A590 with 6.1 ROM SCSI Upgrade Options

kire_online · 16 October 2011, 14:36

Just got my hands on an A500 which came with an A590 housing the 20Mb XT Soviet Military Grade Drive.
The old hard drive wouldn't boot, it must have been seized up, kept making knocking sounds, I sprayed some silicon spray on the servo, and it worked fine after that.
The Amiga has dual ROMs 1.3/2.0 and 1Mb Chip, 4Mb Fast RAM, plus the 2Mb in the A590 so I was hoping this would be a nice project for whdload.
Given the A590 ROMS are v6.1, what are my options ?
Can I stick a 9Gb Drive in there and partition it up, for example, 100Mb for System, then 2Gb each for the remainder ?

Toni Wilen · 16 October 2011, 16:17

You need 7.0 ROMs. Pre-7.0 A590/A2091 ROM versions have 1G drive size limit.

kire_online · 19 October 2011, 00:23

Just confirming that a drive over 1Gb will not be recognised at all with v6.1 ROM, or it will be recognised, but I'll need to partition it up to 1Gb ?

If it's not recognised it looks like I have no other option but to go with 7.0 ROM.

Anyone here experienced with programming the ROMs, I'm tempted to give it a go myself if all the equipment required is <= $200. I saw in another thread that the ROMs are available on ebay, and it's probably the easiest option, but the DIY factor is kicking in.

Toni Wilen · 19 October 2011, 11:14

It should work fine with larger drives but any access outside of first 1G returns an error.

Use of direct scsi filesystem (PFS3ds or older SFS) can be used to work around this limit but you may need HD controller that fully handles larger drives (or PC + emulation + SCSI card) to partition it correctly.

Note that this was tested using CDTV SCSI which uses modified A590 6.6 ROM which of course does not 100% guarantee A590 limits but afaik the only difference is support for DMA controller sharing with CDROM, SCSI driver should be exact same.

kire_online · 05 December 2011, 00:24

I'm feeling brave and will try and upgrade the ROMs to 7.0.
As for a drive, I'm tempted to go 4Gb CF via one of those SCSI multi-card readers.

http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?ma...roducts_id=180

16 October 2011, 14:36	#1
kire_online Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Sydney Posts: 119	A590 with 6.1 ROM SCSI Upgrade Options Just got my hands on an A500 which came with an A590 housing the 20Mb XT Soviet Military Grade Drive. The old hard drive wouldn't boot, it must have been seized up, kept making knocking sounds, I sprayed some silicon spray on the servo, and it worked fine after that. The Amiga has dual ROMs 1.3/2.0 and 1Mb Chip, 4Mb Fast RAM, plus the 2Mb in the A590 so I was hoping this would be a nice project for whdload. Given the A590 ROMS are v6.1, what are my options ? Can I stick a 9Gb Drive in there and partition it up, for example, 100Mb for System, then 2Gb each for the remainder ?

19 October 2011, 00:23	#3
kire_online Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Sydney Posts: 119	Just confirming that a drive over 1Gb will not be recognised at all with v6.1 ROM, or it will be recognised, but I'll need to partition it up to 1Gb ? If it's not recognised it looks like I have no other option but to go with 7.0 ROM. Anyone here experienced with programming the ROMs, I'm tempted to give it a go myself if all the equipment required is <= $200. I saw in another thread that the ROMs are available on ebay, and it's probably the easiest option, but the DIY factor is kicking in. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by kire_online; 19 October 2011 at 11:34.

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16 October 2011, 16:17	#2
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,502	You need 7.0 ROMs. Pre-7.0 A590/A2091 ROM versions have 1G drive size limit.

19 October 2011, 11:14	#4
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,502	It should work fine with larger drives but any access outside of first 1G returns an error. Use of direct scsi filesystem (PFS3ds or older SFS) can be used to work around this limit but you may need HD controller that fully handles larger drives (or PC + emulation + SCSI card) to partition it correctly. Note that this was tested using CDTV SCSI which uses modified A590 6.6 ROM which of course does not 100% guarantee A590 limits but afaik the only difference is support for DMA controller sharing with CDROM, SCSI driver should be exact same.

05 December 2011, 00:24	#5
kire_online Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Sydney Posts: 119	I'm feeling brave and will try and upgrade the ROMs to 7.0. As for a drive, I'm tempted to go 4Gb CF via one of those SCSI multi-card readers. http://a4000t.com/store/index.php?ma...roducts_id=180

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