

Fester