Workbench installation... knowledgebase?

[RedWarrior]

Hey again,
                    I'm beginning to have second thoughts about how fantastic I remember the Amiga to be after trying repeatedly to simply put a new hard-drive in my machine.  I can barely remember all the old workbench commands and protocols... and given that this machine came with wb2 on the hdd only (no floppies) and I only have wb1.3 on floppy disk... I have no clue what to do.

What files, commands, startup-sequence, libs, devs n all that do i need on a disk to simply boot and format a harddrive?  I don't know what Binddrivers is, and I can't remember what a mountlist is.

I've tried a few combinations with no luck, and I'm getting really frustrated. Are there any helpful databases on here or anywhere on the net that will spell all of this stuff out for the novice? (I used to think I was pretty clever until now!)

Once I've got the hdd formatted I'm putting all my faith in WinUAE to do the transfer...

Tired,
RW

[RedWarrior]

I know this is mildly technical, but surely someone knows...?

[chris]

I'm not sure I entirely understand the question, but to format a hard drive, you need to initialise and partition it with HDToolBox, and - after a reboot - format the partitions using the normal format command.  Make sure you set one of the partitions as bootable in HDToolBox and it will boot, then it should just be a case of copying the contents of all the Workbench disks onto it.

Does this answer your question?

Chris

[mikeymike]

I'm beginning to have second thoughts about how fantastic I remember the Amiga to be after trying repeatedly to simply put a new hard-drive in my machine. I can barely remember all the old workbench commands and protocols... and given that this machine came with wb2 on the hdd only (no floppies) and I only have wb1.3 on floppy disk... I have no clue what to do.

My advice: Search google for your Workbench version and download/transfer the ADFs to floppy disk.

[JetRacer]

But Mike, that's so... (gasp!) ..illegal :-)

A mountlist basicly tells the OS what the device is and how to use it. You don't need to mess with that, unless you don't have HDToolsBox.

Which you don't, because you got Bench1.X. Bugger.

Err... That's a problem even if you'd remembered all you once knew I suspect. You need make a proper mountlist by hand and include full HDD parameters and stuff. Example:

DH1:   device = scsi.device
                Unit = 0
                Flags = 0
                /*! ReadOnly = FALSE */
                Surfaces = 6
                BlockSize = 512
                BlocksPerTrack = 252
                Reserved = 2
                Interleave = 0
                SectorsPerBlock = 2
                LowCyl = 273 ; HighCyl = 4497
                PreAlloc = 0
                Buffers = 80
                BufMemType = 0
                DOSType = 0x444f5305
                MaxTransfer = 130560
                Mask = 0x7ffffffe
                BootPri = -128
                Mount = 0
                /*! Bootable = FALSE */
                /*# BootBlocks = 0 */
#

Note that this comes from OS3.9 and it's one partition ripped out of context. My guess is that scsi.device doesn't exist on WB1.2, so you need to replace that with whatever. DOSTYPE is wrong; you want FFS, I run SFS (atleast under OS3.9 FFS is: 0x444F5303). You want "mount=1" (auto mount). Max transfer should probably be decreased. Also: "Bootpri=10",  "Bootable = TRUE".

To mount you write in CLI: "Mount DH0:"
Then you should be able to format it. Format is a bit bitchy about parameters. You need to write like:

Format DRIVE DH0: NAME "Hubba" FFS

@general public: Does he need to "Install" to make it boot?

[mikeymike]

But Mike, that's so... (gasp!) ..illegal

No, that isn't so (gasp!) illegal.  Unless of course it's illegal to have a backup copy of a piece of software that you obtained legally.

The fact that someone shouldn't put it on the net in the first place is still the wrong thing to do, and they're doing something illegal, which is wrong in the moral sense as well, but if you obtained a copy of a piece of software (originally) legally, that copy goes wrong, you obtain anther copy to replace the now dead copy, it satisfies the following conditions:

 - you haven't "spawned" another copy into existence.  One is now dead and the other is to replace it.  You're back at square one, your legal copy of a piece of software.

 - you haven't encouraged someone to do something which is illegal (and if anyone comes up with "but downloading it is encouraging them!" then I put it to you that most people don't have access to their web server logs let alone read them.)

 - it isn't ripping anyone off, not even potentially (regardless of their still being in business or not).

The copy of Workbench 3.1 on my WinUAE setup is downloaded off the net, as is the Kickstart 3.1 ROM image I use.  I legally own an A1200 and legally own the kickstart 3.1 ROM and WB 3.1.  The fact of the matter is, I can't be arsed to transfer the images manually over when I can so easily download it.

There's also a potential argument that I could potentially be running and taking advantage of both versions I have running at once.  Well, if people consider it legal to copy the ROM image from my Amiga to my PC, then so is this.

It's beside the point that I physically cannot run both my A1200 and my PC at the same time anyway :-)

[RedWarrior]

Currently I can't transfer any adf's to floppy disk because Windows Xp doesnt want to know about anything less than 1.44meg when formatting.  I even downloaded MS-DOS 6, and taped over the hole on a dshd floppy, but it would only format at 1.44meg.

So, that's not going to happen in a hurry.

Right now the best I have managed is to physically install the new harddrive- it's spinning (I can hear it)... and from Floppy disk I've made it to a workbench screen.

HDToolbox is on there- and it says "Driver not installed"... I also don't have a picture of my RAM disk on the workbench... not sure how to mount these things (is that what you do?)

1>mount ram:
Can't open file 'DEVS:Mountlist'
1>

then i tried making a devs folder on the boot disk and copying the file "mountlist" off another floppy I made for backups (wb2)... same thing.

I imagine once I get an icon for the Harddrive (and ram) on workbench, all will be good...

why can't I get them to appear?

 :-?

[AmigaHeretic]

What kind of Amiga is it?  What kind of hard drive controller?  And what version of kickstart?

[RedWarrior]

Amiga 600, Kickstart 2.0 roms, IDE hard-drive (standard IDE... came with an adaptor)

Currently in working order though I may take to it with a sledgehammer...


;-)

[Matt_H]

What is the exact version of the kickstart? (IE, 37.xxx) If it's too low a revision, the hard drive won't even be detactable (missing scsi.device). Does the hard drive work in the A600? Kickstart 2 alegedly has problems with "large" (40Mb+) drives. Or are you beyond that stage already? You need a Workbench 2.04/2.05/2.1 Install disk. That'll take care of everything, let you partition and do a full install of Workbench.

[RedWarrior]

The 600 came with a 120meg hdd which works fine... no floppy disks... wb2 installed... I'm simply trying to make a boot-disk with enough workbench files to allow me to format the hard drive. I just need to know which files will allow me to mount/access a new drive to format it.

I don't have a workbench 2 install disk.

[AmigaHeretic]

I think your choices are...

Get someone to send you a Workbench 2.1 install disk.

or

If your old hard drive still works and has Workbench 2.1 on it you have  couple of choices.

1.  Hook the new and the old harddrive up at the same time.  Run HDToolBox, setup the new drive, and then format it.  Then just drag and drop all the Workbench files from the Old hard drive on to the new harddrive.

2.  Download the Workbench 2.1 disk from some where or get someone to email it to you. Then format 720K PC disk using the Amiga 600 (Workbench 2.1 should have come with cross dos and presumably it would be on the old harddrive) use that 720K disk on the PC to copy the files you download over to the Amiga and make your own Amiga Formatted install disk on the A600.   Might want to LHA all the files or use an ADF image (and an UnADF-ing program once the file is transfered on to the Amiga) when transfering them on the disk, because if you just copy the files on a PC formatted disk all the names of the files will be changed to 8.3 format.

EDIT

You could search the internet to see if it's listed somewhere exactly what files are on the Workbench 2.1 install disk.  

Format a floppy disk.  Open up a shell and type:

install df0:

(This will make it so the floppy will boot when you reset the machine. )

Copy the files you need from the HD to the floppy, reset, and you should have a booting install disk.

[McTrinsic]

Is there anything on the Harddisk you want to keep? If not, you can go for the following:

Buy a set of Workbench-Disks on eBay or whoever still sells them, or find a set of Workbench 2.1 - images (Workbench Disk, Install, locale, Font, Extras) or have someone mail them to you.

Go here:

http://homepage.uibk.ac.at/homepage/c725/c72578/amiga/

and make sure you read the manual carefully.Then, with your WB1.3 Disk, transfer the Amiga-side-program and bring the Images to disks. Then you can make a fresh install of WB 2.1.


Have fun,
McTrinsic

[Effy]

Indeed it's better to hook up a 2nd hd and transfer all the files from one to the other. But there are a few minor details that might cause lot of stress ...

Your first hd works fine ? Load hdtoolbox and set the boot priority to something higher than 0, for example 1. Then try to install your 2nd hd, slave of course. Be sure to set the boot priority of that one to 0 and not higher. The reason is that if you finally copy all the files from your 1st to your 2nd hd that this 2nd has to boot up your Amiga when you formatted your 1st hd. If you don't set a boot priority to the 2nd then it won't matter what Workbench is copied on there, from 1.3 to 3.9, because your 2nd hd is not set to boot up. This would mean that you just finished formatting your 1st and do a reset and end up with a kickstart 2.0 screen asking for a bootable floppy. That would be heartache, wouldn't it ?!
Also this. If you copy all the files from your 1st hd to your freshly formatted 2nd hd then you probably will do this manually, drag and drop. Be sure to go first with the mouse to the top and right click on the mouse and set the 'show' not to 'icons only' but to 'all files'. Otherwise you will only copy the files and directories that have an icon and forget to copy the other ones so that you won't be able to boot up.
Can`t format a floppy on pc ?? Try using a DD floppy instead of a HD floppy. The pc will see that it's only a double density floppy and format it on 720 K.
But if you do get an ADF file on a 720 K floppy then you still have make your Amiga read a pc floppy. Dunno how it works with kickstart 2.0. If you finally can do it then don't forget to format an Amiga floppy so that it can be used to install and only then you can copy the stuff from your pc floppy to your Amiga floppy. It`s a clumsy thing but if you don't have any friends with a usable Workbench disc then it may be the only thing to do. You can of course also look on Ebay (click HERE ) for used floppies or even a brandnew kickstart 3.1 + floppies. Also click on another Ebay search for more A600 stuff...

[RedWarrior]

amigaguy wrote:

install df0:

(This will make it so the floppy will boot when you reset the machine. )

Copy the files you need from the HD to the floppy, reset, and you should have a booting install disk.

>>>>>>>>>Which files... pray tell?<<<<<<<<<<<<

  Once I get the hdd mounted, recognised and formatted... I can use WinUAE to transfer the rest. (supposedly)

  In another thread I was told not to attempt hooking 2 drives up via an unbuffered IDE interface...  has this policy changed? I don't really want 2 destroy drives.

my list from my trial and error experiment thus far includes:

df0: (installed)
c/mount
c/type
c/path
c/format
loadwb

devs/mountlist
hdtoolbox

but it still isnt working...  not sure which commands i need or how to use them.  This is driving me nuts.