Issues with startup

[tonyvdb]

so I can't seem to get the CF card with OS 3.1 to boot. It gets to the workbench screen and freezes before loading any icons and the mouse won't move. (The keyboard caps lock flashes)
If I use the trueIDE interface nothing happens at all and I get the install floppy disc screen.

I originally went this option because I thought my hard drive failed but after putting it back in and booting off a workbench floppy I do get all the contents on the hard drive showing up in workbench. Could this mean that just the system folder is damaged so how on that drive? I used SSF as the file system if that helps?
What if any possible things can I do to get this going again without a full format and re install?

[Thomas]

So what is your question here? Do you want to repair the CF card or the harddrive? Please decide which way to go and then stay on this way. Or open two threads, one for the CF card and one for the harddrive. But please don't change the route in the middle of one post.

What happens if you try to boot from the harddrive?

[tonyvdb]

Ok, sorry. Let's first work on reviving the original Hard drive if possible.

I ran HD toolbox and did a "verify data on drive" and it came back with no reported errors.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I'm confused by this thread, as well. Would you like to go back to using your original hard drive? What happened that you were no longer able to boot from it? Did you receive any error messages? Most likely it's just something in your Startup-Sequence or WBStartup directory that was causing it to not boot.  Either a bad command, incompatible program, or something along those lines.

[paul1981]

Ok, sorry. Let's first work on reviving the original Hard drive if possible.

I ran HD toolbox and did a "verify data on drive" and it came back with no reported errors.

Hello there.

What is the nature of the problem?
How large is the hard drive?
What are the sizes of the partitions upon it?

[tonyvdb]

I'm confused by this thread, as well. Would you like to go back to using your original hard drive? What happened that you were no longer able to boot from it? Did you receive any error messages? Most likely it's just something in your Startup-Sequence or WBStartup directory that was causing it to not boot.  Either a bad command, incompatible program, or something along those lines.

At this point I just want something to work properly. I agree that something is amiss in the startup sequence but I cant see anything out of the ordinary. I even disabled the user startup and that did not change. When I start to computer it access the drive an the screen stays blank. If I remove the drive I get the "insert workbench disc screen". If I use my instal discs and have the drive hooked up it loads into workbench properly and shows all my files and programs as they should be but of course its not using the startup off the hard drive rather the floppy.

[tonyvdb]

Hello there.

What is the nature of the problem?
How large is the hard drive?
What are the sizes of the partitions upon it?

Its not a huge drive, I believe its about 5gb but The OS is installed on the first 2GB partition I have made on it.
It was running fine before I let the computer sit for a few months without use.

[Thomas]

At this point I just want something to work properly. I agree that something is amiss in the startup sequence but I cant see anything out of the ordinary. I even disabled the user startup and that did not change. When I start to computer it access the drive an the screen stays blank. If I remove the drive I get the "insert workbench disc screen". If I use my instal discs and have the drive hooked up it loads into workbench properly and shows all my files and programs as they should be but of course its not using the startup off the hard drive rather the floppy.

Boot from floppy, just to prove that it's still working. Then remove the floppy, reset the Amiga (Ctrl-A-A) and hold down both mouse buttons until the early startup menu appears. Now click on "boot without startup-sequence". A window should appear with a DOS prompt. At the prompt enter

set echo on
execute s/startup-sequence

Now every command executed will be printed to the screen. Watch it and tell us the last command which appears before the computer freezes.

If a reset occurs (like done by OS 3.9's SetPatch), hold down both mouse buttons again and start with set echo on again.

[tonyvdb]

Ok thanks, I will give it a try tonight when I get home from work

[tonyvdb]

Ok so I did as you suggested and it freezes when it says "C:SetPatch QUIET"
So right at the start it seems

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

SetPatch does a lot of different things.  These other guys are going to give you better advice, but in the meantime what if you try just commenting it out?  Put a semi-colon before that line in your Startup-Sequence.  Does it boot then?  You probably won't have AGA screenmodes, but just as a test.  Then you can narrow it down to more specific components of SetPatch.

Try taking "Quiet" out of it, maybe?

[tonyvdb]

Success!
That worked. It booted up a bit slower than normal but it's up and running
So now the question, what does the SetPatch quiet mean?

[danbeaver]

The QUIET part means don't report the items patched in memory, but SetPatch patches about 2 dozen things with updates.

Once you get your WorkBench screen without SetPatch, have you opened a CLI Shell window and tried running SetPatch with a "?" to see the options available and tried them to see if one allows the use of SetPatch?

[tonyvdb]

How do I run SetPatch ? I'm in the shell window now
Sorry if I'm not up to speed on this as it's been years since I did any stuff in this area of the Amiga

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

How do I run SetPatch ? I'm in the shell window now
Sorry if I'm not up to speed on this as it's been years since I did any stuff in this area of the Amiga

Just type setpatch ? into the shell. You've probably figured that out by now, already. Be prepared to hit Ctrl+C to break out of it, unless you actually want to run it.

If you go ahead and run it without the QUIET option, it will show you a list of everything it's patching (although obviously in this case, it might crash).

It might also help to type version c:setpatch to know what version you're running.