New member. Old Amiga 500 resurrection story

[Rissy]

I think i understand, let's see.

So you're saying that if i put my new PC to Amiga WB1.3 file structure written floppy into my external floppy drive [called df1], open a shell and type:

"install df1:"

Then this newly created WB1.3 disc will become bootable again, since it wont be just by copying the disc content files over from the PC in the initial step?

Is this correct?

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by Rissy

I think i understand, let's see.

So you're saying that if i put my new PC to Amiga WB1.3 file structure written floppy into my external floppy drive [called df1], open a shell and type:

"install df1:"

Then this newly created WB1.3 disc will become bootable again, since it wont be just by copying the disc content files over from the PC in the initial step?

Is this correct?

That's right. The bootblock is separate from the filesystem, so won't be affected by what you copy to and from the disk at the filesystem level. When you format a disk the bootblock contains nothing useful - hence the need for the "install" command.

(If you "install" a completely blank, newly formatted disk, you can already boot from it - you'll just be dumped at a CLI where you can do nothing useful, since there are no files on the disk yet!)

[solarmon]

Glad you got one step closer!

In Amiga explorer you can just drag and drop an ADF file on to the DF0 drive icon and it will write it directly to the floppy disk.

So I would suggest you write my ToADFish ADF to a floppy disk and that will have the correct serial settings, AExplorer program, and some other useful tools.

[Rissy]

Thank you.

Yes, good point. I'm just copying over this Toadfish.adf file now. So this disc will be bootable then? I would have thought AE would be bootable too. Can you not make AE bootable? Although if you've got Toadfish, then it doesn't matter if its not, but you have it with Toadfish anyway.

[Rissy]

Oh, right, so it's just failed copying Toadfish over to the DD disc I put in. Toadfish is 880k and the disc is only showing 875k available. Even if i delete the trashcan etc, it only gives me 878k available.

[solarmon]

You need to make sure you have a clean disk. Try formatting it first. What I also do is use a strong magnet to wipe it first, then format it.

AExplorer is just a program that needs to be running. The 'Setup' process is to get AExolorer copied over serial in to RAM:, then you are supposed run it and/or copied on to disk, so that you run it again next time and not have to serial transfer it again next time.

My ToADFish ADF is a bootable disk and already has ADFExploer. You can make your own boot disk, or just use the existing Workbench disk, but this already has it.

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by Rissy

Oh, right, so it's just failed copying Toadfish over to the DD disc I put in. Toadfish is 880k and the disc is only showing 875k available. Even if i delete the trashcan etc, it only gives me 878k available.

Don't worry about how much free space is on the disk, because you're going to replace the filesystem entirely, by writing a new one, already filled with files, block-by-block over the entire floppy disk.

It sounds to me like you might have tried to send the ADF file to the Amiga to be stored on DF0: as DF0:ToADFish.adf - that won't work - you need to do a block-by-block copy.
Run AExplorer on the Amiga, then *on the PC* drag your ADF file onto Amiga Explorer's DF0: icon

It should then do a block-by-block copy, overwriting the disk in DF0:, and when it's done you should be able to boot from that disk.

(I fear I led you on an irrelevant tangent by answering your question about making a reconstructed copy of the workbench disk bootable - that doesn't apply when you're writing from an ADF file.)

[Rissy]

So i still want to Initialise a disc? Doing so still leaves me with less that 880k remaining.

Or is the only way to do this, with magnets?

[Rissy]

I've just run some strong magnets over an empty disc. It now displays as "DF0 - ????" and AE wont allow me to drag the .adf from my PC on to that disc?

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by Rissy

I've just run some strong magnets over an empty disc. It now displays as "DF0 - ????" and AE wont allow me to drag the .adf from my PC on to that disc?

Formatting the disk does two things - it "marks out" a pattern of tracks and sectors on the disk's surface - and it creates an empty filesystem on top of the framework created in the first step.

We need that first step to happen. We don't actually need that second step, but it doesn't hurt. The amount of space in that filesystem doesn't matter, because the Amiga Explorer ADF writing step will overwrite the filesystem with the one that's in the ADF file.

Using the magnet you've "unformatted" the disk by making that framework unreadable, so now you need to reformat it.

Then run AExplorer on the Amiga, and drag the .adf file onto the DF0: icon on the PC.

[Rissy]

So that's exactly what i've now tried twice. Although after formatting, the disc gets called "Empty". Both times, AE has error'd, saying the disc has run out of space (or something similar). I'm dragging the .adf directly from PC to AE window, on top of the "Empty" disc, rather than inside it (if you get me?).

[Jope]

Do you see something like df0.adf in your amiga explorer window on the PC side? You are supposed to drag the adf file on top of this virtual file. If you drag it into the drive, it will be written as a file, and won't fit as you noticed.

Make sure you don't drag it on top of your boot disk. (it's a good idea to keep the boot disk write protected anyway)

[Rissy]

Oh right, so i go into the bouncing ball logo window, and should see something there relating to the blank disc, and then drag my .adf file on to that? I've been doing precisely what you suggested. Dragging it on to the floppy drive symbol labelled "empty" outside of the bouncing ball window. If this is right, then i'll try that tonight. (It's all a learning curve, but thanks to all for continued support - hopefully this thread may prove useful to others in a basic step by step process, crossing each hurdle as they appear)

[solarmon]

@Rissy,

Apologies - it's been a while since I did that. I had forgotten that you should be dropping the ADF file on to the "DF0.adf" (Note the .adf) icon.

See this video, near the end:

[ Show youtube player ]

[Jope]

Yeah, in that video you can see Workbench1.3 and Workbench1.3.adf .. the .adf on the bottom is the one you would drop the file on top of in this case. The one without .adf shows you files inside the disk, but we don't want that in this case.

[Rissy]

SUCCESS again!

Excellent. Now i understand. I've now finally got toADFish burned to its own floppy disc and its booting and everything. Thanks chaps.

It's been like Christmas here over the past few days. Got my Ebay A501 RevC through the post, as well as circuit board modding stuff etc, so i think now i should shift my attention back to hardware again and do some more preparation towards getting this "new" RAM card cleaned up and tested, and then work towards trying to figure out what's wrong with my original one (RAM chip interrogation etc). So let's see how my progress goes this weekend towards THAT.

...Still waiting on Gotek drive and other bits from AmigaStore.eu. Placed my order on i think the 28th March...

[solarmon]

That's great news!

[Rissy]

Thanks Solarmon. Feels like you’ve been with me throughout all this so far.
So life is getting in the way of anything Amiga this weekend as it turns out. However, whilst sat in the car, I started perusing the bay of E again; this time searching DRAM testers. I talked to a chap selling one and told him the SHARP LH21256-12 RAM chips I’m interested in testing. He said his tester would test my chips ok, but of course it does mean much desoldering etc to do it. But then I thought that I’ve also got some more of these chips coming to me from China, and it might be quite nice to test all those too. Getting one would also allow me to leave my motherboard unmolested. For £20+ I decided to give it a punt and I’ve ordered one. Anyone else used such things?

[solarmon]

What hardware chip ram tester is that?

I just use an expansion memory board with at least one the memory places socketed - so that I can just put in a memory chip and use Amiga Test Kit to test it.

[Rissy]

If you put a search into eBay for “4164 41256”, there’s two hits that come up for the UK. I spoke to both chaps, each saying their little device would work on my chips, but the one with the tester containing two test slots was a bit more definite with his discussion with me, so his gave me more confidence. That’s the one I went for.