I need some help......

[maxplunder]

 What revision are the BOOT ROMs on your A2091 card?

Revision 4.0 = 512 Megs or lower Hard Drives
Revision 6.6 = 1 Gig or lower Hard Drives
Revision 7.0 = up to 4 Gigs, but NOT higher!

I hope that I have helped you     :-D

To Doommaster:

U have helped,   and everybody else too.  I'll just have to wait until i can get a better Rom or a new Controller

Rev 1.3 = Kickstart
Rev 6.6 = BOOT ROM Odd & Even Chips
00-04 = Western Digital Chip

[DoomMaster]

To maxplunder:

You are welcome.     :-P

[Piru]

Next: You MUST Low-Level Format the Hard Drive.

No you don't. Don't low level format.

The hard disk is low level formatted at the factory and you do not need to (and must NOT) do it yourself. Even if you use the same hard disk on different system (pc, mac, sun, sgi, whatever) before, the physical layout remain the same, and NO low level formatting is required when the disk is moved.

Don't low level format.

[DoomMaster]

To Piru:

Yes, they are low-level formatted at the factory, but they are formatted for a PC, they are NOT low-level formatted for an Amiga computer.  Do your homework, buddy.     :-P

[Piru]

@DoomMaster

Yes, they are low-level formatted at the factory, but they are formatted for a PC, they are NOT low-level formatted for an Amiga computer. Do your homework, buddy.

There is no such thing as "PC low level format". All hard disks work as-is on Amiga.

Apparently you mix physical and logical disk format.

Now, I could do some sarcastic comment about doing your homework, but I won't. It's quite apparent you're not ready to listen or learn.

[DoomMaster]

To Piru:

It is YOU who is not ready "to listen and learn" !

[N7VQM]

DoomMaster wrote:
To Piru:

Yes, they are low-level formatted at the factory, but they are formatted for a PC, they are NOT low-level formatted for an Amiga computer.  Do your homework, buddy.     :-P

Dude, how many times do you have to be told?  Do *NOT* low-level format wether it be SCSI or IDE.  EVER. Full Stop.  Way too many things can go wrong during a low-level format that will make that drive a paper weight.

I low-level formatted a Seagate SCSI drive with HDToolBox and it was destroyed.

On another note:  Properply low-level formating a drive on a PC will yeild the exact same results as low-level formating on an Amiga, Mac, or whatever as far as the drive is concerned.  The capabilities and physical characteristics of a drive don't change just because you put it in an Amiga.

[DoomMaster]

To N7VQM:

You do NOT know what you are talking about.  I actually work in this industry and have been working with computers since 1977.  I DO know what I am talking about.  You would be wise to listen to what I have to say.  Many of you so-called tech people do not know what you are talking about and are actually just confusing the poor folks that really do need help.  I am here to offer that help!     :-D

[Piru]

You do NOT know what you are talking about. I actually work in this industry and have been working with computers since 1977. I DO know what I am talking about. You would be wise to listen to what I have to say. Many of you so-called tech people do not know what you are talking about and are actually just confusing the poor folks that really do need help. I am here to offer that help!

No matter how long you have been on the industry doesn't help the fact that you're wrong here.

If you are unable to admit your mistake and find out the real facts, it's your loss. However I would advise you to stop spreading the misinformation about this low-level format issue, since it can potentially lead into unusable hard disks.

Nothing is sadder than ignorance and denial.

[DoomMaster]

To Piru:

When ever I add a new hard drive (one that has never been formatted on an Amiga) to my system, I always do a low-level format, as stated in the actual Amiga 2000 manual on page 5-22.  I have never had any problems and all of my hard drives work just fine.  If you do not want to listen to me, well at least listen to Commodore.     :-D

[iamaboringperson]

Hard drives only need be low level formatted once, and it is usually done in the factory.
I have low level formatted an old SCSI HDD and I did not kill it, however it looks as though some HDD's can be killed, & since it is low level formatted in the factory there should be no need.

Certainly don't low level format an IDE HDD!!

[jjans]

Holy crap what a tough crowd here!
Perhaps the following link will help you in regards to your installation problem of your specific hard drive:

http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Devices/Disk/DISK_Sgte_ST12400N.html
the manual does indeed suggest an ID number of 4 or 5.

The following link downloads the appropriate appendix B. in regards to SCSI termination, and more importantly details of trying to mix old SCSI devices with newer fast SCSI devices to the same SCSI port.

http://sunsolve.sun.com/data/802/802-2703/pdf/O.app.bnew.pdf

From my own personal experience (which is very limited), I had a similar problem with my GVP SCSI controller.  My original system disk was an old Maxtor 201 MB.  I ran into similar problems when I tried to mount a much faster DEC 1.2 GB. I had to keep system boot on the slow disk with a priority -10.  I set the boot priority on the new disk at  -128.  I also had to dig into the startup sequence and modify the SCSI controller's driver startup instruction.  In my case it was the GVPScsiCtl -r (which tells the startup instruction to rescan the SCSI bus for slower drives).  

I also ran into similar problems when I tried adding faster hard drive to the existing XT drive mounted in my A590.  It was faced with the familiar blue insert disk screen.  This was fixed by simply adjusting dip switch 3.  Again this tells the startup instruction to rescan for slower drives.  The A590  also uses the A2091 controller, and according to this link, http://www.amigau.com/natamiga/t-2091.shtml , Jumper 5 option 2 also resets the rescan for slower drives.

In regards the low-level formatting, I found it was not necessary for installing any of my hard drives.  However because I read the suggestion not to use low-level formatting, if not absolutely required, I just had to try it.  The first time that I tried it had no ill effects.  The last time that I tried it was on older drive that had started showing errors, and was nearly unworkable.  The low-level format seemed to put it out of its misery for good.  It is now a paperweight -- sigh...

I really hope this helps, as I remember the frustration I went through.

[Kronos]

@Doommaster

So what ?

I have bought about 15 HDs fror my Amigas in the past year (all from PC-people/shops),
and I only ever once used a low-level-format ....

..... and that was connecting an old 20mb MFM HD to an A2000 via the c't-OMTI-adaptor
and an Seagate ST11-controller (suitable for IBM-XT).
That was done using an
enourmos Amiga-Basic program,  but in the end I decided to get an 2088 and
to mount the HD via Janus .... :-o

But :
I never lowlevel-formated the SCSI-HD I had in the A2000 or A4000.

I never low-level-formated the IDE-HDs I had i^n the A2000,A1200,A400 nor the
once used for Amithlon or  now in the Pegasos.

To the orginal poster:
It seems that you had set the BOOT-PRI too high as the new HD seemed to be
regognized at 1st try (maybe not with full capacity).

Make sure that your WB-partition on the Quantum has the highest BOOT-PRI
(set in the HD_setup-utility) and it should boot.

[DoomMaster]

To iamaboringperson:

Amiga computers are suppose to use SCSI hard drives, NOT IDE hard drives.  Only people that really do not know what they are doing would even think about installing an inferior hard drive, like an IDE hard drive on an Amiga computer.  The smarter folks only use SCSI hard drives on an Amiga computer.  And ALL SCSI hard drives for an AMIGA computer MUST be low-level formatted.  The main reason for this is because the low-level format on most hard drives are done for a PC, which uses a constant speed (the platters spin at the same speed and never change).  The Amiga on the other hand uses variable speed drives (just like the famous Commodore 64 did).  So the platters in an Amiga hard disk does not always spin at the same speed.  Also, the PC uses Sectors and the Amiga uses Blocks.  All of this new type of information has to be added to the hard drives boot blocks 0 and 1.  That is where the Low-Level Format comes to play.  Have you ever noticed that you can NOT ever use blocks 0 and 1 on an Amiga hard drive?  If you find that you can, then you have not properly formatted your hard drive and you WILL have problems with it down the road.  By the way, if you do ever screw up the hard drive by doing a low-level format, it means that you did not do the first step correctly (defining the drives parameters).  You can always go back and re-enter the correct information and then do another low-level format.  It does NOT hurt the drive, because all you are doing is writing information about the drive to the boot blocks 0 and 1.  Do your home work people, I have!     :-P

[JimS]

maxplunder wrote:
Rev 1.3 = Kickstart
Rev 6.6 = BOOT ROM Odd & Even Chips
00-04 = Western Digital Chip

I have almost that same configuration... with the exception of the kickstart ROM, which is 2.0.
If the Doommaster is right about the version levels of the 2091 firmware- you might try partitioning the drive with just one partition 1 Gig in size... That wastes half the drive, but it might be a worthwhile experiment...  
I found a rev 8 WD chip on a dead 3000 motherboard... when I get a chance, I'll try it on a spare 2091.
BTW, never low-level format a scsi drive, unless you're desperate. :-)

Jim S - in the computer biz since 1976 :-)

[iamaboringperson]

Do your home work people, I have!

:roll:

Yep. And you seem so well informed DoomMaster! Keep up the good work!! :lol: