Getting my A1200 up & running... help!

[HelpMe]

Hi all!

This is my first post (...hello!!!). I'm a returning 'miga addict, getting sick of my PCs! And trying to ressurect my A1200 with a new OS.

I bought a copy of OS3.5 and the ROM chips a while ago. The chips are in, but when I try to install the OS I get a million error messages I think this is probably to do with having had to install OS3.0 (from a very old set of disks that have been written to and the setup modified), update off the CD to 3.1, and only then being able to install 3.5! Is this really necessary, do I really need to go through all this? Would I be best getting hold of a new set of WB3.1 disks and a Hard Drive installer disk?!? ...if so where could i buy such things? Anyone got any idea of prices on these?

Would I be best getting hold of OS3.9? And would I still need to go through this long-winded process of updating from each previous OS version!??!

Please HelpMe!

[Brian]

There's 2 ways of installing OS3.9... either "OS3.9 update installation over OS3.5" or "OS3.9 full installation over OS3.0 or empty HD". So if you get the system to read the CDRom (from bootdisk) then you don't need a system on the harddrive in order to install OS3.9.

(I usually trow in OS3.x and a CDFS on the harddrive to get hold of the CDrom and then when the system can read the CD I just install over the hole thing).

[HelpMe]

Thanks.

I think i'll just get 3.9 then, sounds a lot easier than trying to bodge 3.0, 3.1, and then 3,5 on!

Is there a big difference between 3.5 and 3.9 anyone?

Cheers.

[Hyperspeed]

I don't like the look of AmigaOS3.9.

I hated the reset that Fusion/Shapeshifter did in order to reserve a
particular memory address and I hear that AmigaOS3.9 does the same -
you boot and it resets, then you boot again.

When I switch on the power button I like to boot and get to work
within 30 seconds.

I also hear it substantially delays boot time for SCSI users by taking
ages to wait for an IDE drive on the internal scsi.device.

CD32 users with SX-1/SX32 expansions seem to have a lot of trouble
with OS3.9 too...

:-(

[Brian]

@Hyperspeed

I love the OS3.9 now that I'm starting to get use to it... still have a 2.1 and 3.1 machine but it's just a metter of time before one more of those gets 3.9.

Yes both 3.5 and 3.9 reset once in the boot in order to load in the new ROM and boot of with it.

With a eFlash card the ROM could be saved onto that and the reset wouldn't have to occure (I'm getting such a thing for my A4000 to remove reset and initialyze USB at bootup).

The delay on scsi.device have always been there for "SCSI only" users with 3.1ROM... good thing you can either make a small hack too fool the computer or as in my case just put a drive there to keep it happy.

Boottime for my A4000 system (CSPPC060, IDE and OS3.9) is well under those 30sec you're talking about and the boottime on my A1200 system (BPPC040, SCSI and OS3.9) is still faster than booting up a relatively clean Windows98 on a 466Mhz PC.

[Thomas]

The correct procedure to install OS3.5 (and OS3.9 also) is as follows:

1. get your CD-ROM drive running on your old OS (3.0 in your case)
2. insert the CD, start the OS3.9 installer and create an emergency disk.
3. make sure the emergency disk works. It mainly contains the CD-ROM driver and then boots from CD, so it shouldn't be too difficult to check.
4. boot from the emergency disk.
5. format your former boot partition (with 3.0 on it)
6. install 3.1 on the now empty partition
7. install 3.5 pre
8. reboot
9. install 3.5 main

If you still get error messages, tell me the text so I can decide what it means.

If OS3.5 does not run on your machine, you should not bother getting 3.9, it won't run either. There is not much difference between the two (except the additional programs included with 3.9 and the ability to install 3.9 directly without 3.1 and pre installation before).

Bye,
Thomas

[Holley]

I don't like the look of AmigaOS3.9

I recently went from 3.5 to 3.9, I like it so far but it's probably not worth the extra cost for most people already running 3.5.