**Need Setup HELP** with Classic Amiga 2000 HARD DISK (Bridgeboard)

[wbrejnia]

ONE MSDOS 6.2 Computer has been built (Explorer PC).
 
 But the XT computer (386) is a challenge.
 
 I can't change things much.  Taking our one Hard Drive, craps out HD controller.  I got two drives in, but I can't make the one I want C: (Even thought I jumper it MASTER).
 
 All I want is a MDOS 6.2 Boot HARD DRIVE, and Floppy to bring stuff in so I can boot DOS and put the WD Controller and HD.
 
 Is there some concept of TERMINATION on the Ribbon Cables?  There are no twists in ribbon cable like the Floppy drives.

[darkage]

try   cd jh0:  

Not sure if you need to increase the buffers for JH0:  

Found this article http://members.quicknet.nl/rhm.herold/computing/amiga/access%20a%20JanusTools%20hard%20disk.htm

[darkage]

 
 Is there some concept of TERMINATION on the Ribbon Cables?  There are no twists in ribbon cable like the Floppy drives.

It seems MFM/RLL drives came with options for straight thru cables and twisted cables.   You could specify via jumpers on drive.   Termination is always on the drive it self.

Check this diagram out for a different model setup.

http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5170/misc/5170_hard_drive_cabling_single.jpg

[wbrejnia]

try cd jh0:

Not sure if you need to increase the buffers for JH0:

Found this article http://members.quicknet.nl/rhm.herold/computing/amiga/access%20a%20JanusTools%20hard%20disk.htm

Thanks for the Article (will check later). Busy on many pieces of this puzzle.

BTW. It would be amazing if "cd jh0:" worked. But it doesn't'.
The behaviour is the same as in the Photo above.   "cd jh0:" gives (can't find jh0: ) and "cd jh1: (Pops up the Insert Volume jh1: ). So something is special about "jh0" when DJmount is run.

And I proved that different versions of WB disk commands don't mix and match well. When I copied over some stuff from my Original WB disk, it works (PC Boots) but this message POP UP. I can't trust this disk anymore, till I restore it.

I think a post above talked about a tool for disk partially-unredable recovery.
But in general this command line copy is painful. What are some good tools for file management?

Is there a way to use a NEW WB Disk, and then my OLD working copy, and just copy everything I can get off of it (overwriting the NEW WB Disk)?

[wbrejnia]

AMIGA PC (DOS C: RamDrive Trick) Didn't work.
 
 When I was preparing the DOS 6.2 Installs, I came up with an Idea.
 
 I created a Boot disk and put a Small (RamDrive) entry into config.sys.
 Simple 100 K Ramdrive assigned to C:
 
 device=c:\dos\ramdrive.sys 100 /a
 
 I thought that if my luck changes, the PC sde having a C: drive (just like if my HD drive worked) it would trick the JANUS DJMount to think there is a Hard Drive there so that a "cd jh0:" would work.
 
 The RamDrive Worked (Shown Below), but It didn't work to Trick DJMOUNT.
 Of course the Ramdrive is a DOS filesytem, not and Amiga or RAW unformatted disk.
 
 
 
 THIS WAS JUST TO PROVE That the PC Workbench DISK load is truly talking across to the PC side via JANUS.
 
 Maybe the Ramdisk need to be configure differently, and using the format command in the Bridbgeboard Manual. (Haven' tried that)
 
 But the Ramdrive options are here http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/ramdrive.sys.htm#Examples
 
 WITH THAT BEHIND ME and DOS 6.2 all installed on Explorere PC..
 
 Next is  to take out the HardDrive, WD Controller, Put into the 386, and see if Debug Picks up the controller.  
 
 Getting close to the end of all possibilities.

[wbrejnia]

While you wait for me to tear apart and build HW, I have this to share. A Cartoon Brickworks type Movie I made with my son.

My Son was doing a Computer Graphics Course in Grade 9, So I was doing and experiment with Snails and stuff in my fish tanks. Taking time lapse movies to figure out which snails/critters eat Algae better (tank was infested with Algae). Watching those timelapse of a SeaHare made me think Jabba the Hut they way he moved in High Speed.

Anyway, using my fish tank and props we made a STAR WARS Parody Movie call Algae Wars. It using my fish tank, and stuff, A Educational Comedy Cartoon.

Episode 1 was Last Christmas and Episode 2 this Christmas, next year we'll finished the ending.

I share this since he got like 100% at school, but always complains not many views on YouTube. I tell him, if you learned and enjoyed doing it, that's good enough.

Here are the two episodes.

ALGAE WARS - Episode-1 (The Plan) 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycQ9YPuAaVk&t=98s
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALGAE WARS - Episode-2 (The Weapon) 2016

https://youtu.be/AbjrROyxjlo"]https://youtu.be/AbjrROyxjlo

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boring if you don't like Star Wars and don't like Fish tanks. (If you like either, you might enjoy it)


I'll have that WD controller and HD installed and tested tonight if all goes well.

[wbrejnia]

Bad Cut on Paste on the You Tube Links for the Algae Wars Movies.

These are correct.

(Algae Wars : Episode 1 [The Droids] ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycQ9YPuAaVk

(Algae Wars Episode 2 [ The Weapon] ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbjrROyxjlo
 
 There might be a sequel call "Amiga Wars [ The Bridgeboard Drive ] )

[wbrejnia]

http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5170/misc/5170_hard_drive_cabling_single.jpg

Many thanks.  How little I know.  I thought the Terminator was a thing you put on the end of a Ribbon Cable Connector when not hooking up a drive to it. (It's on the Circuit board.  Now I know how to do that step of reseating them.)

[wbrejnia]

try cd jh0:

Not sure if you need to increase the buffers for JH0:

Found this article http://members.quicknet.nl/rhm.herold/computing/amiga/access%20a%20JanusTools%20hard%20disk.htm

Many Thanks.

Reading this gives some more insight. More happens and in configured than I thought. Learned about DISKINFO and PC/SYSTEM/ABOOT.CTRL (Plus SYS:/DEVS/MountList, that one I've been peeking at and all my Entries, I see nothing beyond a few standard things and floppies. ** There should be a Mount to a HARD DISK ** )
 
 So it is key to Run DISKINFO and put Output that into MountList.  (Great Info)
 

The bits and pieces are endless to assemble the Bridgeboard advanced stuff.

Janus Tools is another thing.

I'm so in the dark (learned so much) but still mountains to climb to fully understand it all.

[wbrejnia]

I just went thru all my Amiga Floppies (Working or not, but readable)

Not one has a MountList with anything pointing to a Hard Drive.

I must have just used the HARD drive like I thought. For the PC School Lab work.

And now I notice on the Bridgeboard the Installed MATH Co-Processor on the 2088 Bridgeboard (I remember buying that extra) , which I need for MATHLAB to run.

This help to know this. Hard Drive should only be one partition, DOS Filesystem and if it's alive, then 386 could possibly pick it up.

[wbrejnia]

Amiga 2000 Taken Apart. Controller and Hard drive removed (Peek at Motherboard)



Got Board Spec while I have things out.



My 5 year old Tower Computer is more dusty than this.

Reading up on how best to remove that Battery.
 
 

[wbrejnia]

Battery Out (Soldering Iron and a pair of Needle Nose Pliers)
 
 
 
 It never leaked, but it eventually would.

[Fats]

BTW. It would be amazing if "cd jh0:" worked. But it doesn't'.
The behaviour is the same as in the Photo above.   "cd jh0:" gives (can't find jh0: ) and "cd jh1: (Pops up the Insert Volume jh1: ). So something is special about "jh0" when DJmount is run.

Using the info command in Amiga CLI should reveal more information on how JH0 is handled.

[wbrejnia]

Using the info command in Amiga CLI should reveal more information on how JH0 is handled.

Thanks. Will try that.

[wbrejnia]

QUICK UPDATE on overall Progress (Reached the END)

I got lots done last night till wee hours of the morning, but I finished at a Dead End (kind of).

I'll update with Photo's and details but here is a summary:

- I put the WD Controller in the 486 PC (it's a 486 not 386), but it wouldn't boot since there was a DOUBLE HD controller conflict.

Problem is my 486 Controller is also a Floppy controller so having the WD controller in meant no Floppy to boot DOS from (but I tried just the WD controller alone, and BIOS wouldn't pick up the WD + Octagon drive.

This meant I couldn't even try doing the DEBUG on the 486 to format the drive.

- So I re-assembled the AMIGA 2000, and all is good (never broke anything). One thing I noticed is when booting AMIGA/PC there is a clock error message (since battery is gone), but everything still works.

- I put back the WD Controller with HD into Amiga and tried the DEBUG Format with the options I found for the Drive (Best Guess from this List)
http://www.mfarris.com/hard/Kalok.html

The format did attempt to run, but came back with an ERROR CODE ( I never noticed any blinking of the LED light on the HD)

- So I've reached a dead end on making that DRIVE WORK. There is nothing I can think of, unless someone comes up with something.


- THE AMIGA project is completed.
- THE HD recovery attempt Project is completed

Time to get back to my fish tank room maintenance/projects which has been neglected for the past week or so.



I'll post details later.  
 
 (BTW. I wasted a LOT of time with the 5.25"  Floppy work around.  The 486 PC setup was fine and B: drive was fine.  When I worked on the Amiga Battery, I thought of the fact that 486 was old and BIOS config was lost since dead battery.  When I played with BIOS for 5.25" drive, the B: drive recognized and started working.  arrgh!!)

Future for Amiga is unknown. May fool around a bit more when I have time. May consider some fun upgrades. May just sell complete or split up into parts. Don't know right now.

[wbrejnia]

As promised, here are the details of my final attempt to see if the WD controller BIOS Format would work on the KALOK Hard drive.

According t the manual the ERROR CODE 80 I got is Timeout (Not sure what that means), since there is no detailed explanation. (Maybe Cabling is reversed on one of the ribbons???).

I did flip BOTH cables and the LED on the HDD went ON SOLID. Which usually means reversed cable on a IDE type cable.

Now that I think about it, I should have just flipped One Ribbon cable at a time.  But why would they reverse PIN one on one cable and be inconsistant.
 I could try flipping the cables one at a time and try.
 
The full list of Completion codes are below:

Table 1 - Error Codes

Code Completion Code Summary

01 Bad Command
02 Address Mark Not Found
04 Sector Not Found
05 Reset Failed
07 Set Parameters Failed
09 Attempt to DMA across 64K boundary
0B Bad Track
10 Correctable Data Error
11 ECC Error Corrected
20 Controller Failure
40 Seek Failure
80 Time-out
BB Undefined Error
FF Read Status Failed