Getting my large hard disk working on A1500

[AmigaFun]

Hello

I have post before regarding getting my 40Gig drive up and running and still have had no success. I have done a lot of searching around and on here and other sites and am sure it should work.
My aim is to have my 40Gb drive in my A1500 via a Buddha IDE controller with WB 3.9 on it (or 3.5 if it's compatiable with +40gig drives). Either way I want to lend up with a desktop that looks like the one on the Classic Amiga workbench pack for UAE.
So I tried formatting on my PC so so I could use WinUAE to see the drive and install WB, that did not work. I have now plugged it into my A1200 which has WB3.9 and now have ended up with 20 or so desktop icons for the drive (all with no default tool).I thought WB3.9 was ok with large drives and imagined that I would partition the drive with say 1 or 2GB partition for the WB install and the rest for games and stuff.
Please, can someone help give me some advice on this. I hope to upgrade my 2GB drive in my A1200 in the same way if this works.

I thank you.

[Thomas]

Get SFS from Aminet and install it as described in the documentation. Then you can create partitions on the Buddha without any limitations, even with WB 3.1 and below. You can even make one big 40GB partition to boot from, if you like.

Note that this only applied to the Buddha. The internal IDE controller of an A1200 is different. It needs a less-than-4GB partition to boot from and load new drivers (IDEfix or OS3.5+). Only after the new drivers have been loaded the rest of the drive can be used.

now have ended up with 20 or so desktop icons for the drive

Why did you create so many partitions ?

all with no default tool

New partitions have to be formatted before they can be used. Select one at a time and choose "format disk" from the menu.

Bye,
Thomas

[AmigaFun]

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Why did you create so many partitions ?
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I didn't. It seems the WB3.9 somehow did, unless I did it but don't know how.

Just downloaded SFS, hope to try now. Will post my results.

Thank you Thomas

[AmigaFun]

I think I did it. I have plugged the drive into my PC and using WinUAE it shows up now as having 37GB free with 9,693KB in use. If I do a 'Info' on the drive it says the file system is FFS. I am unable to partition it in WinUAE as the HDTool box does not save the 'uaehf.device' tooltype. What should I try ? Do I plug into my 1500 to install WB3.1/3.9 or use WinUAE to install WB?

[Thomas]

I have plugged the drive into my PC and using WinUAE it shows up now as having 37GB free with 9,693KB in use.

Did you use "Add Harddrive" or "Add Directory" ? You have to use "Add Harddrive", otherwise the Amiga will not see what you did.

I am unable to partition it in WinUAE as the HDTool box does not save the 'uaehf.device' tooltype.

Run OS 3.9's HDToolbox from the emergency disk. It will ask you which driver to use.

Bye,
Thomas

[Darrin]

I've used a Buddha in my A2000.  What seems to have happened is that is has split your hard drive up into 4GB partitions in order to be compatable with FSF by default.

I put an 80GB drive in my A4000 using the FastATA controller and ended up with 18 icons on the screen!

The hard drive partition program that comes with OS3.1 sucks at setting up large drives or guessing their configurations.

If you have a small hard drive handy then do this:

Set up a small 1-4GB FFS partition on the hard drive and install OS3.1.  Install your Buddha prefs program so that you have your CD ROM functional.

Attach you BIG hard drive as a slave, copy the SFS file system to your small drive and create an emergency boot disk.  MAKE SURE YOU ELECT TO COPY OVER YOUR BUDDHA SETTINGS WHEN PROMOPTED.

Boot from the emergency disk and use the 3.9 HD Toolbox to set up your drive:
1.  Read the configuration
2.  Go to the partitions and add the SFS filesystem.
3.  Partition the drive with one large partition and make sure you select SFS and make the drive bootable.
4.  Save your changes.
5.  Quick format the drive.
6.  Either install OS3.9 directly to it or install it to your small hard drive and later copy the entire contents of the small drive to the large drive and keep the small drive as an emergency back-up.

Now enjoy your new 40GB drive.

I have 2 x 80GB drives in my A4000 split into 4 partitions of 40GB.  The second drive is just a backup of the first.  I use OPUS to simply drag the contents of the first drive to the second.  If the first drive ever goes down or I install something that screws it up then I can simply roll back by booting from the 2nd drive and copying the contents back to the first.

[AmigaFun]

I have (I hope) partitioned the drive now in WinUAE. Thing is I have clean forgot how I did it. I have just posted the question in the Emulation forum about that.
I should add also that I installed WB3.9 on the A1500 and it does not like it one bit. So I hope to use one of Bloodwych's WB packs to make a good stable system from.
Thanks guys for the assistance.

..AmigaFun..

Martin

[Darrin]

AmigaFun wrote:
I have (I hope) partitioned the drive now in WinUAE. Thing is I have clean forgot how I did it. I have just posted the question in the Emulation forum about that.
I should add also that I installed WB3.9 on the A1500 and it does not like it one bit. So I hope to use one of Bloodwych's WB packs to make a good stable system from.
Thanks guys for the assistance.

..AmigaFun..

Martin

Strange.  My A2000 is fine with OS3.9.

I have a 68030 and with extra RAM.  You'r enot trying to run it on a 68000 in 1MB are you?!   :-o    ;-)

I assum you're using this one:

A1500/MiniMidget Racer 030/Buddha IDE/40GIG HD/FlickerBlaster 2000/GVP HD+8 6MB Ram

which is more than up to the task.