A600 and Large Hard Drive?

pvt_beano · 15 January 2006, 19:15

Long time Amiga lover, first time poster, just re-aquired an A600. I want to perform some simple upgrades on it like expanding the RAM, swapping the ROM to 3.1, and installing a hard drive. I understand that any 2.5" IDE drive will do, I have a 6.4GB and a 20GB drive available, but I remeber reading somewhere about a 4GB or 400MB limit.......am I imagining this or not?

Any advice on how to install the hard drive and get it recognised would be great, also, is the 2.05 to 3.1 kickrom upgrade worth the price of the ROM? And finally

Is the max RAM the 1MB kit for the trap door or is there a better way of upping the memory on these?

Thanks in advance for any help.

thomas · 15 January 2006, 19:34

Quote:

I have a 6.4GB and a 20GB drive available, but I remeber reading somewhere about a 4GB or 400MB limit.......am I imagining this or not?

With Kickstart 3.1 and below, you cannot access more than the first 4GB of the drive. There are software patches to overcome this limit, but you need quite some experience to install them.

With Kick 2.05, you also have to look at the internal version (37.xxx). There are three versions: 37.299 does not recognise any HDD, 37.300 can handle up to 40MB (more only if you are lucky) and 37.350 should be able to handle the entire 4GB.

As for Kick 3.1: if you don't plan to use WB 3.1, too, you can stick with Kick 2.0. However, Kick 3.1 + WB 3.1 *is* worth the money IMHO.

Regarding RAM expansion, AFAIK it is quite difficult to get expansions for the A600. If you want more RAM than fits into the trap door, you need an accelerator with fast RAM option. These are difficult to find.

pvt_beano · 15 January 2006, 20:22

Thanks Thomas for the speedy reply, I've just order the 3.1 Kick and a drive cable, the memory upgrade was out of stock at AmigaKit.com, can anyone recommend another online retailer for this?

Chain · 15 January 2006, 20:59

and dont use harddrive with drivelock chip, its unusable with amiga

amigakit.com · 15 January 2006, 21:51

To add 1 MB of Fast Memory to your Amiga A600, we have the following item in stock now:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=423

It will also increase system performance too.

pvt_beano · 15 January 2006, 22:30

Thanks for the link to the memory!! I have no idea what a drivelock chip is........how can I tell.

pvt_beano · 15 January 2006, 22:40

Don't suppose the A600 can support a larger SRAM PCMCIA card than 1Mb can it? or is it possible to install the trapdoor expansion alongside the SRAM card? Also, if I install the 6.4Gb drive, will it simply show as a 4Gb on WB3.1? Thanks.

amigakit.com · 15 January 2006, 23:12

Yes it is perfectly possible to install the trapdoor chip memory upgrade alongside the SRAM.

The SRAM provides vital Fast Memory (which the A600 doesn't have). Many older games require Fast memory to work.

A combination of both upgrades is great. The largest SRAM card that can be used is 4MB but unfortunately they are very difficult to source and usually expensive.

Hope this helps.

Larger than 4GB hard disks dont work with the Amiga's FFS prior to AmigaOS 3.5 / 3.9. SO you would have to install SFS or PFS onto a larger than 4GB hard disk.

Jope · 16 January 2006, 08:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by pvt_beano

Also, if I install the 6.4Gb drive, will it simply show as a 4Gb on WB3.1? Thanks.

It's a little more dangerous, you'll see the whole drive, but if you access the last 2GB, it will wrap around to the first 2GB and trash the contents in the beginning of the drive..

So be careful and only make partitions in the lower 4GB area.

Also please note that FFS can't be used on partitions larger than 2GB.

pvt_beano · 16 January 2006, 09:43

Can I just partition the drive into two parts, one 4Gb and one 2.4Gb? If so......is this easy?

alexh · 16 January 2006, 10:03

The A600 can take upto a 4Mbyte SRAM PCMCIA card.

The A600 can take any size of Compact Flash (using a PCMCIA to CF adapter with drivers) but it can only be used as a hard disk (not RAM) and I dont think you can boot from it.

If you get an A600 trapdoor expansion, avoid the Marpet ones which take SIMMs. They are too heavy and as such often come loose (yellow screen of death).

If you get an A600 accelerator (rare, expensive) make sure that you get a PCMCIA friendly one. (Assuming you want to use the PCMCIA slot)

You can add PCMCIA ethernet cards and wireless ethernet cards.

thomas · 16 January 2006, 10:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by pvt_beano

Can I just partition the drive into two parts, one 4Gb and one 2.4Gb? If so......is this easy?

No, you can't. You should read more carefully. You can access only the first 4GB of the drive and you can only create partitions of less then 2GB. So create one 400 MB and two 1.75 GB partitions and leave the rest empty, then you are fine.

Jope · 16 January 2006, 11:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomas

No, you can't. You should read more carefully. You can access only the first 4GB of the drive and you can only create partitions of less then 2GB. So create one 400 MB and two 1.75 GB partitions and leave the rest empty, then you are fine.

Or two 2GB partitions .. or twenty 200MB partitions .. or .. :-)

Only use the first 4GB of the drive.

Chain · 16 January 2006, 12:18

Drivelock = bad bad thing on some branded disks. it needs password for access and its nonremovable/hardware level

pvt_beano · 16 January 2006, 12:26

Okay, I'm with you now

.....So just to clarify all I have to do is make sure only the first 4Gb of the drive can be used and I'm safe?

Thanks ppl, greatly appreciate the help.

15 January 2006, 19:15	#1
pvt_beano Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cornwall, UK Posts: 27	A600 and Large Hard Drive? Long time Amiga lover, first time poster, just re-aquired an A600. I want to perform some simple upgrades on it like expanding the RAM, swapping the ROM to 3.1, and installing a hard drive. I understand that any 2.5" IDE drive will do, I have a 6.4GB and a 20GB drive available, but I remeber reading somewhere about a 4GB or 400MB limit.......am I imagining this or not? Any advice on how to install the hard drive and get it recognised would be great, also, is the 2.05 to 3.1 kickrom upgrade worth the price of the ROM? And finally Is the max RAM the 1MB kit for the trap door or is there a better way of upping the memory on these? Thanks in advance for any help.

15 January 2006, 22:40	#7
pvt_beano Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cornwall, UK Posts: 27	Don't suppose the A600 can support a larger SRAM PCMCIA card than 1Mb can it? or is it possible to install the trapdoor expansion alongside the SRAM card? Also, if I install the 6.4Gb drive, will it simply show as a 4Gb on WB3.1? Thanks. Last edited by pvt_beano; 15 January 2006 at 22:48.

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15 January 2006, 20:22	#3
pvt_beano Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cornwall, UK Posts: 27	Thanks Thomas for the speedy reply, I've just order the 3.1 Kick and a drive cable, the memory upgrade was out of stock at AmigaKit.com, can anyone recommend another online retailer for this?

15 January 2006, 20:59	#4
Chain A-Collector, repairments Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Czech Rep. Age: 50 Posts: 1,536	and dont use harddrive with drivelock chip, its unusable with amiga

15 January 2006, 21:51	#5
amigakit.com Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: www.amigakit.com Posts: 2,015	To add 1 MB of Fast Memory to your Amiga A600, we have the following item in stock now: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=423 It will also increase system performance too.

15 January 2006, 22:30	#6
pvt_beano Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cornwall, UK Posts: 27	Thanks for the link to the memory!! I have no idea what a drivelock chip is........how can I tell.

15 January 2006, 23:12	#8
amigakit.com Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: www.amigakit.com Posts: 2,015	Yes it is perfectly possible to install the trapdoor chip memory upgrade alongside the SRAM. The SRAM provides vital Fast Memory (which the A600 doesn't have). Many older games require Fast memory to work. A combination of both upgrades is great. The largest SRAM card that can be used is 4MB but unfortunately they are very difficult to source and usually expensive. Hope this helps. Larger than 4GB hard disks dont work with the Amiga's FFS prior to AmigaOS 3.5 / 3.9. SO you would have to install SFS or PFS onto a larger than 4GB hard disk.

16 January 2006, 09:43	#10
pvt_beano Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cornwall, UK Posts: 27	Can I just partition the drive into two parts, one 4Gb and one 2.4Gb? If so......is this easy?

16 January 2006, 10:03	#11
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	The A600 can take upto a 4Mbyte SRAM PCMCIA card. The A600 can take any size of Compact Flash (using a PCMCIA to CF adapter with drivers) but it can only be used as a hard disk (not RAM) and I dont think you can boot from it. If you get an A600 trapdoor expansion, avoid the Marpet ones which take SIMMs. They are too heavy and as such often come loose (yellow screen of death). If you get an A600 accelerator (rare, expensive) make sure that you get a PCMCIA friendly one. (Assuming you want to use the PCMCIA slot) You can add PCMCIA ethernet cards and wireless ethernet cards.

16 January 2006, 12:18	#14
Chain A-Collector, repairments Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Czech Rep. Age: 50 Posts: 1,536	Drivelock = bad bad thing on some branded disks. it needs password for access and its nonremovable/hardware level

16 January 2006, 12:26	#15
pvt_beano Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cornwall, UK Posts: 27	Okay, I'm with you now .....So just to clarify all I have to do is make sure only the first 4Gb of the drive can be used and I'm safe? Thanks ppl, greatly appreciate the help.

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