Strugglin' with SyQuest

[alberonn]

I have been playing with a SyQuest 88 and it seems like a nice way for me to
transfer stuff between my A4000 running under OS 3.9 and some older A2000's and
an A3000 that I've been working on for our users. However I have a major hitch.

I had reinstalled/partitioned (1 partition) the disks using the HDToolbox on the
A4000 and the SyQuest disks come up with SQ0:NDOS message (On the other
machines, it works OK on my A4000.) When I format them on the A2000's or the
A3000, (all running OS2.1) Those Amigas have no trouble reading the disks from
machine to machine, but for some reason, my A4000 can't seem to read them! (I
don't even see an icon for them, but I can format them.) I have no idea what to
do now in order to be able to transfer between the machines, but partitioning
them and formatting them as an OFS disk seems to be may next step.

Any and all help on this would be greatly appriciated...

[alberonn]

Interesting thing to add. I had partitioned a HD on my A4000 for a test to see
if it was a problem with my A4000 fromatting the drive. I then discovered that
the A3000 we had needs a Super Kickstart disk to boot up from floppy. (I have a
Workbench collection but no Super Kickstart disks. So I hooked up the SyQuest
with the Backup of the A3000's System partition to an A2000 as well as the
Harddrive, figuring that I would set things up for the 3000 and copy the
kickstart file to the harddrive after an OS 2.1 install. However, when I booted
up with a floppy on the A2000 with the Hard drive and SyQuest attached, I had
the Same SQ0:NDOS message. I powered down and unplugged the  HD and was able to
see the SyQuest again after booting back up.

Anyhow I got the KickStart file out of the A3000's original DEVS: directory. I
hope that's all that is needed so I can get that A3000 back up and running. I
plan on prepping it on an A2000 with a 2.04 ROM and the 2.1 disks I have.

The funny thing was the HD I was using was originally hooked up to the A3000,
and I was able to hook it up to the A4000 and copy the files off of it no
problem. I'm windering if the disks I possess have a buggy FFS on it? or is
there a FFS version on 2.1 that doesn't like the FFS I'm using on 3.9???

Is there anyway to teach either Amiga to understand the different FFS?

[alberonn]

Don't tell me no one else has seen this problem. I would really like an answer to this please...

[Effy]

This Syquest, is it a IDE or SCSI Both versions exist ...
I know that I´m having similar problem trying to get an IDE Zip drive to work on my A1200 ...

[Holley]

Have you tried formatting it using Fat95?  That would get around any potential FFS compatability problems (though I think OS3.9 should be able to at least read older FFS partitions).

I'm guessing if it's SCSI you've got the termination sorted, and tried different media etc. just in case it's duff.

[voxel]

hello alberron :-)

the problem is simple : AmigaOS3.9 comes with a fastfilesystem that's require the v43 scsi.device to function properly on ide (A4000) or scsi controllers (as in the A3000).

It is not compatible with the ancient AmigaOS2.1 scsi.device, as this one would be unable to cope with nsd or 64bits device commands.

you can try to install the nsdpatch on your old configs (no need on the A4000 as it is incorporated in the setpatch command) but you will need to install the scsi.device v43 patch too (not recommended as the v43 strip is an early beta of the one supplied with OS3.9).

or you can format your syquests cartridges in OFS (slower, but compatible).

is this help?

[6]

Howdy.  I have used 2 SyQuest EZ135's and a SyJet (1.5GB) on my A1200s and had problems with all of them (all scsi).  I had to use an A500 to format the EZ135 disks because the 1200 wouldn't do it.  I don't remember about the SyJet.  The performance of one EZ and the SyJet were always spotty.  I don't know the difference between the successes of the two EZ's.

The weird world of SyQuest.

[alberonn]

Why would putting a HD that was FFS formatted on the A4000 allow me to read the A4000-formatted Syquest on an A2000 and A3000? This is really weird stuff. NFS wasn't installed on any of the 2.1 systems. Neither was the SCSI.device.

If I were to updated the FFS on the Syquest discs would I be able to read it on the A4000? Just wondering, but not sure if it's a good idea. I was wondering if there was some way for me to grab the info without trying to copy to a HD and back to another disc. I'm not too sure how much HD space the A2000 has on it for me to copy stuff across since the owner has been playing with his A3000 at home.

I can give the OFS format a try, luckily I have about 5 88MB disks and the backup's only on two of them.

[alberonn]

Oh yeah, it's a SCSI model in an external case with a terminator hooked up to the second centronics port on the case.

The hookup is the usual 25(?) pin to Centronics cable.