A2000 won't boot from SCSI HDD

8bitbubsy · 18 February 2011, 20:40

Got myself a nice Amiga 2000 B2000-CR rev 4.3, with a Commodore A2090A (actually an A2092) ST506/RLL/MFM controller card, included was a 20MB MiniScribe 8425 HDD.
According to the internet, this controller cards supports auto-boot. The A2000 has kick 1.3.

Now here's the problem, when I turn on the machine and the white screen appears, the HDD LED lights up but the HDD doesn't want to seek. It just stands there spinning forever like it wasn't in use.
Now, I'm not 100% sure if there's actually any WB on the HDD, but it's very likely. In this state, it won't seek from the floppy drive either.
If I disconnect the ST506 drive from the controller board, I get the kickstart screen and I can boot from floppy...

Any ideas? Broken drive? Jumper fault? Faulty controller card?
Both the HDD and controller card are in pristine condition, can't see any blown resistor, and leaky caps etc. I tried to reseat all the chips on the controller card, no go!

prowler · 18 February 2011, 20:58

Is the SCSI hard drive ribbon cable connected the right way round, i.e. red stripe at Pin1 end on both the controller card and drive?

Is the SCSI hard drive SCSI ID set to enable auto-booting and so that it doesn't conflict with that of the controller card?

8bitbubsy · 18 February 2011, 21:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

Is the SCSI hard drive ribbon cable connected the right way round, i.e. red stripe at Pin1 end on both the controller card and drive?

Yep, checked that many times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

Is the SCSI hard drive SCSI ID set to enable auto-booting and so that it doesn't conflict with that of the controller card?

Uh, where do I change this? There's a lot of jumpers on the MiniScribe HDD, but I know it's set to SCSI ID 1 at least. 1 being the lowest you can select.
EDIT: http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-dri...-SCSI1-SE.html
The jumper config is like it should be...

EDIT2: Whoa! I got it working! There was a little interrupt rotator mechanism (not inside the HDD, I don't open fragile stuff) that was stuck because of dust, I helped it move up and down many times, now it actually boots but it says that there's volume Boot has a read/write error.

It also says "DISK STRUCTURE IS CORRUPT, USE DISKDOCTOR TO REPAIR"...

Going to write out Workbench 1.3 on floppies and check with Diskdoctor. Probably going to make it worse, but worth giving it a shot.

Jope · 19 February 2011, 07:57

No, don't use disk doctor (it is for floppies anyway). Use disksalv, qbtools or abtools instead.

It might be that when you moved the heads across the platter manually, they scraped the surfaces and the disk has hard errors.

Loedown · 19 February 2011, 08:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jope

No, don't use disk doctor (it is for floppies anyway). Use disksalv, qbtools or abtools instead.

It might be that when you moved the heads across the platter manually, they scraped the surfaces and the disk has hard errors.

Is it just modern HDD that rely on the air passing over the platters to keep the heads from striking the disk, if this is the case, why do the old disks bring the heads to a stop somewhere on the disk, was this the purpose of the old landing zone setting for IBM HDD in BIOS?

Alexh would probably know the answer to all these questions

alewis · 19 February 2011, 16:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loedown

Is it just modern HDD that rely on the air passing over the platters to keep the heads from striking the disk, if this is the case, why do the old disks bring the heads to a stop somewhere on the disk, was this the purpose of the old landing zone setting for IBM HDD in BIOS?

Alexh would probably know the answer to all these questions

In a word, "yes". The Landing Zone was an area to park the heads. Christ, haven't heard that phrase for years.

@8bitbusby I'm in the middle of a clear out... I have some older SCSI drives, I'm sure I have some 8bit SCSI drives, you are welcome to them for postage. When I say "in the middle" I mean literally in the middle - I junked 20+ ultra-wide SCSI drives yesterday, plus SCSI CD-ROMS, and the servers they were sat in.

8bitbubsy · 19 February 2011, 16:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by alewis

In a word, "yes". The Landing Zone was an area to park the heads. Christ, haven't heard that phrase for years.

@8bitbusby I'm in the middle of a clear out... I have some older SCSI drives, I'm sure I have some 8bit SCSI drives, you are welcome to them for postage. When I say "in the middle" I mean literally in the middle - I junked 20+ ultra-wide SCSI drives yesterday, plus SCSI CD-ROMS, and the servers they were sat in.

Nice, I'd love to have them. But are some of them ST-506 compatible? My HDD controller has got two cables for the HDD. One small, one big.

This is how the connectors looks like (yes, both of them MUST be used):

rkauer · 19 February 2011, 19:38

This is a ST506 or RLL drive, it not work on SCSI controllers.

Grab a real SCSI HD to use. A <1Gb, 50pin with built-in resistors packs (termination) will be ideal.

8bitbubsy · 19 February 2011, 19:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkauer

This is a ST506 or RLL drive, it not work on SCSI controllers.

Grab a real SCSI HD to use. A <1Gb, 50pin with built-in resistors packs (termination) will be ideal.

Please read more carefully.

Ignore the wrong topic title. It's actually an ST506/RLL/MFM drive I want. The controller card I have is a Commodore A2090... A2091 is the one that is truely SCSI.

EDIT: Ah.. It actually supports SCSI too!
alewis: I'll gladly take all of the HDDs, can you estimate shipping to Norway?

prowler · 19 February 2011, 22:51

Thanks for posting those pictures of your MiniScribe 8425 hard drive, 8bitbubsy! I haven't seen one of those for a few years, although I have a couple tucked away somewhere.

IIRC, this drive has a dual capacity: 20MB when used with an MFM controller, and 32MB if an RLL controller is used instead. Also, your pictures show clearly that the pcb can easily be damaged when connecting the DC power socket to the drive unless sufficient care is taken to support the board with a free hand.

8bitbubsy · 19 February 2011, 22:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

Thanks for posting those pictures of your MiniScribe 8425 hard drive, 8bitbubsy! I haven't seen one of those for a few years, although I have a couple tucked away somewhere.

IIRC, this drive has a dual capacity: 20MB when used with an MFM controller, and 32MB if an RLL controller is used instead. Also, your pictures show clearly that the pcb can easily be damaged when connecting the DC power socket to the drive unless sufficient care is taken to support the board with a free hand.

That's not my picture, it's one I found on google. But it's the exact same drive, except that mine is over a year newer.
And yeah, I always hold a finger under the PCB part of the molex socket when I plug it in.

Jope · 20 February 2011, 08:39

Please note, that the A2090 will not support disks larger than 256MB (MFM or SCSI) unless you find the upgraded firmware and burn it onto ROM chips..

Alternately use a boot floppy and have binddrivers load the patched firmware.

18 February 2011, 20:40	#1
8bitbubsy Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Norway Posts: 1,715	A2000 won't boot from HDD Got myself a nice Amiga 2000 B2000-CR rev 4.3, with a Commodore A2090A (actually an A2092) ST506/RLL/MFM controller card, included was a 20MB MiniScribe 8425 HDD. According to the internet, this controller cards supports auto-boot. The A2000 has kick 1.3. Now here's the problem, when I turn on the machine and the white screen appears, the HDD LED lights up but the HDD doesn't want to seek. It just stands there spinning forever like it wasn't in use. Now, I'm not 100% sure if there's actually any WB on the HDD, but it's very likely. In this state, it won't seek from the floppy drive either. If I disconnect the ST506 drive from the controller board, I get the kickstart screen and I can boot from floppy... Any ideas? Broken drive? Jumper fault? Faulty controller card? Both the HDD and controller card are in pristine condition, can't see any blown resistor, and leaky caps etc. I tried to reseat all the chips on the controller card, no go! Last edited by 8bitbubsy; 19 February 2011 at 19:58.

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18 February 2011, 20:58	#2
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Is the SCSI hard drive ribbon cable connected the right way round, i.e. red stripe at Pin1 end on both the controller card and drive? Is the SCSI hard drive SCSI ID set to enable auto-booting and so that it doesn't conflict with that of the controller card?

19 February 2011, 07:57	#4
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,911	No, don't use disk doctor (it is for floppies anyway). Use disksalv, qbtools or abtools instead. It might be that when you moved the heads across the platter manually, they scraped the surfaces and the disk has hard errors.

19 February 2011, 19:38	#8
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 58 Posts: 3,482	This is a ST506 or RLL drive, it not work on SCSI controllers. Grab a real SCSI HD to use. A <1Gb, 50pin with built-in resistors packs (termination) will be ideal.

19 February 2011, 22:51	#10
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Thanks for posting those pictures of your MiniScribe 8425 hard drive, 8bitbubsy! I haven't seen one of those for a few years, although I have a couple tucked away somewhere. IIRC, this drive has a dual capacity: 20MB when used with an MFM controller, and 32MB if an RLL controller is used instead. Also, your pictures show clearly that the pcb can easily be damaged when connecting the DC power socket to the drive unless sufficient care is taken to support the board with a free hand.

20 February 2011, 08:39	#12
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,911	Please note, that the A2090 will not support disks larger than 256MB (MFM or SCSI) unless you find the upgraded firmware and burn it onto ROM chips.. Alternately use a boot floppy and have binddrivers load the patched firmware.

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