Is it possible?

[TheMaDMaN]

I've got a working Desktop A4000/040 that the original 120Mb IDE drive has failed on.  Sadly, the 3.5" floppy drive has also gone the way of the dodo.  So, I'm left with an interesting problem - how to install a replacement hard disk?

I thought of a possible way, but wanted to find out if anyone had done it and if it might work...

I have my working Windows box, as well as ADFs of my workbench (3.0) disks.  Would it work if I was to install a hard disk in the windows box, setup WinUAE to see it, boot WinUAE from my Install 3.0 ADF, run HDToolBox and then install Workbench onto the hard drive, then put the hard drive in the A4K and boot it from that?

Or should someone tell me I'm dreaming?

[jj]

yes u can

u can mount a real amiga harddrive in winuae, but i cant rember if it needs to be pre-formated in amiga filesystem

word od warning, i tried this, it was a good few releases ago, and i lost everything on my miggy harddrive, but as your starting from scracth, that shouldnt be an issue, it might be more stabel by now]

[tomekm]

I think a good idea would be to install replacement floppy. If you`ve got no other Amiga floppy, you can easily adapt a PC-HD drive to work with Ami. You simply need to connect floppy`s pins 2&34 together, and if drive motor does not spin while accessing disk, connect pin 16 to ground (/MOTORON). You also should check if your drive is not set to unit 1. If yes, you simply rejumper it or use typical pc tape (with some wires mixed). It worked for me when my a1200 floppy definitely died. The solution is almost identical to Escom`s solution with a1200, where there were pc floppys installed.