Hi
Sorry for misleading the guy it wasn`t intentional I can assure you. I do apologise for making such rash statements, but in the face of someone who is obviously struggling with first Amiga basics I thought it better to be blunt, and try and steer him clear of one or two obvious pitfalls. Anyway you are absolutely correct in what you say, but if you will permit I would like to make one or two tiny observations, which I hope are correct. Feel free to throw anything else into the pot if I`m getting confused again.
You are correct that 2.1 can be used with the 2.04 ROM, as I am sure 2.05 can. Saying that 2.1 was a software update for either 2.04 or 2.05. In respect of 2.05 this was brought out primarily for the A600 to give support for internal IDE and PCMCIA. There were three kickstart versions of the 2.05 and there were issues of drive sizes supported for each. Some A600s were shipped without the 2.05 ROMS and these had no support for hard drives over 40MB. I just felt that in discussing the issues of hard drives it would be prudent to raise the campatibility of ROMS and drives. This way new guys won`t waste time and money trying to fit megga drives to systems that can't take it. As I say, just my thoughts.
My advise from my earlier post should have been more specific in respect of reasoning, and I agree to the inaccuracies but I would still hold that you should use the software that was shipped with the ROM. More of a guide than a rule.
As to low level formatting.... interesting. I am holding in my hand a 4.3 Seagate SCSI drive that I use as a paper weight cus it is of no use to man nor beast cus of the dreaded Low Level Format. Whilst I agree that LLF can work on older drives, and loads of new drives simply ignore LLF you give the false impression that there are no risks to LLF. I suggest those reading this go on a search for detail on the web and see what others say. Newer drives are factory formatted and this data can be destroyed by LLF.
In this instance the gentleman concerned has his drive on the machine and I assume he has an icon there. So why not simply format the drive with the software rather than risk anything. At least with my solution he wasn`t gonna destroy the disk. Sounds like that may have just happened. What do you think ... ?
Anyway, I`m a bit of a newbie to these Forums, and haven`t really got the knowledgebase to advise too much but I would have thought the following would be helfull. It's what I would do.
a: Check the ROM to see which version. Thats easy. Disable the hard drive and see what comes on the screen when you start up. Or check from the pull down menu if the hard drive boots into the OS for the version.
b: Boot from the Workbench disk for the ROM ie 2.04 to see if the hard drives are being detected and check with the software for hard drive failure with the verification tools.
c: If the drive is causing great problems then Format from the Workbench menu and re-install the 2.04 OS.
d: If the 2.04 worked fine then consider updating to the 2.1.
One other thing we failed to mention is that the A2090 or A2094 came with Hard Disk Software. And I guess this guy hasn`t got that. Fortunately I do so I may be able to help.
I do believe that they made a 2.05 ROM for the A2000. Managed to track an advert down on the web. Not sure they are still about. Dunno.
Anyway, all comments appreciated. I do apologise again to the guy with the problem for my inaccuracies. And trust me I`m not being sarcastic... I`m just new to this Amiga Forum.
Cuppa tea me thinks.
scuzz
