Hi, New to the Amiga with 2000

[SprPsycho]

Hi  :-)

I've never so much as touched an Amiga before, though I've been intersted in the Amiga for a while and I just got myself an Amiga 2000 yesterday.

It has a SCSI card and hard drive installed.... 2MB of RAM, a 14Mhz Adspeed, smells like cigarrettes(yeck) and isn't seeing the hard drive.  

It came with two floppies:

Workbench 2.1 and
Workbench 2.1 install

I was told that it did work, but that when they set it up to check before bringing it they couldn't get it to boot to the hard drive and it doesn't show when I boot to the floppies...

I have tried to use utilities on the install disk but they don't seem to see the hard disk when I try to partition or format it.

In general, I have apsolutly no idea what I'm doing. I've never been too good at getting SCSI going. Once I get it working I want to chuck a CD-ROM drive in that big gaping hole where the 5.25" face plate is missing and maybe get it on the ethernet network alongside my Apple IIgs.

[Darklight]

Well, welcome to amiga.org  :-)

The Amiga 2000 is a great machine, I've got a couple of them.  Even though they're one of the oldest models, they're still a great machine.  Just so we can help you, what actually happens when you turn it on?  Do you get a white screen with a hand on it, or a purple screen with a disk being inserted to a floppy drive, or does the screen just stay black?  Workbench is the OS for Amiga computers, and so you've got the OS disk, and the install disk.  Obviously you've worked out the basics of what you're trying to do, as you've tried to partition it.  Is the drive detected when you use HDToolbox?  If it is, well then it could be a SCSI problem (termination, etc).  Also, does your Adspeed have an IDE controller?  If it does, you could just add an IDE drive and ignore the whole SCSI problem.    

[SprPsycho]

I get a purple screen with a disk interting into a floppy drive if I turn it on with no disk mounted.

The Adspeed Accelerator might have IDE?  Now that'd be awsome..... Now.... I just need to figure out which card is the Adspeed  :-D  Is it that card I saw sitting rased over the motherboard underneith the drive bays?..

I'm going to go get a screw driver and open it back up...

[Darklight]

Yeah, that should be it, as far as I remember, the CPU on the 2000 sits underneath the drive bays, here, check out this.  That's the standard Adspeed, this is the Adspeed with an IDE controller.  Also, you've got Kickstart 2.0 (that's the one with the purple screen).  Try holding down both mouse buttons when you turn it on, and see if the HD is listed in the "Early Boot Menu".

[SprPsycho]

Well, I don't think the Adspeed has an IDE interface.  But if I can get an IDE interface for my 2000 that would allow me to use a Hard drive and CD-ROM drive I'd really like to do that and forget about SCSI.  I was told though that IDE interfaces are hard to come by.

[Darklight]

Well, they're not too hard to come by, but they're not very common either.  Some go on ebay every now and then, check there.  Also, what SCSI card are you using?  If it's a Commodore 2091, check what Rom revisions are on it (they're on stickers, it should say something like "390722-02 (Copyright Symbol) 1991 CBM V6.6 F929" - what follows V on your card? (assuming it is a Commodore 2091).  Also, what size HD are you trying to get running?

[melott]

Its possible you have a 2090 SCSI card, in which case
it won't be HD bootable.
What does the card look like, is there a place to mount
a HD on the card?
If no then its a 2090 card, (they are OK if you don't mind
booting from floppy all the time.)
What other cards are in the machine ?

Oh...BTW ... welcome to the Org :-)
 

[SprPsycho]

Well, the SCSI card.  It just says "HARD DISK CONTROLLER GX B-VO 8829" on it...

As for roms....I saw three chips with similar labels and wasn't sure which one was which....

Here's what was on them....

All three had the first two lines on their labels:

copyright 1988 CBM
All Rights Reserved

First one read "309230-02 2090 3145"

Second "31508-01 2090 AB5C"

third "315097-01 2090 D32B

I can take pictures if nessessary.

On a side note, when I took out the SCSI card I discoverd the RAM card could actually be uped to 8MB or RAM...so I'll be looking to do that in a little bit here...

[melott]

That sounds like a 2090 card, (bad break) the 2091
card with ver 7.0 roms is a much better card, it
auto-boots to HD.

[SprPsycho]

So this SCSI card isn't bootable?  eeew.

[Darklight]

Ouch, bad luck  :-(  SCSI controllers that are bootable are quite common though, you should be able to pick up a 2091 or a GVP SCSI card quite easily, and quite cheaply on ebay.  Just to make sure, is this the same as your card?  Here

[SprPsycho]

I'd say that SCSI card looks an awfull lot like mine..outside of a few different colors here and there.

Anyway, for what it's worth I took a photo earlier....

[SprPsycho]

So.... are there different IDE interfaces out there?  Ones that won't work with CD ROM drives or anything I should be warry of?

[Darklight]

Yep, looks like you've got a 2090, sorry  :-( .  Your options are to either track down a new SCSI card (either a 2091 w/ 6.6 or 7.0 roms), or a GVP or other card that supports Autobooting, or to get an IDE controller.  I would recommend getting a new SCSI card, adding a 500mb - 1gb HD to it, and using that for your OS, and whatever else you want, then getting an IDE controller that you use for games, etc, and your CD-Rom.  

[Darklight]

Yes, you need to make sure that whichever one you get actually has an IDE controller, and not a Mitsumi controller - they look the same, but they're quite different, and only devices that support Mitsumi controller will work on them.  Quite often they're labelled as "CD-Rom Controllers" whilst real IDE ones are labelled as IDE.  There are many different ones though.  Basically, check out The Big Book of Amiga Hardware before you buy any Amiga stuff, to make sure it's exactly what you want.  I think you'll find it much easier to pick up an old SCSI card though.  IDE is obviously easier to find devices for, but you may have problems finding the controllers.  Have a look around though  :-)