Upgraded!!!

[Parsec]

Well I've gone and bought an A1200 after reading through a lot of posts on this site and seeing that an A1200 with H/D seems to be the way to go.

I've got to get a hard disk for the machine which leads me to my first question, are drives bigger than 4GB incompatible or will the extra space just be wasted?

Also, the A1200 I have is one of the Amiga Technologies Gmbh ones, not a Commodore one. When I first powered it on, I thought it was dead. It took an absolute age to come to life. I think it must be to do with allowing time for the HD to spin up (it's got the 3.1 roms) but it's a really long time. This also happens whenever I reset. Surely it shouldn't wait on a reset, only on a power up as the HD is already spinning?

[RetroMan]

You can use >4GB HD´s with additional Tools like PFS/SFS (FileSystems), the space isn´t wasted

The long boot time is due to the IDE Controller ! The Computer just checks if a device is connected and that for a very long time

[Amiga1992]

The 1200 doesn't wait for the HD to spin up. If the HD spins up slowly, the 1200 boots thionking it has no HD, but it boots fast. So you've got some other type of problem.

You know when it takes shitloads of time to boot? When the disk drive is not connected or fucked up severely. So this might be your prob

[edit] retroman beat me to it, but I disagree! I had Amigas booting up thinking they had no HDs if the HDs spinned up slowly. But I had some locked if the DF0: was missing )

[Parsec]

Originally posted by Akira
The 1200 doesn't wait for the HD to spin up. If the HD spins up slowly, the 1200 boots thionking it has no HD, but it boots fast. So you've got some other type of problem.

I thought with 3.0 ROMS there is no spin-up delay, but with 3.1 ROMS there is? This is a KS 3.1 machine. The floppy seems to work fine.


RetroMan is there somewhere I can find out more about PFS or SFS, is there any compatibility issues? Will it work on a standard A1200?


Thanks

[Amiga1992]

Hmm you got me there, I do have a 3.0 machine.

[Parsec]

Originally posted by Akira
Hmm you got me there, I do have a 3.0 machine.

I envy you, the bootup delay is really long and a right pain! Must be deliberate though, the machine is working perfectly


About the hard disk I can't decide what to buy. Could get an old second hand 2.5" one (say 2Gb for 25 UKP off eBay) which might not last that long. Seems mad when I can get a 20Gb one brand new for about 60UKP. 20Gb may be overkill for me but at least it's a new quick drive

[jmmijo]

I thought I remember seeing a hack on Aminet on how to adjust this delay setting. Not sure what it was called or what

[adolescent]

There is a NVRAM setting on the A3000 for spinup delay. But, AFAIK this isn't configurable on the A1200.

By a long time, what exactly do you mean? Also, what HD do you have? I believe the IDE controller does wait for some sort of a device ready signal before trying to boot. Have you tried removing the HD to see if it boots faster without?

[Parsec]

Thanks for the info. At the moment I don't have a hard drive. Maybe that's why it's taking so long, it's not getting any ready signal.

I'm looking at buying one at the moment. Can't decide whether to go for a second-hand one or get a new one (say 20Gb) and try to get that working...

[thinlega]

if you want to swap for some 3.0 roms.....give me a hoot (or just pm me)

[adolescent]

Get a new one. I've had good luck with the IBM/Hitachi Travelstore drives. Small form factor, cool and quiet. I have a 8G in there now, was $100 new 3 years ago...