Installing a 2nd hard drive on an A1200

Bead · 13 October 2011, 15:43

I have a '4-Device Buffered IDE Interface' and currently have a 5GB 2.5" HD attached to it, which works fine. Now what I want to do is attach CF to IDE adapter to one of the IDE connectors and have it as a 2nd hard drive (so I can easily transfer files). When I connect this up, my A1200 just doesn't seem to detect it. The activity LED flashes on the CF adapter, but it doesn't appear in HDToolBox, nor does IDEFix detect it. I have tried it the other way around (boot from CF, HD attached to IDE) and the same thing happens (I can hear the HD working, but nothing appears in Workbench).
Does anyone have any ideas of what I'm missing? Or whether or not what I'm trying to do is even possible?
It should be noted that IDE CD drives work fine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thomas · 13 October 2011, 15:56

Please describe how you set jumpers and where you connected the devices to. The 4-way interface has two channels. Each channel may have only one master and one slave. If master/slave jumpers are not set correctly, it will not work.

The second channel is only activated if you run the IDEfix software (either IDEfix or LoadIDE). Without IDEfix you can only use the first channel.

When using CF cards with IDEfix software you should consider installing this patch. Otherwise the CF card might not be recognised. Note that you need a full version of IDEfix (with registration number) because there is only one version of IDEfix which can be patched and it needs to be registered with an existing reg number. OEM versions cannot be patched.

Bead · 13 October 2011, 18:10

The CF adapter is set to slave and attached to the secondary IDE connector. I know the CF card can be read as I currently have it partitioned with Workbench installed, and it boots into that fine.
I tried applying that patch to IDEfix, but I recieved an error saying something along the lines of it being an incompatible version.

Arnie · 13 October 2011, 19:12

Have you tried swapping the drives around, CF as master and HD as slave?

Or can you hold down both mouse buttons and see the CF in the boot list?

Bead · 14 October 2011, 15:29

I have now tried every combination several times, and only one seems to work. Having the CF adapter as master, connected to the primary IDE connector, and the 2.5" HD as slave connected to the 2.5" connector. When doing this Workbench boots from the CF card and the HD appears in HDToolBox. I cannot browse the HD though, as HDToolBox says I have to select the type, and save changes, which will remove the HDs partitions. My main issue with this is that I want to boot from the HD (as it has my ideal workbench setup, which I can't seem to replicate) and have the CF adapter primarily for transferring files.

This is starting to do my head in. I have no idea why I can't get it to work :-/

Jope · 14 October 2011, 16:07

So when you boot from the cf card and the HD shows up, does it say changed in the cf card's status in hdtoolbox?

As you're probably aware, the Amiga's RDB has a setting for last unit. If you partition the devices standalone, the last unit bit is set. Thus you need to run hdtb and save changes without doing any actual changes to the drives in order for them both to become mounted at boot time.

Bead · 14 October 2011, 18:03

HDToolbox does indeed say 'changed' for the CF card. So I saved changes, rebooted, but yet I still cannot seem to access the HD.

Arnie · 14 October 2011, 18:47

Sometimes a second HD/partition wont show up if they have the same name, eg DH0, Do the CF and HD have different names?

Bead · 14 October 2011, 18:49

Indeed they do. The CF Card is DH0 and DH1, and the HD is HD0 and HD1.

Edit:
I really appreciate all the help so far, but I still can't seem to resolve this. I believe the issue may be something to do with IDEFix, but I have absolutely no idea what it could be.

cpiac64 · 14 October 2011, 21:29

i have 2 cf and work perfectly without 4-Device Buffered IDE Interface

my setup is:
cf-ide with 3 jumper and 3 led set to slave and a cf-ide with 1 jumper and 1 led set to master

the cf-ide with 1 jumper set on slave in reality ability the other side

Bead · 17 October 2011, 15:54

I've made some slight progress. I realised when using the only setup that has some success, which I previously mentioned (CF adapter as master connected to 2.5" connector, HD as slave connected to primary IDE connector), I hadn't acutally loaded IDEFix. I had previously removed it from the startup sequence as my amgia would fail to boot with it on (and still does). Now when I run IDEFix from shell on this setup, my HD partitions do then appear on the workbench screen, and I can browse them fine, but as soon as I try to access either of the CF partitions, my amiga hangs (forever tries to open the drawer, with the curser stuck on 'loading').
I'm not going to give up on this!

fgh · 17 October 2011, 17:51

ROM resident scsi.device accepts both removable and fixed type CF cards.
When using IDEfix driver only fixed type cards work, as removable type cards are mistaken for ATAPI devices.
If disabling IDEfix doesn't work for you, use Doobrey's patched IDEfix, or buy a TrueIDE adapter from Individual computers.

Edit: I overlooked part of Thomas' post above. See his post for more info.

Bead · 17 October 2011, 21:13

Ok, well I finally managed to patch IDEFix, but now whenever IDEFix loads I get an error saying "Program failed (error #80000004). Wait for disk activity to finish." with the only options being Suspend or Reboot.

Unfortunately I don't have the option to buy another CF to IDE adapter as I currently do not have any money.

Edit:
So I applied the patch to IDEFix on my HDD (I had previously applied the patch to IDEFix on the CF card), and now, it works! I can see the CF card drawers on the workbench, and can access everything fine with no problems.
Thanks to everyone for helping me out! It is greatly appreciated. The problem was literally keeping me up at night.
Thanks again!

13 October 2011, 15:43	#1
Bead Registered User Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: UK Posts: 34	Installing a 2nd hard drive on an A1200 [SOLVED] I have a '4-Device Buffered IDE Interface' and currently have a 5GB 2.5" HD attached to it, which works fine. Now what I want to do is attach CF to IDE adapter to one of the IDE connectors and have it as a 2nd hard drive (so I can easily transfer files). When I connect this up, my A1200 just doesn't seem to detect it. The activity LED flashes on the CF adapter, but it doesn't appear in HDToolBox, nor does IDEFix detect it. I have tried it the other way around (boot from CF, HD attached to IDE) and the same thing happens (I can hear the HD working, but nothing appears in Workbench). Does anyone have any ideas of what I'm missing? Or whether or not what I'm trying to do is even possible? It should be noted that IDE CD drives work fine. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Last edited by Bead; 17 October 2011 at 21:42.

14 October 2011, 18:49	#9
Bead Registered User Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: UK Posts: 34	Indeed they do. The CF Card is DH0 and DH1, and the HD is HD0 and HD1. Edit: I really appreciate all the help so far, but I still can't seem to resolve this. I believe the issue may be something to do with IDEFix, but I have absolutely no idea what it could be. Last edited by Bead; 14 October 2011 at 19:35.

17 October 2011, 15:54	#11
Bead Registered User Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: UK Posts: 34	I've made some slight progress. I realised when using the only setup that has some success, which I previously mentioned (CF adapter as master connected to 2.5" connector, HD as slave connected to primary IDE connector), I hadn't acutally loaded IDEFix. I had previously removed it from the startup sequence as my amgia would fail to boot with it on (and still does). Now when I run IDEFix from shell on this setup, my HD partitions do then appear on the workbench screen, and I can browse them fine, but as soon as I try to access either of the CF partitions, my amiga hangs (forever tries to open the drawer, with the curser stuck on 'loading'). I'm not going to give up on this! Last edited by Bead; 17 October 2011 at 16:06.

17 October 2011, 17:51	#12
fgh Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Norway Posts: 817	ROM resident scsi.device accepts both removable and fixed type CF cards. When using IDEfix driver only fixed type cards work, as removable type cards are mistaken for ATAPI devices. If disabling IDEfix doesn't work for you, use Doobrey's patched IDEfix, or buy a TrueIDE adapter from Individual computers. Edit: I overlooked part of Thomas' post above. See his post for more info. Last edited by fgh; 18 October 2011 at 12:41.

17 October 2011, 21:13	#13
Bead Registered User Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: UK Posts: 34	Ok, well I finally managed to patch IDEFix, but now whenever IDEFix loads I get an error saying "Program failed (error #80000004). Wait for disk activity to finish." with the only options being Suspend or Reboot. Unfortunately I don't have the option to buy another CF to IDE adapter as I currently do not have any money. Edit: So I applied the patch to IDEFix on my HDD (I had previously applied the patch to IDEFix on the CF card), and now, it works! I can see the CF card drawers on the workbench, and can access everything fine with no problems. Thanks to everyone for helping me out! It is greatly appreciated. The problem was literally keeping me up at night. Thanks again! Last edited by Bead; 17 October 2011 at 21:42.

13 October 2011, 15:56	#2
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 6,985	Please describe how you set jumpers and where you connected the devices to. The 4-way interface has two channels. Each channel may have only one master and one slave. If master/slave jumpers are not set correctly, it will not work. The second channel is only activated if you run the IDEfix software (either IDEfix or LoadIDE). Without IDEfix you can only use the first channel. When using CF cards with IDEfix software you should consider installing this patch. Otherwise the CF card might not be recognised. Note that you need a full version of IDEfix (with registration number) because there is only one version of IDEfix which can be patched and it needs to be registered with an existing reg number. OEM versions cannot be patched.

13 October 2011, 18:10	#3
Bead Registered User Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: UK Posts: 34	The CF adapter is set to slave and attached to the secondary IDE connector. I know the CF card can be read as I currently have it partitioned with Workbench installed, and it boots into that fine. I tried applying that patch to IDEfix, but I recieved an error saying something along the lines of it being an incompatible version.

13 October 2011, 19:12	#4
Arnie R.I.P Smudge 18-08-16 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Leicester/UK Age: 66 Posts: 3,968	Have you tried swapping the drives around, CF as master and HD as slave? Or can you hold down both mouse buttons and see the CF in the boot list?

14 October 2011, 15:29	#5
Bead Registered User Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: UK Posts: 34	I have now tried every combination several times, and only one seems to work. Having the CF adapter as master, connected to the primary IDE connector, and the 2.5" HD as slave connected to the 2.5" connector. When doing this Workbench boots from the CF card and the HD appears in HDToolBox. I cannot browse the HD though, as HDToolBox says I have to select the type, and save changes, which will remove the HDs partitions. My main issue with this is that I want to boot from the HD (as it has my ideal workbench setup, which I can't seem to replicate) and have the CF adapter primarily for transferring files. This is starting to do my head in. I have no idea why I can't get it to work :-/

14 October 2011, 16:07	#6
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	So when you boot from the cf card and the HD shows up, does it say changed in the cf card's status in hdtoolbox? As you're probably aware, the Amiga's RDB has a setting for last unit. If you partition the devices standalone, the last unit bit is set. Thus you need to run hdtb and save changes without doing any actual changes to the drives in order for them both to become mounted at boot time.

14 October 2011, 18:03	#7
Bead Registered User Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: UK Posts: 34	HDToolbox does indeed say 'changed' for the CF card. So I saved changes, rebooted, but yet I still cannot seem to access the HD.

14 October 2011, 18:47	#8
Arnie R.I.P Smudge 18-08-16 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Leicester/UK Age: 66 Posts: 3,968	Sometimes a second HD/partition wont show up if they have the same name, eg DH0, Do the CF and HD have different names?

14 October 2011, 21:29	#10
cpiac64 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Italy Posts: 1,136	i have 2 cf and work perfectly without 4-Device Buffered IDE Interface my setup is: cf-ide with 3 jumper and 3 led set to slave and a cf-ide with 1 jumper and 1 led set to master the cf-ide with 1 jumper set on slave in reality ability the other side

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