HD emulation won't work

I've been trying to emulate a Hard Disk for months now but I just can't get it to work. I've followed all the instructions for creating a hardfile, but it just won't show up in Workbench.

I've tried three different versions of WinUAE, WinFellow, A500, A2000 and A1200 configs without any results.

Using directories or 'Add PC drives at startup' also produces no result.

Somebody help me please!

[Malc]

This may sound sarcastic (it's not though) but once you create your HDF is it present in the Hard Drives tab? if not then click Add Hardfile and locate your HDF image.

IF you have inserted the HDF image make sure you are using Kickstart 2.0 or higher (best results) and insert Workbench ADFs into the Floppies tab. Once Workbench has loaded you will either see your HDF present and working OR you will have at least one drive that will not open (the screen should flash to indicate an error).

The reason you are getting that error is because even though you have create a fresh HDF image with WinUAE it's not yet usable via the emulated Amiga, like all real Hard Drives you will need to format the virtual one. Simply select the drive and hold your Right mouse button, move over to ICONS and select Format Disk.

Now you can either download Amiga In A Box and install that on your new HDF image OR simply copy the files from your Workbench ADFs over to the HDF, once that is done reboot your emulator (remove the ADFs first) and wait for the HDF to kick in, if all went well Workbench should load.

If you get an error such as "Please Insert Workbench into DF0:" press Cancel until you finally get into Workbench and then open a new AmigaShell (Workbench/System/CLI) and type:

ED SYS:S/STARTUP-SEQUENCE

Now check that file for any DF0: calls and change them to SYS: instead, once you've got rid of them all press ESC then S to save the file. Last but not least, if you still get the "Please insert Workbench into DF0:" prompt rename your HDF to Workbench and try again.

It should work fine.

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We strongly suggest Kickstart 2.0 or higher due to the superior Workbench/AmigaDOS versions and the greater capability to deal with Hard Drives and CD-ROMs. If you are using Kickstart 1.3 then this could be the source of your problem.

After trying all the above simply tells us in detail what is going wrong and I'll post a suitable configuration file & instructions in this forum.

Good luck

Thanks for your reply, but formatting's not the problem.

I've created a hardfile and added a directory to be used as Amiga hard drives, both are present in the Hard Drives menu.
The info for the hardfile is:
VolumeH1
R/W: yes
Sectors: 32
Surfaces: 1
Reserved: 2
Block Size: 512

When I boot (using Kickstart 3.1 and Workbench 3.1), all I see are the Workbench and RAM Disk icons. No HD.

I understand this is a strange problem. I've posted it on a different board before, but nobody could help me.

[CodyJarrett]

The question is, if you already have a hard disk with Workbench on it, why do you need to create another one? Why not just use the one already there?

Also, I wouldn't use hard files. They are really only if you are using an emulator in DOS, because the stupid 8.3 filenames don't like the longer Amiga filenames. For Windows, directories are much better to use, as they can grow as large as you need them to and you can copy files to and from them directly.

As I said, I've tried both directories and hard files. Neither show up in Workbench.

[Paul]

The only thing I can suggest, as your problem has puzzled me, is to download Amiga In A Box software from http://aiab.emuunlim.com/

If This does not work I don't know.

[derSammler]

Make sure that the AutoConfig-option (Misc.) is checked.

Ok, I've given up. I'm using Amiga in a Box now.

Thanks for your help, guys.