SCSI2SD Woes

[azuvix]

Okay, so it's evident I have little to no idea what I'm doing in trying to install my SCSI2SD card, and getting exactly the results one would expect from a novice. I'll try to supply as much good information as I can.

First off, I'm using a 2GB card in the SCSI2SD. I would think that should be fine as-is, but to be thorough I've tried reducing the drive size to 950 MB in software, making sure it's unit 0, always loading and configuring before saving, never enabling anything if I don't know what it is, etc.

Upon loading the SCSI2SD and its card into my GVP Impact Series II A500-HD+ sidecar with 2 MB Fastram, gvpscsi ROM version 3.15 (what a mouthful), Workbench 2.04 (running from floppy) doesn't see a hard drive there by default. Moving right along...

I tried FaaastPrep initially. It doesn't take long to discover why that is not the preferred way to go. Since then, I edited HDToolBox on the Install 2.04 disk to include "SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=gvpscsi.device". Now it detects the drive, but when it comes time to define the drive parameters, I must be doing something wrong. Everything has to be entered manually, so it seems the most likely place for me to have screwed up. I've tried combinations like 1 head with 1788 cylinders and others (based on values other people on Amiga forums said have worked), but the end result is always the same - it appears to partition just fine, the changes are saved, it exits and reboots, and... there's still no new icon on the Workbench. My final goal is to get the disk fully recognized and working, acquire some Workbench 3.1 floppies, install, and go from there.

In case any further information is needed, I'm running an A500 with 1 MB ChipRAM, 3.5 MB Fast (including the sidecar and AdRam), Agnus and Denise are both NTSC ECS. I have Kickstarts 1.3 and 3.1 on a switch, as well as AdSpeed (which I never use). None of this machinery was originally mine - it's an ebay acquisition. When I was a kid, I never had any reason to use SCSI drives and never had the privilege of owning an Amiga, which probably explains most of this struggle.

Needless to say, this has been a frustrating endeavor for a number of hours now. Could I please have the "Complete Idiot's Guide" to getting this done? Let me know if there's anything I've left out or that doesn't make sense.

[Wrangler]

Hi azuvix and welcome!

Is your SCSI chain properly terminated? That is the cause of a great many SCSI woes including spurious experiences when things sometimes work and then stop working.

[Kin Hell]

Do you have GVPSCSI in Expansion drawer? - Not sure if this applies to Early WB.

[nogginthenog]

When you installed the drive did the 'Read Configuration' button not work?
Does HDToolBox recognise the partition after the reboot or is it lost?
Did you check the 'Automount this partition' option?

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Kin Hell

Do you have GVPSCSI in Expansion drawer? - Not sure if this applies to Early WB.

Only needed under 1.2 or with autoboot disabled for some reason.

[Arnie]

I have a SCSI2SD in my CDTV with a 2gb sandisk card. The settings for mine are:

Cylinders 15327
Heads 4
Blocks Per Track 63
Blocks Per Cylinder 252

Size 19310761K (1885)

[lost_loven]

Did you connect the card to a pc and make sure it was defaulted to a 2 gig card?
The card is self terminated so it should be at the end of the scsi chain.

[azuvix]

Wow, I wasn't expecting so much help so quickly. Here's another shot at giving the right information:

Just to make sure it's not getting in the way, I'll make sure there is no gvpscsi.device in my Workbench Expansions drawer.

Everything should be terminated correctly. I haven't removed the terminators on the card, the SCSI cable inside the GVP is short and only connects to a drive and the GVP itself, and the GVP card edge connector isn't connected to anything but the A500. Nothing is connected in the back except power.

The "Read Configuration" button didn't work, much as I hoped it would. It seems like the partition scheme just disappears on reboot and I'm back where I started. IIRC, "Automount" is checked.

I did check the default, and it was 2 GB. It's currently at 950 MB and I've been partitioning and setting up disk geometry which reflects that smaller size (though probably not correctly), but that can all be changed back easily enough.

Autoboot is enabled and hasn't ever been turned off.

Thanks for the help so far, everybody.

[nogginthenog]

Originally Posted by azuvix

It seems like the partition scheme just disappears on reboot and I'm back where I started.

This seems to be your problem. Tried a different SD card?

[Sinphaltimus]

I have the same scsi controller with no ram (ran controller shit) and scsi2sd using an 8gb flash drive. I'll let you know what my settings are via pc and what they are in hdtoolbox as well as experprep to see if any of the info helps

Nogginthenog makes a great point. Most issues I've seen with the scsi2sd is in fact the sd card. Definitely try another.

[azuvix]

Alright, that's certainly doable. I have a 4 GB and 16 GB card kicking around here somewhere...

Meanwhile, I'll switch the SCSI2SD back to stock and make changes only as suggested here. It's a lot easier if you know exactly what my settings are!

[emufan]

an older posting talks about device config and firmware updates.
he had to set the size of the sd card in the scsi2sd device settings. take a look at the images in 2nd posting.

#1) oh, lost_loven is already here

[Sinphaltimus]

I should mention I did indeed do the firmware update to the last known version. I could send you an updated firmware for the cost if shipping and the eprom of nothing else helps. I should be home and in front of my Amiga in about 2-3 hours. Also an a500 with 1mb chip.

[Sinphaltimus]

OK one more thing i should explain. Yes, I setup 4 different SCSI IDs on the card itself via the SCSI2SD manager. No, I did not configure all 4 IDs (0-3) on the Amiga so I do not show them in hdtoolbox or in Expertprep which is what I used to configure the drive. Instead I partitioned SCSI0 and left the others alone for future use if needed.


Here are the screenshots of expertprep, hdtoolbox and the 5 tabs from SCSI2SD manager.

Hope they help you figure out your issue.

[azuvix]

Okay, the firmware is now at 4.6, with the SCSI2SD reset back to 2GB. I formatted the 16 GB card as fat32, put it in the SCSI2SD, downloaded and flashed the firmware upgrade, changed to a stock configuration (2 GB) with only the options checked that Sinphaltimus has in General Settings, and tried again.

The "Read Configuration From Drive" button still doesn't work - something about my drive not supporting the SCSI Inquiry command. I used the values that Arnie suggested as well, finished the partitioning, saved the changes, did the exit and reboot, and it doesn't look like the situation has improved...

Odd question, but is my version of HDToolBox just not up to this? I notice the range of tools people use for their SCSI2SDs, and it seems like none of them are using the HDToolBox version that comes with 2.04.

There's got to be something here that I've missed, no doubt. I'll put up some screenshots myself when I have a chance. Thank you for your patience.

Oh, and the SD card is SanDisk brand. The other one was Samsung.
Sinphaltimus, I really appreciate the offer. We'll see how this goes.

[Sinphaltimus]

My scsi setup is a follows.

Internal, scsi2sd is closest to onboard connection with ascsi cdrom as the end of the chain. None terminated.
A zip100 external terminated.

This is according to all gvp instruction manuals that state if you have more than one internal device and at least one external device one the external device needs termination as the controller board itself is terminated and considered one end of the chain. May not be exact words but that's what they say.

And this is the link to the firmware source I'm using.
http://babel.de/amiga.html#gvp

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by Jope

Only needed under 1.2 or with autoboot disabled for some reason.

Thank's for clarifying.

[lost_loven]

I will look at my config tonight after work..

I am pretty sure I set only 1 scsi device of 16gig card (because thats what I used) and then made my 4 partitions with in the hdinsttools in worbench, I used only 1 device and left 2,3,4 alone. looks like you enabled them all.

[Arnie]

The only thing that I can add is to use WinUAE to setup the card, then try it in the GVP.

[springycz]

Hello,
I have joined you with setting up the SCSI2SD thing.
What what else should be checked in the SCSI2SD-utility when I plan to use it with CyberSCSI mk2?
The problem is that when connected my Amiga won't boot-up on the first trial. When Ctrl+Amiga+Amiga restarted it boots up and the hard drive (microSD) is visible in the HDToolBox.