A2000 - disabling second floppy?

[system11]

Hi all, is there a way to disable the second floppy drive in an A2000 via software at boot time?

I'm using a Gotek as DF0 and a physical drive as DF1 and some software that detects the second drive insists on trying to use it.

I'm hoping to avoid having to run a switch to the second floppy jumper!

[guest11527]

Hi all, is there a way to disable the second floppy drive in an A2000 via software at boot time?

In principle, yes. Hook in at boot time, disable flags at the disk.resource, and DF1: will be invisible for the Os. I probably even have such an utility somewhere, even though it most likely requires some polishing.

Which, of course, does not mean that DF1: then becomes invisible for games that bang the hardware directly. This only works with a switch.

[system11]

Ok thanks, sounds like I need to fit a switch then (or replace df1 with another Gotek and an identical USB stick).  I'd expect a lot are directly probing hardware.

I guess I could drill one of the blanking plates and fit a toggle there.

[kolla]

This does what you want - download and read the documentation, it does far more than what the initial readme suggest.

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/bootctrl

With this tool you can predefine your own defaults for the early startup menu, disable devices and tell what device to boot from.

For example, on my A600 that has no floppy drive and where I don't want it to look for DF0, I put this on the top of S:Startup-Sequence:

Code: [Select]

BootControl INSTALL BOOTDEV=DH0 HIDDEN=DF0 QUIET


[BLTCON0]

Ok thanks, sounds like I need to fit a switch then (or replace df1 with another Gotek and an identical USB stick).  I'd expect a lot are directly probing hardware.

The floppy jumper on the A2000 motherboard does not really "disable" the 2nd floppy, it just blocks the established ID-mechanism for it so the OS will go "2nd floppy-blind".
But all the actual select/motor/data etc lines to the floppy are left intact, so software that just assumes the floppy is there and works at hardware level will still have complete access to the floppy.
If you want to properly toggle the 2nd drive on/off, you must insert an DPST switch inline with the MOTOR and SELECT signals at the drive's connector (this will also block the ID-mechanism).

I guess I could drill one of the blanking plates and fit a toggle there.

I hope by "blanking plates" you mean the metal I/O ones and not the front bezel plastic covers
Even better, one taken from an old ethernet card or similar will already have a usable hole to mount the switch through.