A question I should've asked earlier

[curtis]

Okay, I'm attempting to put my Amiga 2000 together with my brand new Buddha board and I'm getting nowhere.

The board recognizes my hard drive, but when I go to prep, format and install system on it, the computer doesn't see the drive.

Looking through the manual on the floppy, it sounds like I need a hard drive already installed to install the Buddha drives.  Is that correct?  I need a hard drive to install a hard drive?

So my question is, do I need a formatted SCSI drive and controller to install the Buddha board?  If so, that sure is dumb!  I was wanting to use the Buddha board so I could make use of the gazillion old IDE drives I've got laying around.

I do have an Oktagon board, but the drive on it is toast and I don't have any drivers for it.  So that won't do me any good as I don't have any SCSI drives.

I'm attempting all this with WB 2.04.

[save2600]

I've never monkeyed around with the Buddha board, but is there a special device name for it that needs to be inputted into the tooltypes of whatever HD Prep program you're using? HDToolbox's default is scsi.device of course. I wouldn't be surprised if the Buddha card needs that to be buddha.device, buddhaide.device or something like that...

[marcfrick2112]

Yes, I concur with Save2600... Try to Google the Buddha card.  The device name could be almost anything....

Have you checked in 'Early Startup Control' for the device name? Maybe Sysinfo could list all devices in memory.... Grrrr, I wish I could remember what I did to get the device name for my WarpEngine A4000...

Maybe someone else can help better...

[Colani1200]

If I'm not mistaken, it's buddha-scsi.device.

[davideo]

@curtis

Why don't you try the driver disks from here http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?product=buddha&company=

Dave G

[doctorq]

If I'm not mistaken, it's buddha-scsi.device.

You are mistaken. The device driver name for a Buddha installed in an A2000 is scsi.device. Try writing version scsi.device in a CLI window and you should see a version number.

[curtis]

First, forgot to identify the exact model.  It's the Buddha Flash Phoenix.

I bought this brand new from Amigakit.  I have the driver.  However, whenever I click on the Install icon, it starts the process then stops saying I only have 28K of space on my system folder and it needs 200K (I think).  Since it's booted from a floppy, I can see where there wouldn't be that much space left!

My question is, is there a way to boot from floppy and prep, part, and format the IDE drive then install WB onto the hard drive without having to go through a SCSI drive/controller?  That seems to be what it wants me to do, which makes absolutely no sense!

According to the manual, I SHOULD be able to use the installed Prep, part, format program that comes with WB.  But when I try, it says there's a problem opening SCSI device #6.  Since I don't have a 2091 installed, I can see where it might have a problem opening that particular device!

I think you're right about needing to install scsi.device on the boot disk, but as stated above, I don't have the room to do so.

I'm beginning to feel like I"m stuck in a loop.  You need to have a hard drive installed to install the hard drive!  HUH?!??!?!?!?!?

[save2600]

Okay, I am looking at the install software on a real Miggy. Docs are typical for an Amiga install in that it doesn't really tell you the entire story. From what I can tell though, looks like the install disk is, for the most part, useful only if you want to get an Atapi CD ROM going. There's also a drawer labeled Expansions which has a BuddhaIDE type device in it, but you usually don't see the expansion drawer being used for anything other than AmigaOS1.3. Maybe it's there for those users. If it is required on 2.04 or better, might want to keep that handy.

The docs do not state specifically what the ?.device should be called, but since it says you "should be able to format the drive with HDToolbox", we can only assume that it uses the standard scsi.device. Good. Well sort of. There's a FindDevice utility on the Buddha install disk if you want to be sure. Run that and see what all pops up. If scsi.device does not work in HDToolBox, it's something else similar to what I mentioned in my first reply. BTW: there's a CD-ROM device that looks to be called buddha_atapi.device, so yeah - confusing? Just a little.

Bottom line: You need your original AmigaOS Install or Workbench disk. That has HDToolbox on it. Yes, it's goofy that the Buddha install disk does not come with such a utility (GVP products usually always have), but that's the way things are in a modern peripheral Amiga world. lol

According to the docs, you should then be able to mount and prep your HD using HDToolBox. After partitioning, saving and resetting, you should THEN be able to install AmigaOS to your new found HD. After that, you may continue to install the software that came with the Buddha.

BTW: you are booting directly off that Buddha install disk, right? That has all the necessary IDE mounting software and such found throughout the necessary folders. You could even try mounting IDE manually by double clicking on its icon found in one of the drawers. But I'm thinking you need to boot into that or your original AmigaOS Install disk first and then go from there. Too bad there's not enough space on your floppy to install HDToolBox. IF you have only a one drive system - have fun! lol

[curtis]

save2600, you may have just saved my sanity!

All along, I've been using an original WB 2.04 Install disk.

HDToolbox.  I was using the prephd, formathd, utilities not HDToolbox and it was failing miserably.

I had been running the scan utility from Buddha and it always found the drive.  Except for when I was trying to use an IBM 512Mb microdrive.  Guess I'll contact Amigakit for the correct CF to IDE adapter.  More money!  : (  

Once I went into the right spot, I was able to correctly get the drive identified, low-level formatted, and partitioned.  Drive is formatting even as I type.

Hopefully after the format, I'll be able to install system and go from there.

BTW, the Buddha disk is NOT bootable.

Will report as I stumble further along.

Ya know, trying to recall memories from the '90's is a bit painful!  It's been that long since I"ve done anything with the Amiga.  Unless you count playing Lemmings and Faery Tale Adventure...

[curtis]

Well, after finding the correct tool, drives formatted and system installed.  Boots just fine.

Next step, find a way to get the 512Mb IBM microdrives to be recognized and then do it all over again!

After that, add the bridgeboard and install DOS and then get my vintage disk image back up and running.

Thanks to all who have contributed to my sanity by helping me solve this problem and jostling the cobwebs out of my memory.