🚀 go-pugleaf

"I-Hate-Spam" wrote:

> In the event anybody gets a chance, PLEASE mail me the likely amiga
> disks I need.  I'll be more than happy to pay the shipping costs.

Hi Chris,

I'd be happy to send you a disk or two, but looking over all of the 
messages in this thread, it doesn't appear that you ever determined 
conclusively which model of hard drive controller and which type of hard 
drive you have in your system (unless I missed a post that is), so I don't 
know which one to send you.

There were quite a few different controllers available for the Amiga, from 
many different companies, and for at least three different types of hard 
drives (MFM, SCSI, and IDE.)  Many of them can be set up using the 
hdtoolbox utility that comes with AmigaDOS, but some (like the common 
2090/2090A for instance) can not, and require their own special setup 
utility.  And, even for the ones that can use hdtoolbox, you will still 
need a device driver for your particular controller model. (Despite what 
someone else posted, Amiga devices DO need device drivers so that the 
operating system can talk to them, just like any device for any computer 
system does.  Unlike the x86 PC world however, Amiga device drivers are 
often built right in to the ROM on the card, rather than supplied on disk. 
This may be why the person who posted that message believes that Amigas 
don't use device drivers.)

In any event, if you could take a quick look inside your 2000 and try to 
identify which controller and type of drive you have, I can create the 
appropriate disk and mail it to you.  

Fortunately, most Amiga hard drive controllers I've seen have their model 
number clearly printed on them in big letters (again unlike the x86 PC 
world), so identifying the controller should be pretty easy to do - just 
unscrew the lid, and look for the board with the ribbon cable(s) connected 
to it, and read the letters/numbers on it.

Identifying the type of hard drive is fairly easy as well, even if you're 
not familiar with different drive types.  Just look at the ribbon cable(s) 
that attach it to the controller card: if it's a single cable with 40 wires 
in it, it's IDE.  If it's a single cable with 50 wires, it's SCSI, and if 
it's two cables, one wide one and one narrow one, then it's MFM.

Anyway, once you've done this, let me know what type of card and drive 
you've got, and I'll see if I can find the right disk and mail it to you.

It may turn out that your hard drive is simply bad - we are talking about a 
potentially 15 year old system after all, and hard drives are the most 
common component in any computer system to fail, even when new. (I actually 
killed one just the other day simply by banging it into the case of the 
computer while trying to unplug it from the power supply), but as you said, 
it's worth a shot before you start replacing hardware.



(By the way, I once found myself in a similar pickle while setting up an 
old Commodore 128 to play with - all the software I could ever want for it 
was available on the 'net, but not having any way to transfer that first 
transfer utility to it, I had kind of a chicken and egg problem, so I know 
what you're going through.  Fortunately, a kind gentleman on comp.sys.cbm 
sent me a disk to get me started, for which I'll always be grateful.) :-)

 - Jeff


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