IDE fake block for A4000 Please help!

[mgerics]

Look at my avatar and you'll see the face I made when this all happened

I saw a thread detailing setting up an IDE drive with AmigaOS, then setting UAESCSI in the configuration of WINUAE to use that drive. I thought, 'I have an old 120 meg drive, that would be cool!' So I thought I'd give it a go.

Got the IDE drive formatted, copied over the os and some important programs and files.

Took out the ide drive and put the ide fake out block that was in the system before.....the darn thing won't boot! Not even to what ever screen the A4000 gives when there is no bootable drive found. Prelim check of cables, connectors etc - everything looks good.

Then it hit me - I am not sure if the orientation of the ide fake out block was correct. I tried flippping it, same result.

Question (I'm going to research it right now) - if that thing is stuck in backwards, is there an adverse affect? If so, I have a toasted 4000 (And not a Video Toaster toasted 4000!)

Any ideas?

[JurassicCamper]

did you set dh0: as bootable ?
this is done in hdtoolbox
Have you got a wb 3.0 or 3.1 install disc ?

[mgerics]

The problem is with the original A4000 and it's scsi drives, whcih had worked before - these were never changed - I can't get the system to come up now that I've removed the IDE drive.

[Thomas]

Kickstart 3.1 waits about 30 seconds for IDE drives before it starts scanning the other devices.

If this is not your problem, you probably had something installed on the IDE drive that is needed to read the SCSI drives. Probably the SFS or PFS3 filesystem. Hold down both mouse buttons after reset, then disable all SCSI partitions in the early startup menu and boot from floppy. Use HDToolbox to install SFS or PFS3 (whatever is needed) on one (or all) of the SCSI drives.

Bye,
Thomas

[JurassicCamper]

Did the 4000 boot off IDE or SCSI originally, before you started mucking about ?
What do you mean by a Fake IDE Block ?
Surely if you have no IDE devices you just dont put a lead on the IDE header.
If it booted from IDE origanally then the SCSI partitions probably won't be set to boot or have an OS on them.
If it booted from SCSI originally check you SCSI card and make sure the "boot" jumper might not have come off.

[mgerics]

Ok.
Sys orig had an IDE thingy installed to fake out the system to thinking it had an ide drive attached.

Sys orig booted from scsi drives - none of these were changed, formatted or otherwise, nor was the scsi controller (WarpEngine)  changed.

Attached the ide drive, formatted, copied data over to it.

Removed ide drive, put the ide thnigy back in - possibly backward (did this cause damage?)

All boots fail, not even a screen requesting floppies. I even allowed for the 30 seconds needed for ide drives to be identified.

Checked connections, etc. made sure controller, cables, etc were seated firmly.

Still nada. May be looking at a pile of junk if I can't figure it out!

Will try putting the ide drive back in when I get home- this drive is NOT marked as bootable, I assume WINUAE will recognize it. as a bootable device. Is that true? At this point its moot, as the only Amiga I have that can run HDToolBox to make it bootable is the non-working 4000!

Yikes! I really want an actual A4000, not an emulated one, as I have VLab & other cards installed that I want to use. :-?

[Ilwrath]

I don't know what the fake block device is that you're talking about.  I haven't seen one in an A4000 before.  (shrug)  You shouldn't have harmed anything on the 4000, itself, though, unless there was static discharge or something of the like.  

Personally, I'd remove the IDE cable and block from the A4000, and see if it will boot in that configuration.  

[x56h34]

He means this:

http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/~aminet/hard/hack/no4000ide.readme

[adolescent]

Well, I'd first try plugging in the HD you just prepped to see if the IDE is working.  

The IDE disable hack (your IDE fake block) wires pins 3 and 5 to pin 39.  If I'm reading the pinout correctly, placed backwards it would just ground two other pins.  I'm not sure if any harm could be done.   But, test anyway.

[mgerics]

Well, I guess I did test it, as the one I have is not marked with orientation marks - it is hand made by a previous owner and wrapped in electrical tape. I tried it both ways, and get the same results. I am hoping I didn't get it wrong the first time and zap something vital. I may be labelled an Amiga fanatic, but I'd amost rather my p*n*s were zapped than my precious Amiga. (Almost, but not really.. :-) ..)

[JetRacer]

Silly question, but have you tried without the fake..?

Check if cables are attached properly IN BOTH ENDS. If something is semi-attached the Amiga might refuse. That goes for power connectors too.

Expantions is still in place?

The plug is in the wall (not just monitor)..?

[mgerics]

Well, that was a freaky weekend...the cards were re-installed, but the Amiga didn't see any of them! Swapped daughterboards, nada. Finally, for reasons I can't explain, they were recognized...
The system won't boot from the HD that was originally installed, but it will boot off another that I added to the chain. Just need to repartition the first 2 gig of the original drive and restore the latest backup - should be good to go!

But, to add insult to injury, I installed the IDE drive I had created for WINUAE into a windoesn't machine, then I get an error dinupt8.dll error  when I attempt to run WINUAE. So, I painfully (via dialup speed!) upgrade directX, as this was the indicated cause of the error, reboot, now I get ADVAPI32.dll error! YIkes!

I'll just stick to real Amigas, I guess, and not open the case for ANYTHING.