Amdrive Hard Disk

[Parsec]

There's been a few ideas thrown about here but having left the Amiga in the A500/KS1.3 days I'm not all that sure what it means. Can anyone give me a rough idea of what my options are with this drive?

It sounds like

i) get the original driver disks (no chance )
ii) try to get it working with KS2.0/HDToolbox. This is only a temporary solution right?
iii) get the A2091 driver disk and try that. Aminet?
iv) put it on eBay?
v) bin it?

Does that sound like a fair summary Don't worry I won't bin it

[jmmijo]

I just noticed the manufacturers name:

Applied Systems Developments, Ltd.

Does anybody remember them?

The Amiga Hardware page doesn't seem to have them listed under any category

[scaf]

you can download the A2091 driver disk on this page :
http://www.planetemu.net

On the left of the page, click on "Amiga" (of course )
then, on "ROMS", then on "Commodore Amiga - Installation, ROMs, Tutorials & Promotional", and finish with "A2091 SCSI Controller Install Disk".

I tried a more direct link, but it didn't work :/

[Miggy2TheMax]

Originally posted by Parsec
There's been a few ideas thrown about here but having left the Amiga in the A500/KS1.3 days I'm not all that sure what it means. Can anyone give me a rough idea of what my options are with this drive?

It sounds like

i) get the original driver disks (no chance )
ii) try to get it working with KS2.0/HDToolbox. This is only a temporary solution right?
iii) get the A2091 driver disk and try that. Aminet?
iv) put it on eBay?
v) bin it?

Does that sound like a fair summary Don't worry I won't bin it

agree to some extent with (i), but don't give up!!
(ii), it would only really serve as a temp solution and is only to try to proove that the unit works under KS2.+, you'd have to get new roms for the 500, but then you loose compatibility.
(iii) you can also get that driver and more here:
http://www.L8R.net/install/hdc.html
(iv) truely a last resort,
(v) never an option with amiga hardware!!!!

[Alex]

Looking at the circuit board, there's no autoboot ROM (a piece of read only memory that would contain the driver software). It means that without a driver floppy disk you cannot access the hard disk at all.

So your options are:

> i) get the original driver disks (no chance )

This seems to be vital for this drive.

> ii) try to get it working with KS2.0/HDToolbox.

Will work only if this drive RDB compliant and supports scsi.device. Little chance regarding the drive's age but give it a try.

> iii) get the A2091 driver disk and try that. Aminet?

The A2091 is an autobooting controller, its driver is on the card. So its install disk won't help.

But don't give up, (AMD)5380 based controllers are quite common for Amigas. Here's a list of them for the A500, some of them with install disk:
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search....ga=500&ic=5380

As I've never heard of Applied System Development, there's a chance this company is related to an other better known company. You can check this by reading out the autoconfig ids (if the controller supports autoconfig). Load a util such as Sysinfo, ShowConfig, ShowBoards, AIBB, etc., these will print out the ids which can be used to identify the developer company.

[teh]

A500's tend to say up yours to hard drives. Ive tryed a hdd in winuae on a 1.3 kickrom. No hdd there eather!

[Jope]

Originally posted by Superfrog
A500's tend to say up yours to hard drives. Ive tryed a hdd in winuae on a 1.3 kickrom. No hdd there eather!

Well, if you don't know how, feel free to ask for help here on the board!

An 1.3 A500 works just fine with hard drives, as long as the controller or mechanism isn't broken.. But that isn't the A500's fault either. :-)

[Jope]

Originally posted by Alex

As I've never heard of Applied System Development, there's a chance this company is related to an other better known company. You can check this by reading out the autoconfig ids (if the controller supports autoconfig). Load a util such as Sysinfo, ShowConfig, ShowBoards, AIBB, etc., these will print out the ids which can be used to identify the developer company.

Sysinfo is great for this kind of thing.. You can also check the devices section whether a new device for the controller becomes visible in the list when it's plugged in.

Also just in case, click the drives button to see if it shows up there.

If there's no .device or volume visible, it's a non-autobooting drive - you'll have to set up a mountlist on a boot floppy (a good idea is to set up a small RAD: drive from that boot floppy) to be able to use it.

Hi,
I have just read this thread after getting my old Amiga 2000 working again. I actually wrote the firmware for AMDrive back in the early 90's for Applied Systems Developement, a small company in Scunthorpe UK. Yes it is SCSI and yes it does need a boot disk, it wasn't auto booting, that was the next generation but it just didn't happen. It was certainly geared at the home user, with a very competative price tag for its day. Don't know if I can help anybody today, its been a long time but having transfered all my Amiga software to my PC I might be able to find a driver or something.

Regards

[Parsec]

I have just read this thread after getting my old Amiga 2000 working again. I actually wrote the firmware for AMDrive back in the early 90's for Applied Systems Developement, a small company in Scunthorpe UK.

Cool

The drive I had actually came from a celler in a house in Yorkshire.

I don't have the drive anymore but if you do come across the drivers it might be worth putting them on the web (and trying to get a link on amiga-hardware.com) someone might benefit from them

Hi All,

It's been a long time but myself Chris and a colleague Tony used to work for Applied System Developments of Scunthorpe in the UK 1988 -1990/1. This was the hardware and software development company associated with one of Commodore's biggest Amiga UK distributor's Applied Systems and Peripherals Ltd. ( ASAP for short ).

We were responsible for the AMdrive, AMIOX and miniGen products along with a prototyping board and a few other little bits and pieces from what I can remember. The previous post re the driver software was from Dave ( hello! ) who we subcontracted the writing to.

Not sure if I can be of much help but please feel free to ask.

Glad to know that some of this vintage equipment is still working ( or not as the case may be ).

Good Luck.

Regards

Chris H.

You'll see my name on the AMIOX pcb artwork.

[Parsec]

Nice one Chris.

The problem with that drive was the drivers never turned up so it was unusable

Shame as it looked pretty solid really.

[Alex]

Chris!
Is this the miniGen you did? amiga.resource.cx/photos/minigen
Then we have to correct the manufacturer from PP&S to Applied System Developments.
Oh, and here's the AMIOX pcb with your names:
amiga.resource.cx/photos/amiox,Amiox

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I have just found one of these in my loft along with a number of other Amiga peripherals. I've linked it up to my A500 and it chunters away fine (it actually makes a very pleasing noise when it boots up!) and autoloads Workbench. In all honesty it's going to Ebay with everything else - but what does it actually do!?

Thanks in adavance,

Simon