Hard Disk On Fire

12 August 2001, 02:44

hey, i recently purchased a 120mb 2.5inch hard drive for my amiga 1200. stuck it in my miggy with great anticipation only to find the thing won't show up in the early boot menu let alone actually boot. i tried everything, resets, utils but it just wouldn't work.

so i decided that the amiga's ide was probably at fault and bought a new amiga. plugged the hard drive in and bang, the original commodore PSU blew. thats it - time to move into a tower case. so, i spent a day working out the pins for the PSU to convert the PC psu to fit the amiga. everything was fine when i plugged the miggy in first go - bare system (no HD). it ran fine with a couple games, so i turned it off and plugged the HD back in. turned it on and ... woah, why is the screen flashing white??? couple seconds later - boom! there's smoke pouring out the back of my little machine! opened the machine (once i washed my hand under a cool tap to soothe the burning!) and the IDE cable was absolutely toasted!

anyway, just wondered if anyone had any ideas why this happened, and if the same problem would occur if i fitted my 3.5inch drive into the machine. not sure if i dare try it yet!

Amiga1992 · 12 August 2001, 20:49

Your 2.5 cable power the drive as well, so I suppose this bit is the one that burned in. Why? I have no clue but something is completely fucked up in there. With your first drive and Amiga, I suppose you initialisd it with the utilities that come with your Workbench disks, otherwise it wont show up.

Are you sure the drive is OK? Its strange that it blew up your PSU... and then started a fire!

13 August 2001, 10:29

i bought the drive pre-formatted and wb already installed (apparently!). it doesn't detect it on boot up and doesn't show in the early startup menu. i tried hdtoolbox but it doesn't find it either! i even tried all those reset tricks but thats not the problem!

i assume its completely broken now so i'm gonna try my 3.5 inch (the power for that is seperate to the motherboard!!!)

i tested all the pinouts again last night and the volts for the PSU are definitely correct, so it has nothing to do with that! basically i think i was sold a shoddy drive! i'll never shop on www.amigautils.co.uk

Amiga1992 · 13 August 2001, 20:26

Try to power your 3.5"HD from yoru PC's PSU instead of directly doing it from teh Amiga, so to avoid further damage to the miggy. I also think you have been sold a crap drive, demand a refund!

14 August 2001, 14:21

yeah man i'm gonna run the power direct from the pc psu this time - its easier and probably safer too!!! hopefully i won't burn my house down when i try it!

i've just got to figure out how to do an external keyboard now and my tower is complete - i think i'm gonna need an amiga external keyboard though beacuse PC AT isn't compatible without building some kind of EPROM board??? is this right?

cheers for the help,
CHiEF

Amiga1992 · 14 August 2001, 19:04

I know it can be done, methinks you have to buy an adapter of sorts. I havent towered an Amiag yet, I will have to though when I tower my A600 after expansion. That little box just cant stand teh heat of an accelerator and a hard drive.

check out www.softhut.com and see fi you find this adapter, or a keyboard for your miggy.

14 August 2001, 22:26

hehe yeah man... thanks for the link. i took a look and they have pre-built pc-amiga keyboard adapters. but they are quite expensive !!! so i think i'll try to build my own anyway!

i have the pinouts for converting the 2.5inch IDE to 3.5inch, maybe i can copy them for you when you want to tower your a600!!! i used to have a600 but it ran OK with hard disk and a ram upgrade! what kind of accelerator do u have on this machine???

Amiga1992 · 15 August 2001, 18:55

I don't have any yet, but I'll put a 68030 @ 40Mhz in there. Since it goes as a backpack addon over the 68000, the hard disk has no further space, so the only choice is towering it. Actually it just has the 30MB HD and 2MB of Chip RAM. When and if I accelerate it, the tower will be needed...

I appreciate the 3.5 to 2.5 specs

Will be helpful! But since I quite suck at DIY I surely will end up buying an IDEfix controller

27 September 2001, 18:06

okay, after much work i now have the nice 3.2gig drive in the little machine! woohoo

still can't explain the first 2.5inch drive setting alight but still, it was rather funny i guess.

i tried the IDE hack to convert the 3.5inch cable to fit in the 44pin slot but i gave up half way when i got bored with the soldering job! in the end i bought the EIDE99 package from powerc.com (a highly recommendable company) and it works a treat.

akira the pinouts for the 3.5->2.5 converter are literally pin to pin so it is not difficult, just very time consuming.

12 August 2001, 02:44	#1
Guest Posts: n/a	Hard Disk On Fire hey, i recently purchased a 120mb 2.5inch hard drive for my amiga 1200. stuck it in my miggy with great anticipation only to find the thing won't show up in the early boot menu let alone actually boot. i tried everything, resets, utils but it just wouldn't work. so i decided that the amiga's ide was probably at fault and bought a new amiga. plugged the hard drive in and bang, the original commodore PSU blew. thats it - time to move into a tower case. so, i spent a day working out the pins for the PSU to convert the PC psu to fit the amiga. everything was fine when i plugged the miggy in first go - bare system (no HD). it ran fine with a couple games, so i turned it off and plugged the HD back in. turned it on and ... woah, why is the screen flashing white??? couple seconds later - boom! there's smoke pouring out the back of my little machine! opened the machine (once i washed my hand under a cool tap to soothe the burning!) and the IDE cable was absolutely toasted! anyway, just wondered if anyone had any ideas why this happened, and if the same problem would occur if i fitted my 3.5inch drive into the machine. not sure if i dare try it yet!

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12 August 2001, 20:49	#2
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Your 2.5 cable power the drive as well, so I suppose this bit is the one that burned in. Why? I have no clue but something is completely fucked up in there. With your first drive and Amiga, I suppose you initialisd it with the utilities that come with your Workbench disks, otherwise it wont show up. Are you sure the drive is OK? Its strange that it blew up your PSU... and then started a fire!

13 August 2001, 10:29	#3
Guest (CHiEF) Posts: n/a	i bought the drive pre-formatted and wb already installed (apparently!). it doesn't detect it on boot up and doesn't show in the early startup menu. i tried hdtoolbox but it doesn't find it either! i even tried all those reset tricks but thats not the problem! i assume its completely broken now so i'm gonna try my 3.5 inch (the power for that is seperate to the motherboard!!!) i tested all the pinouts again last night and the volts for the PSU are definitely correct, so it has nothing to do with that! basically i think i was sold a shoddy drive! i'll never shop on www.amigautils.co.uk

13 August 2001, 20:26	#4
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	Try to power your 3.5"HD from yoru PC's PSU instead of directly doing it from teh Amiga, so to avoid further damage to the miggy. I also think you have been sold a crap drive, demand a refund!

14 August 2001, 14:21	#5
CHiEF Posts: n/a	yeah man i'm gonna run the power direct from the pc psu this time - its easier and probably safer too!!! hopefully i won't burn my house down when i try it! i've just got to figure out how to do an external keyboard now and my tower is complete - i think i'm gonna need an amiga external keyboard though beacuse PC AT isn't compatible without building some kind of EPROM board??? is this right? cheers for the help, CHiEF

14 August 2001, 19:04	#6
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	I know it can be done, methinks you have to buy an adapter of sorts. I havent towered an Amiag yet, I will have to though when I tower my A600 after expansion. That little box just cant stand teh heat of an accelerator and a hard drive. check out www.softhut.com and see fi you find this adapter, or a keyboard for your miggy.

14 August 2001, 22:26	#7
CHiEF Posts: n/a	hehe yeah man... thanks for the link. i took a look and they have pre-built pc-amiga keyboard adapters. but they are quite expensive !!! so i think i'll try to build my own anyway! i have the pinouts for converting the 2.5inch IDE to 3.5inch, maybe i can copy them for you when you want to tower your a600!!! i used to have a600 but it ran OK with hard disk and a ram upgrade! what kind of accelerator do u have on this machine???

15 August 2001, 18:55	#8
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	I don't have any yet, but I'll put a 68030 @ 40Mhz in there. Since it goes as a backpack addon over the 68000, the hard disk has no further space, so the only choice is towering it. Actually it just has the 30MB HD and 2MB of Chip RAM. When and if I accelerate it, the tower will be needed... I appreciate the 3.5 to 2.5 specs Will be helpful! But since I quite suck at DIY I surely will end up buying an IDEfix controller

27 September 2001, 18:06	#9
CHiEF Posts: n/a	okay, after much work i now have the nice 3.2gig drive in the little machine! woohoo still can't explain the first 2.5inch drive setting alight but still, it was rather funny i guess. i tried the IDE hack to convert the 3.5inch cable to fit in the 44pin slot but i gave up half way when i got bored with the soldering job! in the end i bought the EIDE99 package from powerc.com (a highly recommendable company) and it works a treat. akira the pinouts for the 3.5->2.5 converter are literally pin to pin so it is not difficult, just very time consuming.

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