Argghhh...rkauer? Somebody help...

[Mallette]

Got home early today and had decided to just format an IDE drive and get the A4000 part of SimStation up until I've time to troubleshoot it's drive/OS issue.  Assumed it would be easy since I'd managed to format a drive the other day.  Not so fast...

I seem to be going in circles again.  If I mount the drive in Windoze and issue the disablehardrivesafetycheck command, WinUAE crashes when I try to format it.  If I make it invisiable to Windoze, WinUAE doesn't see it.  AAMOF, it mounts a second copy of my C drive where it was.

Dangit, I wanna have some fun...

Dave

[adolescent]

Are the jumpers set correctly?  Maybe they're both set as master on the same bus?

[Mallette]

Yep.  It's set as slave on the primary.  

Dave

[guru-666]

start by telling us exactly what you need to do.

[Mallette]

Same thing I successfully did the other day, mount and format an IDE drive.

I'd swear I've done the same thing:

1. Make invisible to Windozes.
2. Start WinUAE -disablehardrivesafetycheck.
3. Mount PC drives at startup.

However, if the drive has been made invisible, it does not show.  If I make it visible to Windoze, it shows, but WinUAE crashes win I try to format it.

I am assuming HDToolbox is SCSI only as nothing ever shows up to it accept SCSI drives.

Dave

[guru-666]

hmmm, any reason you can do this ON the Amiga with out having to take it out and mount in into a pc.. that would make things a bit more simple?

[Mallette]

The SimStation (Amiga4000D) is not booting at the moment.  That's something I have to fix and I've imaged the drives for that purpose.

What I am trying to do now is get something in there to use while I deal with the original SimStation issues via WinUAE.  I cannot afford to experiment with irreplaceable software.

Dave

[guru-666]

double post --- sorry ---

[guru-666]

I see. Interesting. Sounds like you already have a backup of your HD's, so thats good.  Now you want to use winUAE to do the work that the Amiga used to do until you get the Amiga fixed..or replace it all together.

So now you want to format the HD with winUAE... no idea.

your Amiga it will not boot? Because it still easier to do what you want on an Amiga, since you not using your original HD, there is ZERO risk of loosing your data.  Not to say that it impossible but some things are easy if you don't need to trick windows into doing something that it does not do at all.  I would fix one problem at a time, first order get the 4000 into a working condition with a NEW hd and new os, otherwise it is just one huge mess.

-----
BTW the final goal of running the thing on winUAE may still be possible but I feel like you are skipping some steps and making this harder than it needs to be.

patients .. you will get this working

[Mallette]

It was easy enough the other day, but I've slept since then.

So how do I format an HDD in the 4000 with no OS?

Have to go to work at dark thirty, so that's it for tonight...

Thanks to all...

Dave

[guru-666]

attach the HD to the amiga, insert the install disk form the 3.1 or 3.0 wb disk set and use hdtools.  very simple.

with out the the 3.1 disk set things get difficult.  FAST.
that was one of the cool things about Amiga, you can boot form a floppy.. and still store a few utilities on there to work!
have somebody make you a copy of the 3.1 install set, since you have the 3,9 cd you already OWN it.  (don't let any overly uptight amigas tell you otherwise).  depending on your funds and connections it may be worth buying a set from amikit... it expensive but at least he "sells" them still. The trick agin is you NEED an amiga to make this disks.  If nobody here beats me to the punch I can send you a set... but I need to fix my 4000 tower before I can do that.

when working with amigos it still important to have all the low level tools on disks.

[Thomas]

1. Make invisible to Windozes.

How do you do this ? AFAIK there is no Windows utility which can wipe a HDD in such a way that WinUAE accepts it afterwards.

2. Start WinUAE -disablehardrivesafetycheck

This makes step one obsolete.

3. Mount PC drives at startup.

That's nonsense. This option only adds drive letters as virtual HDD directories. This is nothing you can use to prepare the drive for an Amiga. You have to use the "add harddrive" button and choose the right HDD.

If I make it visible to Windoze, it shows, but WinUAE crashes win I try to format it.

You cannot format a HDD directory. Only real HDD partitions can be formatted. However, WinUAE should not crash anyway.

I am assuming HDToolbox is SCSI only as nothing ever shows up to it accept SCSI drives.

That's not true. HDToolbox only scans one driver. The driver's name is specified in the icon information or by command line. The default is scsi.device which WinUAE does not have. This is the reason why nothing shows up on the first run. You have to change the driver name to uaehf.device. Either open the icon information and change the tooltype to read SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=uaehf.device or run HDToolbox from a CLI/Shell window with the command line hdtoolbox uaehf.device.

Bye,
Thomas

[Ami_GFX]

 Make invisible to Windozes.
2. Start WinUAE -disablehardrivesafetycheck.

I think you only need the disablesaftycheck option. If windows recognizes the drive, WinUae will too. There is no need to hide the drive or remove the drive letter. I haven't gotten HD Toolbox to recognize a drive in anything less than OS3.5 in Winuae. You might have problems with the drive. I would do a bad sector check in Windows. The Winuae crash could come from a drive error. If you can't get anywhere in WinUae, I would put the drive back in the Amiga,boot from an install floppy and partition the drive in your Amiga. Since you have an A4000, you will need a 3.0 or 3.1 install floppy. Also, how are you connecting your ide drive to winuae--direct internal ide cable connection, USB box?? Sometimes there are driver or jumper issues with external HD boxes. I used an old 2.5 inch laptop drive in my A4000 and set it up in WinUae using a real cheap external USB 2.5" drive box. All I had to do was start Winuae from a command prompt with the "disablesafetycheck" option. I partitioned the drive with OS3.5 and then booted from an ADF image of the 3.1 install disk and formated the partitions and installed OS3.1 and put the drive back in the A4000, booted from it, and everything has been fine since.

[motorollin]

Leave -disablehardrivesafetycheck in there and use the ¨Add harddrives¨ option on the Harddrives tab in WinUAE to select your Amiga hard drive.

--
moto

[Mallette]

Thanks guys, lots of responses.  I've had to open a second copy on another screen to be able to reply...

guru666: Yep'em, I managed to get HDF files made of the SimStation drives as well as copies to an IDE disk I managed to format.  However, I cannot format an IDE drive on the 4000D as I have no WB floppies or way to make them.  If you wish to help (and once I am up, I have rather a significant store of Amiga software I can send you a list of to reciprocate...off list, off course) the address is:
David A. Mallette
2617 Vermillion
Seabrook, Texas 77586

I do indeed have legal versions of WB 2.X and 3.X.

Thomas:  I go to My Computer>Manage>Storage>Disk Management and delete the partition.  Basically, "unprep" for Windoze.

As to formating from an icon, I am pretty sure that's how I got the one I've managed to format done.  Otherwise, it must have shown up in either WinUAE Hard Drive mount or HDToolbox, or both without any tooltype change.  However, I'll try that this evening if I have time. BTW, SCSI drives ALWAYS show up in WinUAE Hard Drive mount options.  

AMI_gfx: Drive is fine, if old and showing signs of bearing wear.  It formats and checks out OK in Windoze.  I tried both USB and slave to primary connections.  Both work (or in this case, don't) with identical results.

Again, thanks to all for the responses.  I'll keep at it until I get results.  I am most excited both to get SimStation preserved, but also to get back to using DPaint and such as productivity tools in my work for which there remain no acceptable Windoze alternatives.

Kind regards to the group,
Dave

PS - Forgot about Motorllin: That's the problem...nothing shows up in the WinUAE config Hard Drives tab except SCSI drives (if present).

Dave