Amiga 1000 and supra hard drive setup

[Jman]

hello all. I have the following hardware. An amiga 1000, a kwikstart board with 2.0 rom, 3 starboard 2 expanisons each with 2mb on them, a supradrive 4x4 scsi expansion, an exteranl hard drive enclosure with 520mb hard drive. I have not been able to get the thing formated with the os 2.04 software, however I did get it formated with the supratools disk for os 1.3. I have been able to boot up with the 2.0 disk with the supramount 0 command. I really want to get this thing to autoboot but I am having a real hard time. I have searched all over the internet for information on this expansion. As I understand it from a web site this expansion should be autobooting so I am at a loss for why it is not auto booting. I am rather poor at editing the startup-sequence and whatnot but I can follow instructions so if anyone has any help I would appreciate it. Oh also I am in the united states, I don't know if this web page is out of the country but I don't think that should matter much.

[jeffimix]

To be autobotting, the expansion will have ROM chips in it. Sometimes they don't work with the next version of the OS. I have never used that hardware, so that's my best answer.

[Lo]

Does HDtoolBox recognize the drive at all?

Boot with the install disk if your HD is not installed.
Double Click on the install icon and open the tools dwr, dbClick the HDToolbox Icon etc.  There should also be a tick mark in the bootable box.

Sorry if this was of no help.

[Jman]

yes the hdtoolbox does recognize the hard drive. I can partition it and low level format it but when I restart the system with the same disk there is supposed to be an icon to select to format the hard drive partitions, I do not get these  unless I boot with the supra 1.3 disk or add the supramount 0 command to the startup-sequence.  I do so and format the hard drive partitions and reboot without the disk in but I just get the 2.0 boot screen asking for a boot disk.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I can partition it and low level format it but

Oh God, not the low level formatting again!  Jman, there is another (very long) thread already on this subject from several days ago.  Low level formatting is something that is done by the manufacturer, at the factory, and should never need to be done again.  Doing so may have the potential of making the hard drive unusable.

(and on that note, I'll leave it to the other guys with more experience here)

Best of luck,
Mike

[seer]

Low level formatting is something that is done by the manufacturer, at the factory, and should never need to be done again.

I missed the thread you're refering too, but IIRC, low level format  can.must be done on older SCSI drives, but never on IDE drives.

[melott]

I have an A1000 with a RocHard harddrive.
And the circumstances are simular. With the
RochHard I have to format and partition the
drive with the Rochard software and let it
install the OS 1.2, then I have to go back
and install- upgrade the OS 1.2 to OS 3.1.
Its not really a problem, after the drive
is bootable just go back in and do an
install of your OS 2.xx.

As far as Low-Level formatting, you 'DO NOT'
low-level format an IDE drive 'EVER'.

But I always low-level format a SCSI drive
when installing it, I have done this on several
occasions. I like update the bad block list.
Also if you are installing a drive that you
don't know what machine it was in before, in
my opinion it is best to low-level format.
You won't hert the drive by starting from
scratch.

Mel Ott

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

melott wrote:

But I always low-level format a SCSI drive
when installing it, I have done this on several
occasions. I like update the bad block list.

Hi,

Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse here, but shouldn't a standard format update the bad block list, as well?  Just curious.

Thanks much,
Mike

[melott]

I am NO athority on the subject, but no I don't
think the Bad Block List is updated every time
the drive is formatted. When I say I've done this
several times, I mean 5 or 6 times and that doesn't
make me an athority. I had a Quantum drive that
either came out of an Apple or IBM, it was reluctant
to take a low-level format and hi-level not at all.
Even then the drive didn't last long, a month or so
and it died, the whole head '0' crashed. I don't
think formatting had anything to do with it.
Anyway  a few months ago it seemed that I was
swapping drives around for ever.
As far as the bad block list, I always do a 'View Data'
and 'update bad block list' with HardDriveTools.
On my RocHard harddrive HarddriveTools won't
even look at it, it isn't conpliant with SCSI standards
in general so I format with harddrive tools, update
the bad block list then reinstall it in the Rochard and
low-level format with the RockHard software. I know
it seems the long way around but I am reasionably
sure of the drive now.

Mel Ott

[Jman]

Melott, I have to try to do that, use the supra 1.3 software and format the hard drive and such (really don't know the procedure because I just have the disk and not the documentaion). And then install the 2.0 OS software. But first  I have to get the two new 1gig scsi hard drives in and formated. I really do not know much about the 3.5" scsi hard drives. The old ST hard drives 5 1/4" had terminators that you unplugged on all but the last drive and I don't know how to set up these, plus I think I need a new cable in my internal hard drive enclosure because the cable only has one connector on it for one drive. So if all goes well then the hard drive should auto boot. Am I to assume that if it does not that I need a new autobooting controller? :-?  If so I am going to have to look around a while, these things are hard to find, I guess people still use them.