installing workbench 3.0

[mrmoonlight]

Hi have a 4gb cf hard drive fitted in my amiga 1200 which works very well,but having a spare 4gb cf card i thought i would have a go at installing workbench 3.0 on it ,so as to learn a little, so i replaced the cf card with my spare one and inserted the amiga install 3.0 disc and all went well untill it asked for the workbench 3.0 disc which i then inserted and it did not read it ,so i cancelled it,but when i now boot up to try again theres a Dos screen waiting for me to input some text lol,and i dont know what to put, i think maybe i have done some thing wrong,and had better put the good cf card back in ,any ideas?

[Franko]

Hi have a 4gb cf hard drive fitted in my amiga 1200 which works very well,but having a spare 4gb cf card i thought i would have a go at installing workbench 3.0 on it ,so as to learn a little, so i replaced the cf card with my spare one and inserted the amiga install 3.0 disc and all went well untill it asked for the workbench 3.0 disc which i then inserted and it did not read it ,so i cancelled it,but when i now boot up to try again theres a Dos screen waiting for me to input some text lol,and i dont know what to put, i think maybe i have done some thing wrong,and had better put the good cf card back in ,any ideas?

Hi mrmoonlight

First thing to try, is put your working CF card back in, (assuming that one has OS3 on it and is usable). Then put the Workbench 3.0 disc in the drive and check it for errors. I don't know what sort of disk utilities you've got for checking disks, but xcopypro was always a good one that I used to use for error checking floppies.

Failing that try copying the entire disk into RAM: if you have enough RAM. Or create a new drawer/folder on the working CF card and copy the disk into their, you can easily delete the folder afterwards.

If the disk checks out ok or copies without any errors, you could try reformating the failed CF card and try reinstalling it again.

If the disk has errors though, you'll either have to try fixing it or sourcing another copy of the disk.

Hope this helps...

Franko

[mrmoonlight]

Hi Franko  i put the other cf back in and thats started ok i checked the floppy with a dischecker and that was ok, i formated the other cf card and tryed again but with no joy ,althou it still got to the same point of the dos screen coming up even thou i formated it ,im not sure i have the right floppy s here there 6 in total with the first being a amiga 3.0 install disc which was the first one i used, then it asked for the workbench one which did not read ,but if i put the floppy in with my good cf card with the workbench 3.0 on the contents of the floppy are shown,i will keep trying ,thankyou

[Franko]

Hmm.. It's been so long since I had to install a version of OS3.0 that I can't remember the order the go in. When your asked to insert the workbench disk does anything happe, ie:- can you hear the drives heads moving back & forth trying to read the disk, does the floppy led come on.

Try inserting all the disk one after another when it asks you for the workbench disk just in case your inserting the wrong disk, although it doesn't sound like it.

It could be the CF is not formated properly or has errors/is faulty is there any way you could format the CF on a PC for example, as there was another thread running where someone was having similar difficulty as you and after he had formated the CF on a PC then reformated it on the Amiga everything went fine for him.

If your not getting any further an the first install disk then when you try to boot up with that card, you won't get anywhere as their will no Workbench installed on the card and all you'll get on bootup is a plain on cli window.

Sorry I can't be much more help at the moment, but I'll have a look around the sites and see if I can find something to help you.

Cheers

Franko

[mrmoonlight]

Hi Franko ,thanks again for your help,and thats a point,up to now ihave been formating it on the pc,lol not sure why,mind you will i be able to format it on the amiga with it not working right , and yes the floppy lights come on for a short while,but up to now i have not had a problem with the floppy drive, is my 3.0 floppy workbench out of date now ,should i be looking for something a little more up to date?

[Franko]

Hi Franko ,thanks again for your help,and thats a point,up to now ihave been formating it on the pc,lol not sure why,mind you will i be able to format it on the amiga with it not working right , and yes the floppy lights come on for a short while,but up to now i have not had a problem with the floppy drive, is my 3.0 floppy workbench out of date now ,should i be looking for something a little more up to date?

Hi mrmoonlight...

Sounds to me like that the problem, If you've only been formating the card on a PC, then you need to format using your Amiga now. I can't remember if you can run HDtoolbox or HDInstall directly from the floppies. If you can't you'll need to create a new floppy with HDtoolbox or HDinstall and boot up from that floppy then you should be able to format the CF for use on your Amiga no problem.

I don't use CF's myself only Hard Disks, hopefully someone else with experience of CF drives will be able to tell you a quicker way of doing it. But if your able and willing to give my suggestions a shot in the meantime, then you might be able to get it up and running.

Cheers :drink:

Franko

(just a quick thought did you not get an install/format disk with the CF drive when you bought it !!!)

[mrmoonlight]

Hi again,well i formated the cf on the amiga and the same thing happend again,i wonder if there is away of deleating what must have been installed on my first try,does it go to the memory or ram,because if i can get back to where the the install disc works again,i might have a chance of getting the workbench in,lol but only a slim one and no there was nothing else  no install/format stuff with the cf

[Franko]

If you have managed to format the CF on the Amiga then the CF will be completely blank.
However if somehow you do have some stuff on the CF, then you could boot up from probably the install disk. (you'll have to boot with no startup-sequence ie:hold down both mouse buttons and select 'boot with no startup') and when your presented with the cli screen, type DIR ALL to see if there's anything on the CF. If their is then youd can use the DELETE ALL command to remove them.

[Cammy]

To install Workbench on a CF card, you need to follow these steps:

Insert the CF card in your IDE CF adapter and plug it into your IDE port.
Insert the Workbench Install disk and switch on your Amiga.
Once Workbench has booted from the Install disk, double click on "Install 3.0" (or 3.1 if that's what you end up using), then open the HDTools drawer.
Run HDToolBox.
Click on "Change Drive Type".
Click "Define New".
Click "Read Configuration" then "Continue". If it asks you to name the drive first, name it whatever you want.
Click "Continue" again if it appears.
Click on "Ok", then "Ok" again, and "Continue" when it asks if you're sure.
You should now be back at the main HDToolBox window. Click "Partition Drive".
Set up the partitions you want, making sure not to make any larger than 2GB, so two 2GB partitions would be best for a 4GB CF drive.
You're probably best off calling them DH0 and DH1 and making them both Bootable.
Select the first partition and click the "Change..." button.
This step is very important! You must change the "MaxTransfer" rate to "0x1fe0000" and don't forget to press Enter!
The rest of the settings should be fine, make sure the partition is Automounted, then click "Ok"
Repeat this step with each partition, making sure all values are added by pressing the Enter key (something many people forget after using other OSs for too long).
Click "Ok" to go back to the main window, then click "Save Changes to Drive".
Save the changes and reboot your Amiga with the Install disk still in the floppy drive.
Once Workbench has booted again from the Install disk, you should see a couple of drive icons on your Workbench desktop now.
Click once on the first drive icon and select "Format Disk..." from the Icons menu.
Name your drive, "Workbench" is what most people call it, and click "Quick Format".
Click "Format" when it asks if you're sure.
Repeat with the remaining partitions. The second partition is commonly called "Work" but it doesn't really matter what you call them.
Once each partition is formatted, you can begin the Workbench installation procedure by clicking on the appropriate language Install icon in the "Install/" drawer on the Install floppy disk.
Follow the on-screen prompts, inserting each disk as the system asks you to.
Once the installation is finished, remove the floppy disk and reboot your Amiga.
Workbench should load in a few seconds.

Good luck!

[kolla]

For me this all sounds like a faulty Workbench 3.0 floppy, I don't quite get the point of formatting the CF over and over

[mrmoonlight]

Hi Cammy thanks for reply and help but no joy the install disc i have said amiga 3.0, but there is a workbench 3.0 but no install on this,i think i must have some thing wrong with my discs, i have just seen this on ebay ,it said new do you think this would be my best bet ps the amiga install disc on the first attempt got to the install stage,but then asked for the workbench disc,and it did not read it ,and i have never got back to that install message since

New Amiga Workbench 3.1 Disks
This Pack includes Workbench 3.1, Extras 3.1, Fonts 3.1, Storage 3.1, Local 3.1 & Install 3.1

[mrmoonlight]

If you have managed to format the CF on the Amiga then the CF will be completely blank.
However if somehow you do have some stuff on the CF, then you could boot up from probably the install disk. (you'll have to boot with no startup-sequence ie:hold down both mouse buttons and select 'boot with no startup') and when your presented with the cli screen, type DIR ALL to see if there's anything on the CF. If their is then youd can use the DELETE ALL command to remove them.

Hi Franco did as you said but still no joy,im sure my discs are faulty,do you think i would be better buying this off ebay ,or should i keep trying, thanks very much by the way i am very grateful for your help

New Amiga Workbench 3.1 Disks
This Pack includes Workbench 3.1, Extras 3.1, Fonts 3.1, Storage 3.1, Local 3.1 & Install 3.1

[kolla]

Do you even have a diskette named "Install 3.0"?
The A1200s that were sold without hard drive also didn't come with "Instal 3.0" diskette.

[ajlwalker]

Do you even have a diskette named "Install 3.0"?
The A1200s that were sold without hard drive also didn't come with "Instal 3.0" diskette.

Do you even need an install disk?

The last time I installed workbench I booted the floppy, formatted the hard disk, then simply copied the contents of the workbench copy onto the hard disk and (I think) moutned the drive.

Hey presto, one bootable hard disk.  No need for install disk.

[kolla]

Do you even need an install disk?

The last time I installed workbench I booted the floppy, formatted the hard disk, then simply copied the contents of the workbench copy onto the hard disk and (I think) moutned the drive.

Hey presto, one bootable hard disk.  No need for install disk.

You need at least som tool to create the partition table and create bootable partition, this is normally HDToolBox that is on the Install diskette.

If your disk is already partitioned with RDB and has ticked off a bootable partition, then fine. An alternative is to use for example HDInstTools (on aminet) instead of HDToolBox.