Trouble Getting A2000 to boot from HD

[DazedNConfused]

After years of putting it off I've finally got my Amiga... This one happens to be an Amiga 2000 that I parted together from bits (mostly from ebay). Here's my issue: The system boots fine from floppy (WB 3.1, system has 3.1 ROMs). I've got a SupraSCSI WordSync 2000 SCSI controller with a 2.0 Gb disk attached.

If I boot from the SupraSCSI boot floppy I can see and partition/low-level-format/format the disk just fine. I've partitioned the disk into two 1Gb partitions and set the first partition as bootable with HDTOOLBOX. Heck I've even followed the prompts on the SupraSCSI Boot disk to install WB 1.3.2 on the disk.

When I change the jumper on the card to Autoboot, don't insert any floppy disks, and boot the system I see a long delay (1-2 min) and finally the infamous "insert boot floppy prompt."

If I swap the jumper back and boot the system from the floppy, the HD partitions pop right up and I can copy data between them, and even to an older 50Mb Seagate disk on the same controller... I just can't get the system to boot from any of the HD's.

Interestingly enough, while I can see the HD's from the WB 3.1 Install disks HDToolBox utility (If I tell it to use the suprascsi.device rather than the default scsi.device driver), they don't mount from anything but the SupraBoot disk.

It feels like I'm just missing some configuration on the disks themselves (like a DOS MBR or something?).

I've booted from the WB 1.3 SupraBoot disk (which mounts the HD partitions on both disks), and run Install from the WB 3.1 Install disk. It's put all the relevant files onto the boot partition of the 2Gb disk, but it doesn't boot without the floppy in... Suggestions? I really feel like I'm close to making this system live again...

Thanks in advance.
 :-(

[Athlon]

Is the Hard Drive in good shape?

[tony23]

Well I'm no expert. But I think if your HDs are good and your Workbench is installed correctly and S:STARTUP is correct then I would think that it maybe that your card is not compatible with 3.1 Roms.I know that some older rev.roms on SCSI boards don't work.Just some thoughts,I'm no expert.

[DazedNConfused]

I hadn't thought of that. The system came with v3.1 ROMs installed, and v1.3 in an antistatic bag... I never thought to try the older ROM... Who downgrades?

I'll give it a shot tomorrow and see what happens.

[AdMartin]

Have you added FFS to the hard drive in HDToolBox? Unless the HD's file system is added to the boot block of the HD, KS 1.3 systems can only boot from OFS HDs.

If you boot from KS 3.1 it should work, though...

/Martin

[AdMartin]

Oh, you only have a 3.1 ROM installed? You should try to find a Kickstart switch. I have one for my A2000 to be able to switch between KS 1.3 and 3.1. Wouldn't live without it...

/Martin

[DazedNConfused]

Ok, so you found me out... I do have a ROM switcher (it came with the system), but I never installed it. It's one of those things that holds both ROMs (the 1.3 and the 3.1) and you can set it to boot from the non-default ROM by holding down the left mouse button at boot... It just didn't seem that I'd ever WANT to boot from an older ROM, so I poped the 3.1 ROM in and put the rest of the kit back in the bag.

I'll install it later this week.

I've checked the SCSI disks out and they both work just fine... Interestingly, I tested the disks by installing them in my Mac SE. I can see them just fine and format them under Mac OS 7.1 with no problem. When I put them back in the Amiga I can use the SupraTools boot disk to repartition and reformat them, and as along as I'm booting from the SupraTools boot disk I can access the HD's.

The only thing I can't do is get the Amiga 2000 to boot from them (even after a WB 3.1 installation). I'm thinking that there may be an issue booting this A2000 with the 3.1 ROMs from the SupraSCSI WordSync controller.

I'll try it with the older ROMs and get back to the forum with the results.

[DazedNConfused]

Ok, so now I have the ROM switcher installed and working. I pulled a 2.0 ROM from my A500 put it in the default ROM slot and stuck the older 1.3 ROM in the alternate. Now I can boot using either ROM just fine.

Still not able to boot from the HD (50 Mb Seagate), no matter what ROM I use... The 3.1 ROM is totally out of the picture at this point.

With the 2.0 ROM running, booted from the SupraBoot floppy disk, formatted the Seagate drive and installed OS 1.3, then ran the update to OS 1.3.2.

After that I power down, change the jumper on the SupraSCSI controller to allow AUTOBOOT and turn the system back on... Long delay, ~2min? Then I get the ROM 2.0 "Please insert OS disk"

I'm back to thinking that the SupraBoot tools aren't really setting the master boot block on the disk at this point (or whatever it is Amiga's use for that function - can you tell my history is with the PC? - don't hold it against me - I'm recovering).

If I boot from the SupraBoot disk, I can access the HD just fine. I can copy files to and from it. Heck, I can even see a second SCSI disk when I connect that (2Gb disk with 2x 1Gb partitions).

I think that something is missing on the disk itself.

I'll try installing OS 2.1 next to the 50Mb Disk, and I'll check it out with the HDToolBox utilities to see what's what... There doesn't seem to be a copy of anything like HDToolBox on the OS 1.3 floppy disks, so I assume that tool pre-dates bootable HD's?

Is it even possible to boot an OS 1.3 system (with 1.3 ROMs) from a Hard Disk?

I'm fairly certain that it IS possible to boot OS 2.1 (implied by the "make bootable" option in HDToolBox on the Install disk).

[Framiga]

Hi DazedNConfused

try to increase the priority (2 or 3) of the boot partition. (even less than the Floppy ones).

Ciao

[Markus_Bieler]

Let the jumper on autoboot, asfrom kickstart 1.3 autobooting was introduced.

Install the hd from the Amiga Installdisk (change scsi.device to suprascsi.device in hd-toolbox).

And now coldreboot. ev. reboot a second time with "ctrl left-a right-a "  if the "Insert disk" bootlogo appears, perhaps your hd has a slow spinup and isnt'fast enough ready for the supracard at coldbooting.

Are there more cards installed try another zorroslot.

[DazedNConfused]

Good suggestion. Tried it all...

Bottom line is I think the SupraSCSI WordSync board has a problem. I swapped in a NexusSCSI board, formatted the same disk, while using the same ROMs, installed WB 1.3 and booted just fine.

I upgraded to OS 3.1, again system boots just fine.

Either the SupraSCSI tools aren't working with this disk or the board has some boot problem.

Anyway, problem "worked around"

[DoomMaster]

Hi DazedNConfused,

Get yourself a Commodore A2091 SCSI Controller Card.  The A2091 is the best SCSI Controller card available for the Amiga 2000HD Professional Computer.  It is such a good card that even Amiga 4000 owners use it in their machines.  Make sure that you do have the 2 megs of memory installed on the A2091.  It uses this Zorro II memory as a buffer for faster data transfer rates.  You can buy these DRAMs from me, I sell them new.  If the Boot ROMs on the A2091 are revision 6.6 do NOT use a hard drive larger then 1 Gig.  If the Boot ROMs are revision 7.0 then you can use a hard drive up to 4 Gigs, but NOT larger.  Most of the A2091 cards came with the revision 04 Western Digital controller.  If you replace this IC with the newer revision 08 then the A2091 will recognize more hard drives.  You can still pick up new 1 Gig, 2 Gig and 4 Gig hard drives on eBay really cheap.  I paid less then $10.00 for mine and that includes the shipping.  The Quantum hard drives are the best hard drives for the Amiga 2000HD.  The A2091 SCSI Controller will recognize them by reading the information right from the hard drive.  Seagate are also great drives and are concidered by most professionals to be the best and fastest hard drives available for any and all computers.  My advice to you is to get rid of the Supra SCSI Controller, it is junk!  Buy yourself a nice A2091.   :-D

[jeffimix]

 /me glances at his spare GVP SCSI board, maybe....

[DazedNConfused]

You hit it there... Supra board just wasn't working for me. I had a NexusSCSI board laying around, which was appealing as an alternative, mostly because it includes 4x 30-pin SIMM slots for up to 8Mb of FastRam on the card, but after several days of trying, I failed to get it to boot the machine from anything other than an old Quantum 52Mb disk... And of course I really wanted to use a bigger disk.

In came the A2091 (with 2 Mb onboard)... My A2000 is now quite happy. However, I have been unsuccessful at getting the board to work with a Quantum 2.1Gb disk. I'll check the ROM version on the card. I'll bet it's got the older ROM... Thanks for tipping me off. It works just fine with the all the SCSI disks under 500 Mb that I've thrown at it, but the 1.3Gb and the 2.1Gb disks just wouldn't successfully format.

Assuming I do have the older ROM on the controller, do you have any advice on where to get newer ROMs? A quick check of eBay shows no such items.

[adz]

Been a long time since I have used an Amiga and I must confess I am having huge probs with getting my own A2000HD working again, but from memory, shouldn't SCSI disks be set to ID 6 in Amigas in order for them to boot?