Installing HD in A600

[BGary335]

Hi all! I just got an A600 (a regular one, no HD) and I've decided to put an HD in it. I received the drive and cable today, but seem to be having some trouble. When I connect the HD to the motherboard and power the system on I get nothing but a black screen. Then, if I turn the cable over and plug it in the other way, the system doesn't come on at all, but rather just makes some clicking sounds.

Is there more to installing a HD in an A600 than just connecting it to the board? It is currently not jumpered. Does it have to be? I haven't tried installing an HD on an A600 before, so I'm clueless.

For information purposes, my A600 has the 37.350 Kickstart ROM. The HD I'm trying to install is 4GB.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[alexh]

Sounds like a dead drive or broken cable.

BGary335 wrote:
Is there more to installing a HD in an A600 than just connecting it to the board?

Nope. You should get the kickstart screen as normal (perhaps a slightly longer delay).

You'll need to boot from your WB install disk, partition & format your drive plus install workbench before you can autoboot.

BGary335 wrote:
It is currently not jumpered. Does it have to be?

Not usually. What is the make and model?

BGary335 wrote:
The HD I'm trying to install is 4GB.

I've never used a hard drive that size with A600. There are some issues relating to hard drives larger than 4GB but I do not think they prevent the system getting to the kickstart screen. But I could be wrong.

Can you try it in a PC / Laptop first? Plus you could install all the software with WinUAE while you are at it.

I would recommend getting an IDE->CF card adapter and a CF card rather than a hard drive. (Bit late now though!)

[BGary335]

Thanks for your reply Alex!

Now that you've mentioned it, I wonder too if the hard drive might be dead. When I power the system on I don't hear any noise from it at all. I would think I'd hear SOMETHING. The HD is a Fujitsu MHF2043AT. It arrived to me simply in a Bubble mailer. It was not in any sort of static proof bag or anything. So it likely is dead I guess.

I cannot, unfortunately, test the drive on a PC laptop because I don't have one.  

[tribz]

BGary335 wrote:
Then, if I turn the cable over and plug it in the other way, the system doesn't come on at all, but rather just makes some clicking sounds.

Be careful doing this, pins 41-44 provide power to the hard disk. I blew a IDEFIX express plugging it in the wrong way round.

[Tenacious]

If the HD is dead, I imagine it's because you plugged it both ways!  Never do this unless you engineered the cable yourself to be tolerant of reversing all the signals and power connections (not always possible).  If the 600 still boots from floppy, you got off lucky.  Unless someone can tell you otherwise (who has also done this), the IDE interface of the A600 is suspect, probably fried.  I hope I'm wrong.

[BGary335]

Thanks guys for your replies.I'm not going to make any hasty conclusions though. I'm going to see if I can pick up another HD and give it a try before concluding that the IDE controller is fried. Given that the hard drive I have now makes NO noise whatsoever, it seems likely to me that it is dead. And its been that way since the first time I plugged it in, so I don't think my little cable flip flop did it.

It does still boot without the HD connected, so I would assume that any damage done was minor.

[rkauer]

 Probably you just fried the HD.

 A hint: there are some 3.5>2.5" IDE adaptors for sale on Ebay. Buy one of those and set it on the peecee using UAE.

 Or, even better, buy a Compact Flash (aka CF) and an adaptor (very cheap). No noise, no heat, very low power consumption, and lighting faster than a "real" HD.

 Small laptop HD are old and unreliable (and expensive).

[systmcrsh]

was a long time ago when i installed a HD in my 600. i remember having a few initial problems myself.

i think it was very simple in the end... first make sure you have the cable plugged in correctly... the end that goes to the HD has a pin (hole) filled in.

hold down both mouse buttons as you boot up... once you in the  sys config there are a few options to set up a hard drive (partitioning, etc)

[alexh]

I dunno for sure but I am pretty sure that 44-pin drives can survive being plugged in the wrong way round. The electronics are designed to take it.

The first check to tell if the hard drive is working is to pick it up and slowly tilt it around. If the disc inside is spinning it should create a gyroscopic force which you should feel as feedback.

[BGary335]

Aha! The drive booted! I don't know ifI had the cable in wrong or what, but whatever the problem was its evidently fixed!