Baby steps in setting up GVP SCSI Hard Card

[Dropcheck]

Hi,

I have aquired a GVP A2000 HC+8 Series II Rev 2.0 Hard Card from Ebay ( it is fully populated with 8meg of memory and a Quantum SCSI hard drive size unknown) and now I have a working A2000 to test it in. I inserted the card into the computer which has 2.04 KS roms and is a rev 4.4 mb. I pulled several versions of GVP install disks off the net, but I am having problems getting the hard drive portion recognized and installed.

The memory appears to be okay and is recognized. When I close the jumper for autoboot the drive attempts to spin up but the Amiga eventually displays the insert disk image. So I assume that the card is working, but the hard drive is ether bad or more likely is not prepped or formated.

I need help. In baby steps what is the first things I need to do to bring this hd up to the point where it will boot the machine. I plan on using WB 2.1 at least until I upgrade the KS to 3.0 or 3.1.

Your help is appreciated.

Thanks

[DoogUK]

boot with the 2.1 install disk and see if the drive is present in hdtoolbox

[Hewitson]

Do NOT use the GVP software. Set device in HDToolBox tooltypes to gvpscsi.device, and run it. Select "Change Drive Type" and set your drive up, then partition it. Format and install Workbench and you're good to go

[Dropcheck]

Originally Posted by Braddo

Do NOT use the GVP software. Set device in HDToolBox tooltypes to gvpscsi.device, and run it. Select "Change Drive Type" and set your drive up, then partition it. Format and install Workbench and you're good to go

I added the gvpscsi.device to the tooltypes of the HDToolBox icon. but when I opened the program it is telling me 'driver not installed'

[Bamiga2002]

I reckon you must have the gvpscsi.device in the "Expansion"-drawer. That's how i had it .

[Dropcheck]

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

I reckon you must have the gvpscsi.device in the "Expansion"-drawer. That's how i had it .

I have added the gvpscsi driver to the expansion drawer. It's settings are Automount=OFF, WDClock=7Mhz, Product =2017/912017/11

Should it be Automount=ON ?

[Hewitson]

Yes, unless you want to manually mount your drives (I don't see why you would). Move the device into Devs:.

[Jope]

Eh wot? The gvpscsi.device must come from the ROM that is on the controller.. If it's in devs or expansion, it requires the binddrivers command before your HDs are visible and that means you can't autoboot.

[Dropcheck]

Okay... so let me see. Here's what I've done so far.


Made a copy of my WB 2.1 HD install disk
Added gvpscsi.device to tooltypes of the HDToolBox icon
Downloaded gvpscsi device driver from http://babel.de/amiga.html#gvp
Extracted to the expansion folder
Boot with the A2000 with the Autoboot jumper on on the GVP.
Drive spins up, wavers and then spins down a couple times
Finally the insert boot disk image comes up
I insert the WB 2.1 HD Install disk and the A2000 boots to WB 2.1
I double click on the HDToolbox icon and the program starts
Then it throws up a message in the hd drive info window that the drivers have not been installed.


What to do now?

Is this an indication that the Rom is bad?

Is this an indication that the SCSI drive is bad?

Am I missing a step that will allow HDToolBox to recognize the drive?

Is the Autoboot=ON necessary and the driver to be placed in the devs folder?
(Did that and no difference)

Brought up GVP's sysinfo and it does not see hd0. But is this because the hd hasn't been prepped/formatted or because it is bad?

[DoogUK]

i had pretty much the same problem not so long ago and it turned out the hard disk had gone under

[Dropcheck]

I've got a 'new' drive coming in a few days. Supposedly it is working. It looks to be a bigger drive anyway, 2.1G. Will slap it on the card and see if it sees that drive. Rot!

[DoogUK]

my 2.1 gig died on the same card with same problems, although the gvp floppy picked up the drive but couldnt work with it and sait it was unreadable .
I've replaced it with the original 52mb hard disk for now whilst i wait for a replacement from beardy .

[alexh]

In the past I *think* I have had automount turned off if the GVP ROM on the SCSI card is below a certain version because it wasnt compatible with KS3.1

[Dropcheck]

Update:

I have now tried three different SCSI cards, 2 A2091 and 1 GVP all with differing results.

The two A2091 cards seemed to guru the A2000. So I guess I can write them off.

I have tried two different hard drives on the GVP. A unknown size Quantum ELS Prodrive and a 2.1G Quantum Fireball. I've checked the SCSI ID and both are set to 2. Other than the card itself there are no other SCSI devices. The Prodrive seems to spin up and waver like it's trying to boot then goes silent. The Fireball spins up and whines and then spins down with an occasional sound like the heads are flopping onto the platter. I guess I can write that drive off.

HDToolbox doesn't seem to see either hard drive. Just yells at me that it can't find the drivers. This is turning into an expensive foray into a big box Amiga computer ownership. Strange, I don't remember having this much problem when I owned my first A2000 twenty years ago.

[Paul_s]

Have you tried the cards without using the autoboot jumper? I thought this was only used for KS under 1.3 (which don't autoboot). 1.3 > autoboots to a HDD okay.

Try re-prepping the new HDD using the GVP software. I've used it countless times without any problems. Although it was an ar$e to use when I set up my A530 with wb 1.3 When I had a 2091 though it was smooth as a babys bum installing wb 3.1....

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Dropcheck

The two A2091 cards seemed to guru the A2000. So I guess I can write them off.

Not so fast.

Give us the full specs of your A2000.

Do you have any other cards plugged in?

Did you try JUST an A2091 with no other cards?

Which version of ROM was on the A2091?

Did you try it without hard disk connected?

Did it appear in the early startup menu (KS2+ hold down both mouse buttons on reboot).

[Dropcheck]

Originally Posted by alexh

Not so fast.

Give us the full specs of your A2000.

A2000 rev 4.4/5 KS 2.04 WB 2.1 1 Floppy Drive

Originally Posted by alexh

Do you have any other cards plugged in?

No, just the A2091. I did find a broken diode on 1 so that more than likely is it's problem.

Originally Posted by alexh

Did you try JUST an A2091 with no other cards?

Which version of ROM was on the A2091?

I have ROM v 6.6 on 1 and 7.0 on the other.

Originally Posted by alexh

Did you try it without hard disk connected?

Did it appear in the early startup menu (KS2+ hold down both mouse buttons on reboot).

I haven't tried them without the hard drives. I get a red screen with one and the other gives me a software error (I'll check exactly what it says when I get home later)
I haven't checked the early startup menu. Didn't know that existed.

[Dropcheck]

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Have you tried the cards without using the autoboot jumper? I thought this was only used for KS under 1.3 (which don't autoboot). 1.3 > autoboots to a HDD okay.

Try re-prepping the new HDD using the GVP software. I've used it countless times without any problems. Although it was an ar$e to use when I set up my A530 with wb 1.3 When I had a 2091 though it was smooth as a babys bum installing wb 3.1....

I have tried w/ and w/o the autoboot jumper on. I haven't tried the GVP software. Will give that a try when I get home from work.

Update: GVP FastPrep w/o the autoboot jumper on yells about no drivers too. Wants me to do a binddrivers command.

[Hewitson]

Have autoboot jumper ON, run 'version gvpscsi.device'. Any result?

Once again, do NOT use the GVP software. It is very old and only works correctly on extremely small drives.

[Dropcheck]

Originally Posted by Braddo

Have autoboot jumper ON, run 'version gvpscsi.device'. Any result?

Once again, do NOT use the GVP software. It is very old and only works correctly on extremely small drives.

I have already listed steps I've taken so far in a previous post. I have also tried another larger drive. I did find the size finally of the original drive. It is 170 meg. While I'm sure the 1.3 version drivers from GVP were quite old, I don't believe they would knowingly provide SCSI hard drive install software on their newer cards with 100+ meg drives installed on the boards or with their newer 030/040 accelerator cards that couldn't be trusted to prep a drive less than 1gig. That doesn't make sense.

In any case I seem to be getting essentially the same response regardless of whether I use GVP or HDToolbox prep software. They don't see the drive. Either the drives or the card is bad. I've tried two other A2091 cards. One A2091 card I have verified is bad, broken diode just before the drive space. The other A2091 card is not allowing the A2000 to completely boot either.

I'm sorry if I sound peevish. I'm flustrated.

To paraphrase an old Hee Haw song. "If it weren't for bad luck with the A2000 I'd have no luck at all." Take a look at my post on the filthy A2000 I picked up on bag of fleas a few weeks ago.

Thanks for your help anyway.