u-mderha%ug.utah.edu@wasatch.UUCP (Max Derhak) (03/15/89)
A While ago, I posted a note about hooking up a 5 1/4" drive to my Amy, and
in the process, i ended up wiring up my own controller/interface. But I
still have a problem. I have a mountlist entry for the drive, and I can
the drive, format it, and put data on it in AMIGADOS format, with no problems.
But when I try to use utilities like Dos-2-Dos, it tells me that the MS-DOS
drive is not ready. Would somebody mind explaining this to me. Does
AmigaDos ignore something that MS-DOS utilities dont?
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Spring Break means that it's time to get back to my Amiga!
Max Derhak | u-mderha@ug.utah.edu.UUCP
---------------------------------------------------------------------------news@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Net news owner) (03/15/89)
From: trantow@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Jerry J Trantow) Path: csd4.milw.wisc.edu!trantow I believe the problem with hooking up the 5 1/4" is related to pin 34 on the drive. On the old drives (typically PC) it implemented a Ready signal. On the newer (read AT) configured drives it implements something else. I can not remember the details if it signals disk change or something else, but I did have a problem getting a PC to boot up with an AT drive and I traced it down to pin 34. I have the same problem with my 5 1/4", but since I got my hard drive I only use the floppy with PCUtilities which work without the Ready signal. Good Luck.
tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) (03/17/89)
> A While ago, I posted a note about hooking up a 5 1/4" drive to my Amy, and > in the process, i ended up wiring up my own controller/interface. But I > still have a problem. I have a mountlist entry for the drive, and I can > the drive, format it, and put data on it in AMIGADOS format, with no problems. > But when I try to use utilities like Dos-2-Dos, it tells me that the MS-DOS > drive is not ready. Would somebody mind explaining this to me. Does > AmigaDos ignore something that MS-DOS utilities dont? > > Max Derhak | u-mderha@ug.utah.edu.UUCP I have a homebrew-hack 5.25 drive on my 1000. There are cases where it doesn't work with the PC utils. Don't know if Dos-2-Dos expects things same as PC Utils. But PC Utils complain if you have mounted the disk. Also, if I have a Starboard hung off the side, the 5.25 drive works fine except that, again, PC Utils can't use it. Never figured out just why. Tom Bruhns tomb%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com
sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) (03/20/89)
> I have a homebrew-hack 5.25 drive on my 1000. There are cases where it > doesn't work with the PC utils. Don't know if Dos-2-Dos expects things > same as PC Utils. But PC Utils complain if you have mounted the disk. > Also, if I have a Starboard hung off the side, the 5.25 drive works fine > except that, again, PC Utils can't use it. Never figured out just why. > > Tom Bruhns > tomb%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com I have the "real" 5.25" drive on my Amiga 1000, and also the Starboard II. I cannot use the PC Utils to do a copy unless I get rid of all fast mem. What's odd is that "nofastmem" doesn't seem to help! There's a utility called "nofast" which reboots your machine; when it comes back up, it only shows the first 512K chip memory (as if your autoconfig board was disconnected), and PC Utils work fine. Also, I too cannot mount the 5.25" drive without the PC copy program complaining. So, I suspect the problem isn't your hacked drive, but for all 5.25" drives. (The PC Format program seems to handle more conditions than the copy program, but I can't remember the exact cases at the moment.) Er, I guess the "why" is that PC Utils doesn't work with expansion RAM.... (It's my first USENET post... flame via e-mail please! :-) 'Sides, I like mail.) Gary Wolfe ....uunet!hite386!tlvx!sysop
davidb@utpsych.toronto.edu (David Brodbeck) (03/21/89)
In article <5160029@hplsla.HP.COM> tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) writes: >> A While ago, I posted a note about hooking up a 5 1/4" drive to my Amy, and >> in the process, i ended up wiring up my own controller/interface. But I >> still have a problem. I have a mountlist entry for the drive, and I can >> the drive, format it, and put data on it in AMIGADOS format, with no problems. >> But when I try to use utilities like Dos-2-Dos, it tells me that the MS-DOS >> drive is not ready. Would somebody mind explaining this to me. Does >> AmigaDos ignore something that MS-DOS utilities dont? >> >> Max Derhak | u-mderha@ug.utah.edu.UUCP > >I have a homebrew-hack 5.25 drive on my 1000. There are cases where it >doesn't work with the PC utils. Don't know if Dos-2-Dos expects things >same as PC Utils. But PC Utils complain if you have mounted the disk. >Also, if I have a Starboard hung off the side, the 5.25 drive works fine >except that, again, PC Utils can't use it. Never figured out just why. > >Tom Bruhns >tomb%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com Dos-2-Dos doesn't care if you have mounted the drive like PCUtil does (I have d2d on my 5 1/4 and use it form there). I once got the same problem too, but, I couldn't figure it out and it then went away...... Daveman davidb@psych.toronto.edu brodbeck@vm.utcs.utoronto.edu Remember - Chickadees have episodic memory
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy) (03/25/89)
In article <192@tlvx.UUCP> sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) writes: >> I have a homebrew-hack 5.25 drive on my 1000. There are cases where it >> doesn't work with the PC utils. Don't know if Dos-2-Dos expects things >I have the "real" 5.25" drive on my Amiga 1000, and also the Starboard II. >I cannot use the PC Utils to do a copy unless I get rid of all fast mem. >What's odd is that "nofastmem" doesn't seem to help! There's a utility called >"nofast" which reboots your machine; when it comes back up, it only shows the >first 512K chip memory (as if your autoconfig board was disconnected), and >PC Utils work fine. Also, I too cannot mount the 5.25" drive without the PC >copy program complaining. So, I suspect the problem isn't your hacked drive, >but for all 5.25" drives. (The PC Format program seems to handle more conditions >than the copy program, but I can't remember the exact cases at the moment.) >Er, I guess the "why" is that PC Utils doesn't work with expansion RAM.... No, I also have an A1000 with Starboard II and 1020 drive, and I use the PC-Utils all the time, and I rarely have a problem with it. Of course, if I mount the 1020 (df2:) then the PC-Utils won't work, but this is stated in the documentation. Your fastmem problem must be caused by something else. -- Eric Kennedy ejkst@cisunx.UUCP
fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) (03/25/89)
From article <192@tlvx.UUCP>, by sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp): > I have the "real" 5.25" drive on my Amiga 1000, and also the Starboard II. > I cannot use the PC Utils to do a copy unless I get rid of all fast mem. > > Er, I guess the "why" is that PC Utils doesn't work with expansion RAM.... Have you run a memory diagnostic against your expansion RAM? I've had no trouble using the PC Utils with my Amiga 5.25" drive and expansion RAM. --Fabbian Dufoe 350 Ling-A-Mor Terrace South St. Petersburg, Florida 33705 813-823-2350 UUCP: ...uunet!pdn!jc3b21!fgd3
sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) (03/27/89)
In article <611@jc3b21.UUCP>, fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) writes: ... > Have you run a memory diagnostic against your expansion RAM? I've had > no trouble using the PC Utils with my Amiga 5.25" drive and expansion RAM. > Just in case, I ran the Starboard's diagnostic disk again -- it's fine. It sounds like some sort of incompatibility problem. I've made the infamous PAL fix, so it's not that either. I'd ask if this is just a Starboard II problem, except for the other poster who said his worked fine. I've been very pleased with the Starboard II. I also have a 68010, but I think I had these problems with the old 68000 too. What happens (specifically), in case someone is interested in the problem, PC Copy will access the 5.25" drive (the light blinks and the head moves), but it will not bring up a directory. If I try to copy an Amiga file to IBM format, it says the directory is full. I had simply assumed it was an expansion memory thing (like some old software), especially since I wasn't the only one with the problem. Now I'm really curious as to what the problem might be.... and I'm out of ideas! But, it's no big deal really; just barely a nuisance (I'm starting to feel guilty about taking up net-time now :-). > --Fabbian Dufoe ... > UUCP: ...uunet!pdn!jc3b21!fgd3 While I'm on the subject of 5.25" drives and IBM format, has anyone noticed that there's a software IBM Emulator for the MacSE which runs full speed with Flight Simulator (and costs something like $600)? (Sure would be nice to have that instead of Transformer, sigh! But $600 for SOFTWARE? Yuck.) Gary Wolfe ...uunet!hite386!tlvx!sysop
jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) (03/29/89)
In article <611@jc3b21.UUCP> fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) writes: >From article <192@tlvx.UUCP>, by sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp): >> I have the "real" 5.25" drive on my Amiga 1000, and also the Starboard II. >> I cannot use the PC Utils to do a copy unless I get rid of all fast mem. >> >> Er, I guess the "why" is that PC Utils doesn't work with expansion RAM.... > > Have you run a memory diagnostic against your expansion RAM? I've had >no trouble using the PC Utils with my Amiga 5.25" drive and expansion RAM. Well, it might be a side-effect of a bug in trackdisk. RAWREAD/RAWWRITE are used by PCUtils, and the raw r/w code in tracckdisk is broken, and accesses an absolute memory location when checking the size of the request instead of using an immediate. SO whether it works becomes dependant on what's where in memory. NoFastMem changes where things are. Note that if you have two or more 3.5" drives, NoFastMem isn't needed, since the track buffer ends up there, and is always filled with large enough values that things work. This will be fixed in 1.4, it can't be fixed with setpatch (we looked). -- Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup
ssd@sugar.hackercorp.com (Scott Denham) (04/03/89)
In article <194@tlvx.UUCP>, sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) writes: > > What happens (specifically), in case someone is interested in the problem, > PC Copy will access the 5.25" drive (the light blinks and the head moves), but > it will not bring up a directory. If I try to copy an Amiga file to IBM format, > it says the directory is full. > > I had simply assumed it was an expansion memory thing (like some old software), > especially since I wasn't the only one with the problem. Now I'm really curious > as to what the problem might be.... and I'm out of ideas! But, it's no big > deal really; just barely a nuisance (I'm starting to feel guilty about taking > up net-time now :-). > Well, this sounds a lot like some ongoing problems I have had with the 5 1/4" drive. I also have a homebrew drive that I built for my 1000. Upon upgrading to a 2000, the drive quit working in IBM mode, though I could still mount it and use it quite happily all day long in Amiga mode. I moved the drive BACK to the old 1000, and it still works great there. I labored under the assumption that it was my hardware hack for some months, until someone else on the net reported the same problem. We got a quick response from Commodore explaining that there was a newly-discovered bug in trackdisk.device (both 1.2 and 1.3) whereby it is checking a random place for the length of a RawRead/RawWrite request and thus may invalidly return a length error (-4). This was explained to be most likely to happen on a machine with no DF1: (e.g. a 2000 without a second internal drive). I sadly accepted this explanation and the promise of a fix in 1.4. Since then I have come into posession of a 500, and thought "A-HA - now the 5 1/4" can be on DF1 like it is on the 1000, and I can go back to using disks to get stuff back and forth instead of relying on a rather unwieldy chain of modem connections. No such luck - said drive behaves exactly the same way on the 500 as it does on the 2000. The most obvious symptom, other than the ones you described, is the posting of "Error -4!" if you attempt to use PCFormat. If it really is checking a bad location in memory, I'd guess that the presence/absence of your Starboard memory moves things around enough to circumvent the problem. I've found that running a simple program that uses the same RawRead request packet, I can get it to read every once in a while when running under a debugger; apparently something gets stuck in memory that it likes. Hopefully someone from C-A will respond and clarify this again - perhaps now they know more about the problem or (against all hope) have a SetPatch sort of fix to get around it. Anyway, any other of you potential 5 1/4" users out there should be aware of this lest you fritter away as much time trying to figure it out as I have. On the bright side, I now probably have the best-shielded, most carefully wired drive gate hack around - I rebuilt it twice thinking it was my quick-and-dirty wire-wrap job or 7' unshielded ribbon cable that was killing it :-> Scott Denham Houston, TX