[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] Amiga 3000 Floppy Disk

bigbod@soafy.bhpese.oz.au (Rodney Coleman) (04/02/91)

I purchased my Amiga 3000 some time ago, complete with 2 megs of CHIP
and 4 megs of FAST memory. Initially I have only been using WB 2.0 and 
have had no problems. However also being a bit of a games addict, I decided
to fire up some older games that only run under WB 1.3! That is when the 
problems began.

Whenever I try to boot a floppy under 1.3 I get an error "NOT A DOS DISK IN
UNIT 0". Even if I format a disk on the 3000 (under 1.3) and install it,
when I try to boot it I get the same error (ie. the error is not restricted
to disk formated on other machines). However, if I boot 1.3 from the hard
disk and then insert a normal bootable disk, I have no trouble reading the
disk (ie. doing a CD DF0:, DIR, etc.). It is not until I try to boot off the
disk that an error occurs (and thereafter I cant read the disk at all). 

So far, I have checked for viruses (cannot find any), and have checked the 2nd
bank of 1 meg of CHIP ram (problem is still there with 2nd bank removed). 
Could anyone please help me with this problem as it is frustrating me no end!!


					Thanks...     Rodney Coleman
						      BHP Information Technology						      Newcastle Australia.
						      (049) 402139

tagreen@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Todd A. Green) (04/02/91)

In article <1991Apr1.230951.22093@cerberus.bhpese.oz.au> bigbod@soafy.bhpese.oz.au (Rodney Coleman) writes:
> [amiga config deleted]
>
>Whenever I try to boot a floppy under 1.3 I get an error "NOT A DOS DISK IN
>UNIT 0". Even if I format a disk on the 3000 (under 1.3) and install it,
>when I try to boot it I get the same error (ie. the error is not restricted
>to disk formated on other machines). However, if I boot 1.3 from the hard
>disk and then insert a normal bootable disk, I have no trouble reading the
>disk (ie. doing a CD DF0:, DIR, etc.). It is not until I try to boot off the
>disk that an error occurs (and thereafter I cant read the disk at all). 
>

Aha! The plot thickens.  The reason why I originally posted my
question about DM and A3000 compatibility was because at our local
Amiga store, the salesperson did the exact same thing.  Tried to boot
the DM disk from floppy and the same error message came up.  He told
me that the game was not compatible.

I returned to the store several days later and told him that the rest
of the known internet world said that it was (thanks to those who sent
e-mail or posted :) ).

Here is a reply I got in mail about asking why DM wouldn't boot.

	Ah, I know how to fix your problem. Kickstart (the name of the Amiga
	ROMs) has not yet been released to general users on ROM; you have to
	load it from disk.  (They're doing this right now because they're
	still updating 2.0 of the operating system, and it doesn't make much
	sense to burn ROMs if you're just going to replace them from floppy,
	it was trying to read the Dungeon Master disk as the SuperKickStart
	disk.  What you need to do is put the kickstart disk in, let it load
	kickstart, THEN put the dm disk in.  The kickstart disks ship with
	everyt A3000, so your dealer should have one.

Now if you were referring to the "booting a floppy under 1.3" as
meaning the floppy was the SuperKickStart disk, then I guess that this
post is somewhat meaningless.

Wishing he had his hands on a A3000 to learn more,

Todd
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