RocTec RocHard harddrive

[melott]

I have a RocTec RocHard harddrive for my
A500. I bought it new many years ago.
I have never used the external scsi port.
I now want to add a external CD Rom but
I find the port doesn't work. I would think it
should, there are no problems otherwise.
I am wondering if a dip switch or jumper
needs to be set. The manual doesn't say anything
about this, and I assumed for all this time that
the port would work.
Does anyone know anything about this??
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mel Ott
 :-?

[Cyberus]

well according to amiga-hardware.com:

Hard Drive unit which connects to the expansion slot of the A500. Early units originally had an IDE Controller only, however with later units you could add SCSI. The IDE controller contained in this expansion is actually the same as those found in the A600/A1200 and A4000. The controller is not DMA but supports up to an additional 8MB of RAM by the use of 1MB 30pin SIMMS.

So is it possible you have the IDE only version? Are you trying to connect a SCSI or IDE drive?

[Ants]

I've got one here, I've had for years- the SCSI ability is just an option. They all have the SCSI ports (internal(?) and external)- but for the SCSI, a chip needs to be at the back of the RocTek motherboard- if there's a big socket with no chip in at the back, yours is like mine, and has no SCSI support.
Note: this is what I've worked out- the manual isn't very helpful on the SCSI option. :/

[melott]

Hi......
This is a SCSI unit, I bought it new and went
for the SCSI option. Actually I just replaced the
50 meg drive with a 1 gig conner.
It is not an IDE unit. Its just that i've never tried
to use the 25 pin external port. I just assumed
that it would work.
There is an unexplained jumper inside and the
dip switchs on the back. I am wondering if one
or more has to be set to activate the external
port. The manual is 'crap'.

Mel Ott
 :-?

[Brian]

A longshot perhaps but have you jumpered the terminator correctly? You'll most likely have to term. the unit you connect to the external SCSI port aswell as the HD but it is possible that you need to remove the termination on the HD itself with a switch or jumper.

[amigamad]

So is it possible you have the IDE only version? Are you trying to connect a SCSI or IDE drive?

i have a roctec hard drive for an a500 mine has an ide hard drive fitted but it can be changed for scsi it has both connections internally .As for the external scsi port i am notr sure how to set it up for cd it could be jumpers on the cd drive as well ,what software are you using to get the cd rom working . :-)

[amigamad]

but for the SCSI, a chip needs to be at the back of the RocTek motherboard- if there's a big socket with no chip in at the back, yours is like mine, and has no SCSI support.

mine has 30mb ide harddrive but the large socket has a chip in it so i presume both would work on mine i also have 8mb memory in mine . :-)

[melott]

Hi......
I'm using CDX for the CD Rom.....
but thats not the problem, The port doesn't
reconize anything SCSI. (It seems to be dead)
SCSI Formatter (software) sais there is NO
device attached to the port.
Is it possible this is actually an IDE port??
I wouldn't think it would be since I choose
SCSI option when I bought it new.
Does anyone know if 'RocTec' is still around?
If so maybe I could get some info from them.

Mel Ott

[amigamad]

Some info here http://www.amiga-hardware.com/rochard.html

I got this info from googles groop search ,

Sorry to say the RocTec is NOT RDB and scsi-direct compliant.  This means
that
most things like btntape and amicdrom just don't work with it, and
HDToolBox, expecting an RDB compliant device, doesn't work either.
You should ALWAYS insist on the original disks for ANY piece of hardware,
unless you're getting is super cheap, since some hardware is useless
without its prepping software.  The roctec is one of these devices.

And i have no software for the one i have but i did see it for download. :-)

From what i can make out you wont have much luck with a cd rom with it.

I got this from google group search as well ,

If anyone has found anyway of getting a CD-ROM drive to work with the SCSI
interface of a Roctec SCSI/IDE hard drive "sidecar" for the A500, let me
know.

I have tried both one version of AmiCDROM and AsimCDFS. Both had no success,
even when I tried the trackdisk option of AmiCDROM. As I understand it, the
primary problem is that the RocHard does not follow the RDB standard and is
not fully SCSI-direct compliant.

Software for the drive is here http://software.scm.tees.ac.uk/drivers/drivers/IDE_Controllers/rochard.dms

[melott]

I have the origonal software. I even tried hooking
up an external harddrive and the software doesn't
see it either. I don't know ..... the port just seems
dead. I have a buyer for this unit and he doesn't
seem to mind that I'm not able to make the port
work, but I don't like selling it this way . I would
like to know it is in good working order.
The internal drive works fine, a 1 gig conner SCSI.
And there is no problem with the installed ram.
But if the external SCSI port isn't working then
that limits any expansion.
I think I'm going to have to let it go like this,
I don't know what else to try.

Mel Ott

[amigamad]

I want to sell my one as well it only has a 30mb drive although i am going to try a larger one in it ,and it has the full 8 meg memory .

I need to sell mine along with the a500,s i have due to needing a bit more space .

I think the gvp drive might be a better option for the a500 . :-)

[koNik]

Hello !

Can anybody scan an orginal manual for this controller and send it to me ?
And can anybody make an image of orginal software disk(s) and send it to me too !?

Please help if You can :-( !

[amigean]

amigamad:

Regarding your Roctec, is this like the one I've got???!  ;-)

I think it's a great controller, with the ram being a welcome bonus. (I have a total of 9 megs on my A500+!!!)

I bought a 2GB Jazz SCSI drive and plan to try plugging in it in the external port. I posted a thread about it ten days ago.

It will be interesting to see how this thread develops. Anyone had any luck attaching anything to the external scsi port?

Also anyone with a scan of the manual could do me and everybody else a favour by making it available online.

[melott]

On the drive I had, it had the 25 pin SCSI port
on the back 'BUT' I didn't have much luck getting
it to work.
I suspect that the SCSI controller would only
reconize one (1) device. I did get it to work when I
didn't have a drive inside, so only one device was
connected to the controller. With a drive inside I
couldn't get it to reconize a second drive connected
to the external port.
Also I would guess you will have a problem with
drives bigger than 2 gig.  The drive has to be installed
using the RocHard format disk which is in OS 1.3
and uses the Old File System. With some playing
around you could probably get the 'FastFileSystem'
on it.
I tried several other formatting utils and only the
RocHard disk worked.
'HDInstallTools' might work, I didn't try it.
 

[Erwin-K]

Whooops! Wrong thread. Sorry.