CompuServe Messages

The Amiga scsi.device is not going to be able to understand an MSDOG hard disk (there may be a way to get it done with CROSS-DOS). HDToolBox DOES want to write to the drive. It wants to write a thing called the "Rigid Disk Block" that defines the drive. This is the same thing that scsi.device reads when the computer is reset or powered up. The RDB contains such information as the size of the drive, synchronous ability, filesystem type, max transfer value, type of scsi device, removable media or not, size of data blocks, bootable device or not, boot priority, automount or not and even the device name (not volume name). The Ami can not format the drive until after the RDB and partition information have been written to the disk. Watch out on the partitioning part as HDToolBox usually want to create more than one partition (an will do so unless you tell it otherwise). As to termination… probably most machines out there are NOT properly terminated. On the Amiga side the problem is that (as far as I know) the A3000T is the only machine that was ever set up properly. The A3000T has a terminator installed on the external scsi connector and on the internal drive which is at the end of the internal cable. There is no terminator set on the motherboard. Most A3000s (and A2091s) have terminators on the motherboard (card). This is ok if you only have either internal or external drives. Though it usually works, it is incorrect when you have both internal and external drives. I agree that your problem is probably not termination but with scsi one does have to be careful. Also, the PC boxes usually run the scsi bus at a MUCH lower speed than the Ami does which makes issues such as termination not quite so serious. -bill