+remowilliams Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 I haven't been able to get WHDLoad to work yet, when I try to run the setup it tells me there's some program missing (install or something like that). I think I need to download some program from the web or something to get it to work. I'll look into that once I get the internet working. I have kickstart 3.0 I think. How hard is it to upgrade to 3.9? Do I have to get new roms in the machine and all that? whdload requires kickstart images and relocation files, so that might be what it's asking for. WB 3.9 requires KS 3.1 or higher. But you really don't want to bother with 3.9 unless you've got an accelerated machine and extra memory. 3.9 while fancy, is more of a "make it a modern" type of OS than you probably are looking for. Unless of course you really wanted to surf the web on your Amiga Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightSprinter Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 (edited) Tempest, you might wanna check out this site for the Installer packages. It includes binaries all the way down to the 68000. Edited July 2, 2006 by NightSprinter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 I haven't been able to get WHDLoad to work yet, when I try to run the setup it tells me there's some program missing (install or something like that). I think I need to download some program from the web or something to get it to work. I'll look into that once I get the internet working. I had this same problem. What you need is Installer, off Aminet. At least, that will get WHDLoad installed for you... as mentioned, you'll likely still need some kickstart images in order to get WHDLoad to actually run any games. I'm sure you can find those though. Even if you don't have network access from the Amiga, what you might want to do is track down some low-density 3.5" disks and copy stuff onto there, then use CrossDOS on the Amiga to read them. I did this for a LOT of stuff before I eventually bought a SCSI CD-ROM drive (these can be had for pretty cheap off eBay nowadays... even a 2x or 4x drive is plenty for an Amiga). And yeah, unless your Amiga is turbocharged and you're using it for doing actual work, upgrading to 3.9 is mostly pointless. For those of us that just like to screw around and play some games, 3.0 or 3.1 is perfectly fine. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 I had this same problem. What you need is Installer, off Aminet. Ah hell, how could I forget about the installer. Now I remember... Even if you don't have network access from the Amiga, what you might want to do is track down some low-density 3.5" disks and copy stuff onto there, then use CrossDOS on the Amiga to read them. The hell with that! Before I had a working TCP stack/Amiga Explorer I used WinUAE and a 2.5" IDE adapter and cable and just plugged the Amiga HD into a spare PC and mounted the drive under Amiga emulation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 29, 2006 Author Share Posted June 29, 2006 Yep I need that Installer thing. However I think I'm going to wait until I get the ethernet thing going and download it directly to me 1200 so I don't have to take the damn HD out yet another time. That's how I fried my first one... I actually had another problem (well I have alot of problems, but I mean I have another Amiga problem). When using ADF2Disk, when I insert a blank disk it shows up on my desktop as DF0:?????. When I tell ADF2Disk to write a file to DF0 it says something about not being a DOS formatted disk. When I right click on the DF0 icon and tell it to format the disk it keeps telling me that the disk is write protected even though it's not. Any ideas? I don't think my DD is messed up because it seems to read the workbench disks just fine. Oh and I am using double density disks, not high density. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icbrkr Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Yep I need that Installer thing. However I think I'm going to wait until I get the ethernet thing going and download it directly to me 1200 so I don't have to take the damn HD out yet another time. That's how I fried my first one... I actually had another problem (well I have alot of problems, but I mean I have another Amiga problem). When using ADF2Disk, when I insert a blank disk it shows up on my desktop as DF0:?????. When I tell ADF2Disk to write a file to DF0 it says something about not being a DOS formatted disk. When I right click on the DF0 icon and tell it to format the disk it keeps telling me that the disk is write protected even though it's not. Any ideas? I don't think my DD is messed up because it seems to read the workbench disks just fine. Oh and I am using double density disks, not high density. Tempest Unless you have CrossDOS drives mounted, it won't be able to read the disks (you'll have 1 or 2 extra drives on your desktop - PC0 and PC1). These are for browsing PC formatted disks. I know it's just a matter of grabbing the devices from your storage drawer and dropping them into your devices drawer, but I can't remember step by step how to do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 30, 2006 Author Share Posted June 30, 2006 Yep I need that Installer thing. However I think I'm going to wait until I get the ethernet thing going and download it directly to me 1200 so I don't have to take the damn HD out yet another time. That's how I fried my first one... I actually had another problem (well I have alot of problems, but I mean I have another Amiga problem). When using ADF2Disk, when I insert a blank disk it shows up on my desktop as DF0:?????. When I tell ADF2Disk to write a file to DF0 it says something about not being a DOS formatted disk. When I right click on the DF0 icon and tell it to format the disk it keeps telling me that the disk is write protected even though it's not. Any ideas? I don't think my DD is messed up because it seems to read the workbench disks just fine. Oh and I am using double density disks, not high density. Tempest Unless you have CrossDOS drives mounted, it won't be able to read the disks (you'll have 1 or 2 extra drives on your desktop - PC0 and PC1). These are for browsing PC formatted disks. I know it's just a matter of grabbing the devices from your storage drawer and dropping them into your devices drawer, but I can't remember step by step how to do this. I can understand that it won't read them, but why can't it format them? They're standard double density floppies. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icbrkr Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Yep I need that Installer thing. However I think I'm going to wait until I get the ethernet thing going and download it directly to me 1200 so I don't have to take the damn HD out yet another time. That's how I fried my first one... I actually had another problem (well I have alot of problems, but I mean I have another Amiga problem). When using ADF2Disk, when I insert a blank disk it shows up on my desktop as DF0:?????. When I tell ADF2Disk to write a file to DF0 it says something about not being a DOS formatted disk. When I right click on the DF0 icon and tell it to format the disk it keeps telling me that the disk is write protected even though it's not. Any ideas? I don't think my DD is messed up because it seems to read the workbench disks just fine. Oh and I am using double density disks, not high density. Tempest Unless you have CrossDOS drives mounted, it won't be able to read the disks (you'll have 1 or 2 extra drives on your desktop - PC0 and PC1). These are for browsing PC formatted disks. I know it's just a matter of grabbing the devices from your storage drawer and dropping them into your devices drawer, but I can't remember step by step how to do this. I can understand that it won't read them, but why can't it format them? They're standard double density floppies. Tempest Oops.. I guess I read that wrong. The drive could still be messed up - it's possible that the sensor that detects if your write protect is on/off has been broken. I did a quick search and found this: http://eab.abime.net/archive/index.php/t-4653.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 30, 2006 Author Share Posted June 30, 2006 Yep I need that Installer thing. However I think I'm going to wait until I get the ethernet thing going and download it directly to me 1200 so I don't have to take the damn HD out yet another time. That's how I fried my first one... I actually had another problem (well I have alot of problems, but I mean I have another Amiga problem). When using ADF2Disk, when I insert a blank disk it shows up on my desktop as DF0:?????. When I tell ADF2Disk to write a file to DF0 it says something about not being a DOS formatted disk. When I right click on the DF0 icon and tell it to format the disk it keeps telling me that the disk is write protected even though it's not. Any ideas? I don't think my DD is messed up because it seems to read the workbench disks just fine. Oh and I am using double density disks, not high density. Tempest Unless you have CrossDOS drives mounted, it won't be able to read the disks (you'll have 1 or 2 extra drives on your desktop - PC0 and PC1). These are for browsing PC formatted disks. I know it's just a matter of grabbing the devices from your storage drawer and dropping them into your devices drawer, but I can't remember step by step how to do this. I can understand that it won't read them, but why can't it format them? They're standard double density floppies. Tempest Oops.. I guess I read that wrong. The drive could still be messed up - it's possible that the sensor that detects if your write protect is on/off has been broken. I did a quick search and found this: http://eab.abime.net/archive/index.php/t-4653.html That could be the problem. I'll have to check this out when I get home. The more I think about it, I don't know if I've ever actaully written to a disk on my Amiga. Hopefully if this is the problem, the pin is just stuck and not broken. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Farquhar Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Not that this will help you with the present problem, but you can make double density disks out of high density disks by covering the hole opposite the write-protect tab. Or, if you will never use those disks on anything but an Amiga, just use the disks as-is. Amiga drives lack the sensor so it assumes everything is double-density, and HD disks will happily format as DD. I figured out in college that my Amiga would format many (but not all) HD disks my buddies' PCs rejected as bad, so I started having them save them for me. So, for future reference.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 1, 2006 Author Share Posted July 1, 2006 The more I test it, this seems to be the problem. It will read disks just fine, but won't format them because it thinks they're all write protected. I *think* I found the pins (two little metal ones), but they seem to go up and down just fine so I'm not exatly sure what else I can do. I suppose I can get a new drive... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icbrkr Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 The more I test it, this seems to be the problem. It will read disks just fine, but won't format them because it thinks they're all write protected. I *think* I found the pins (two little metal ones), but they seem to go up and down just fine so I'm not exatly sure what else I can do. I suppose I can get a new drive... Tempest You can always get an external drive if you want and use that as your main but replacing the drive would be easier in the long run. You can pick up one fairly cheaply at: http://www.vesalia.de/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 Any chance the internal 3.5 drive from an Amiga 2000 is compatible with a 1200? Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Not that this will help you with the present problem, but you can make double density disks out of high density disks by covering the hole opposite the write-protect tab. I've heard conflicting opinions about using HD disks as DD... some people say they work perfectly, and other people claim they're unreliable... I have enough DD disks around that I haven't had to try this yet, but if I had to back up something important, I still think I'd stay away from HD disks. Any chance the internal 3.5 drive from an Amiga 2000 is compatible with a 1200? Give it a shot, it should work. I tried sticking a drive from a 500 in my 3000 as a second drive, but it didn't work properly. I think the problem was that both drives were somehow set to the same drive number (I hadn't thought about this until long after I'd closed the case, and that case is a bitch to open. In any case, I very much doubt you'll wreck anything by trying it out. You might want to try just moving those pins up and down a few times to see if they loosen up a bit before transplanting anything though. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 I've heard conflicting opinions about using HD disks as DD... some people say they work perfectly, and other people claim they're unreliable... I have enough DD disks around that I haven't had to try this yet, but if I had to back up something important, I still think I'd stay away from HD disks. Well, HD disks may work in the short term when used in DD drives - but don't plan on them working for long. DD drives simply do not have the field strength to properly align HD film particles. So while your data may be there today - don't count on it being there tomorrow. Just simple electro magnetic floppy physics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Farquhar Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 I've heard conflicting opinions about using HD disks as DD... some people say they work perfectly, and other people claim they're unreliable... I have enough DD disks around that I haven't had to try this yet, but if I had to back up something important, I still think I'd stay away from HD disks. Well, HD disks may work in the short term when used in DD drives - but don't plan on them working for long. DD drives simply do not have the field strength to properly align HD film particles. So while your data may be there today - don't count on it being there tomorrow. Just simple electro magnetic floppy physics That's very true of 5.25" HD disks and drives, but the difference between HD and DD 3.5" disks is testing and manufacturing tolerances. Back when there was a price difference between 3.5" DD and HD disks, people used to drill holes in DD disks (or use a special punch) to go the other direction and make HD disks out of DD disks. The danger in doing that was (1) that the disk either hadn't been tested as HD, or had tested and failed, and (2) if any shards of plastic from the drilling process found their way into the disk, you had problems other than uncertified media. But I never, ever had problems with 3.5" HD disks formatted as DDs. At my first job, we had a bunch of old 8086-based IBM PS/2s with DD drives still hanging around. Whenever we needed a disk for those, we'd grab a disk out of our big box of scratch floppies, tape over the hole, and use it. The disks I made that way lasted a couple of years. But if you have an ample supply of DD disks, I'm clearly trying to solve a problem you don't have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icbrkr Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Not that this will help you with the present problem, but you can make double density disks out of high density disks by covering the hole opposite the write-protect tab. I've heard conflicting opinions about using HD disks as DD... some people say they work perfectly, and other people claim they're unreliable... I have enough DD disks around that I haven't had to try this yet, but if I had to back up something important, I still think I'd stay away from HD disks. Any chance the internal 3.5 drive from an Amiga 2000 is compatible with a 1200? Give it a shot, it should work. I tried sticking a drive from a 500 in my 3000 as a second drive, but it didn't work properly. I think the problem was that both drives were somehow set to the same drive number (I hadn't thought about this until long after I'd closed the case, and that case is a bitch to open. In any case, I very much doubt you'll wreck anything by trying it out. You might want to try just moving those pins up and down a few times to see if they loosen up a bit before transplanting anything though. --Zero It'll work.. but... The eject button will probably not physically line up correctly with the A1200's case. And you're right Zero, the drive needs to be set as DF1 in order to work in a 3000 as the secondary drive. I'm not sure if the 500's drive had a jumper on the back for switching this or not though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 Theres a new drive up on ebay for about $20, I'll just go for that one. I did try movig the pins up and down and they seem fine, so all I can guess is that it's the contacts underneath that are bad. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 But I never, ever had problems with 3.5" HD disks formatted as DDs. At my first job, we had a bunch of old 8086-based IBM PS/2s with DD drives still hanging around. Whenever we needed a disk for those, we'd grab a disk out of our big box of scratch floppies, tape over the hole, and use it. The disks I made that way lasted a couple of years. Nearly every HD disk I've written on the classic machines DD drives has failed, usually in short order. I've never actually tried to do it with PCs. Then again, 3.5HDs w/PCs go bad on me all the time But if you have an ample supply of DD disks, I'm clearly trying to solve a problem you don't have. Thankfully, I still do have a rather large stockpile of 3.5DDs and 5.25SDs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Farquhar Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Nearly every HD disk I've written on the classic machines DD drives has failed, usually in short order. I've never actually tried to do it with PCs. Then again, 3.5HDs w/PCs go bad on me all the time Yeah, current production 3.5HDs are junk. I have disks I wrote 10-15 years ago that are fine, but when I write to a brand-new disk, the data probably won't be there in a week. I used to keep an old 386 laptop with Norton Utilities 8 loaded on it to run revive.exe on disks people wrote at work that went bad. Then I'd show them how to map a network drive and tell people to save their backup copies there, instead of on floppies. When a pack of 3.5" HD disks costs less than a pack of baseball cards, you don't get much quality control. Back when I was doing this on a frequent basis, we were using old disks with (obviously) old drives. I'd be much more reluctant to try it with a box of disks fresh from the store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 The eject button will probably not physically line up correctly with the A1200's case. Crap, I forgot about that... I actually have similar problems with two of my Amiga's. My brother transplanted the mechanism for an external drive into the Amiga 500, but the eject button doesn't stick out as far, so you have to push it in really far to get the disk to come out. And in my 3000, the button seems too fat, and rubs against the hole in the case, which means you have to fiddle with the disk to get it to actually go all the way in (I'm not sure what happened here, as my brother got it this way... the previous owner must have done something). And now that I think about it, I remember trying to format an HD disk as DD in a PC high density drive, and it didn't work very well at all. Both Windows and DOS complained a lot when I tried forcing it to format to a different density, and even when it did finish, the disk was unreadable. I haven't tried doing the same on the Amiga though. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 25, 2006 Author Share Posted July 25, 2006 I got my replacement disk drive today, but I'm still having the same problem. Is there someone on this board who can take a look at my Amiga for me? I'd really like to get it up and running. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icbrkr Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 I got my replacement disk drive today, but I'm still having the same problem. Is there someone on this board who can take a look at my Amiga for me? I'd really like to get it up and running. Tempest Are you using Workbench that came with the system or are you booting from a Workbench disk? I'm wondering if you have something in your startup-script that's locking DF0: ? I'll be glad to take a look at it, but it might be after August 20th before you get it back. I'm getting all my Amiga stuff ready and getting stuff ready in general for the OVGE. Is there anything on the HD you want to keep or can it be wiped? Send me a PM if you want and I'll give you my address, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 25, 2006 Author Share Posted July 25, 2006 PM sent. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Is there someone on this board who can take a look at my Amiga for me? I'd really like to get it up and running. I'd take a look at it for you, but I doubt you want to ship it back and forth to NJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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