HD boot and df0

Hi all,


Hope this is posted in the correct section...I am a relative novice with the amiga but have modded my a1200 with a buffered interface, cd rom and hard drive (80GB 2.5inch).Can someone please tell me how to change the boot priority of the HD from within workbench.I have tried Hd tools but doesnt appear to be any options for this.I constantly have to soft boot to get it to load wb.I have 3.9 installed.Also is there anybody here who knows how to fit a DF0 selector switch as i have a gotek on df1 and most software is hard coded for DF0.Many thanks.


John

[Daedalus]

Welcome along John

The first thing to check is that the partition is bootable at all. This is a check box in the partition's settings in HDToolbox. If it's bootable, there will be a small box in which you can enter the boot priority number. The boot options in the Early Startup menu (accessed by holding down both mouse buttons while the computer starts up) will list any bootable drives or partitions in the left list, and their details (including priority) in the main list.

As for a Gotek DF0:/DF1: selector, if you mean to use the external floppy port for DF1:, you need to modify the motherboard. There's a small SMT resistor you need to remove that isolates the external _SEL1 line, allowing you to swap that over with the internal _SEL0 line (accessed by modifying the floppy ribbon cable) using some wire and a DPDT switch. Following the schematics and the AmigaPCB.org layout will show you where the relevant signals are accessible - personally I use the underside of the external floppy connector and the relevant pin of the CIA - others have used the pads of the removed resistor which I'm not a fan of.

[-Acid-]

What do you mean by "soft boot"? if you mean you need to reset the Amiga to boot from hard drive when you first turn it on, then maybe it's just the hard drive not spinning up quickly enough to boot at the first time of asking.

Originally Posted by -Acid-

What do you mean by "soft boot"? if you mean you need to reset the Amiga to boot from hard drive when you first turn it on, then maybe it's just the hard drive not spinning up quickly enough to boot at the first time of asking.

Reboots can be either "cold" (alternatively known as "hard") where the power to the system is physically turned off and back on again, causing an initial boot of the machine, or warm (alternatively known as soft) where the system restarts without the need to interrupt the power.I had no idea about spin up issues, i just need it to boot from the correct device first time instead of looking for a floppy and giving me the disk screen and making me reset every time....

[-Acid-]

If you power on with no disk in the drive does it boot the hd? If not what does it do? then what happens if you reset?

By default the boot priority of the floppy disk is higher than the hd so the first thing it tries to boot from is the floppy drive. But if you boot with no floppy in the drive and it still goes to the insert disk screen then either the hard disk is too slow spinning up before the Amiga looks for it or there is something wrong with the boot partition (not bootable or not being detected) or no partitions exist. As said earlier you can easily see if it's being detected using the early startup menu, to make any changes to the boot priority or to make a partition bootbale you need to load up HDToolBox from the Install disk.

Hi Acid,
Thanks for the reply.I hadnt realised until you mentioned it...the subtle difference between HDtoolbox installed on the HD and the one on the install disk.That little detail makes all the difference.I see the options :-).many thanks.