#Help! A2000 Hard drive
8 messages in this thread
I've really screwed up! I have an Amiga 2000 and have just formatted the hard
drive. This was not done by accident but now I'm really in a jam, because the
Amiga won't recognize my hard drive at all! I have tried using the HDToolBox on
my install disk. I'm getting the message under "Hard Drives in System"
Interface – SCSI, Address – 6, Status – Unknown. The only option I have
available from here is "Change Drive Type". Clicking on this option shows me an
empty window under "Select a Drive Type". Clicking "Define New Drive Type"
brings up a screen where I should be abe to "Read Configuration From Drive" but
the Amiga can't read the drive (Reports that it can't read disk size.) I know
that the drive is operational, so I guess I'll have to enter the information
manually to tell Amiga aout it's configuration. The drive is a Maxtor Model
7120SR. Other information on the label says HDA 22A. PCBA 55A, Unique 57A, ZDB,
A214KRZS. I believe it's a 105 Meg or possibly a 120.I'm hoping someone can
tell me the proper number of Cyliners, Heads, Blocks per Track and Blocks per
Cylinder for this drive. Please, Please, Please!
Jayson,
It sounds as though you did a low level format, True ?
What controller are you using for the hard drive? If it's third party they
usually have their own setup program which works pretty automatically. GVP,
Progressive Peripherals, ICD all these types have their own setup program which
usually can auto recognize the hard drive by reading it from the drive.
Rocky
Thanks for your quick reply Jerry! You're right, I did a low level format on
the hard drive. I guess that was totally un-necessary, all I really wanted to
do was format the newly created partitions on my hard drive.
>>What controller are you using for the hard drive? If it's third party they
usually have their own setup program which works pretty automatically. GVP,
Progressive Peripherals, ICD all these types have their own setup program which
usually can auto recognize the hard drive by reading it from the drive.<<
I don't know for sure what controller this A2000 is using. The Maxtor model
7120SR Hard Drive is mounted on a "Hard Card" that is marked "Copyright
Commodore". In addition, I can see a couple of ROM chips that are marked as CBM
copyright. Therefor, I am guessing it is not a third party disk controller, it
is a Commodore supplied one. Since the Hard Disk Toolbox on my W.B. 2.1 floppy
won't auto recognize, do you think I have any other options. I think I could
still manually key in the settings, if I knew the proper ones to use for this
type of drive. Maybe there is a universal utility in the libraries that would
be useful?
If you can provide any additional suggestions, I'd be gratefull.
Jayson,
Ok it sounds like you have a commodore A2090A or A2091 hard drive. It should be
silk screened on the card somewhere.
I am not at location with my Amiga. I'm using an IBM right now. I am not very
familiar with the commodore HD Toolbox for setting up. It seems like their
program should be able to recognize the drive though. I use a Progressive
Peripherals card and setup program.
I am sure someone will jump in to your rescue here. Incidentally you probably
will not ever need to do a low level format of a SCSI or IDE drive. In fact you
can actually do damage to the electronics of the drive I've heard in some
cases.
You can't do a low level format from amigados commands to my knowledge. Did you
do it with the HD toolbox ?
Usually all you ever need to do is partition and then a "logical" format of the
drive/partitions in question.
I would look through the hardware libs here for keywords like "hard drive" and
"2.1" and "setup" etc. to see what you can come up with.
You might send a plea to Dale Larson who is very active on this forum. He seems
to be quite knowledgeable. He is a former CBM engineer methinks. His CIS
addresss is 76702,654.
Rocky Rocky
Jayson,
You didn't do a low level format…but apparently the Maxtor doesn't
respond properly to the command to read it's size. From the drive model…it's
about 120 Meg. The number of heads and cylinders doesn't matter, just the
total number of sectors so try this information:
You need approx 235000 sectors (120 M / 512 bytes per sector)
heads 15
cylinders 500
sectors per track 32
That will give you 240000 sectors.
Now, once you enter that information….format the drive and watch the
format as it does it's thing. At some point towards the end, it will
*probably* fail. Note the information from format as to what cylinder cylinder
it's on. Using the above numbers for sectors per track and number of
heads…figure out how many sectors it really has and modify the above numbers
and redo the install with HDToolBox.
Example, say it bombs out on cylinder 472, since cylinders are 0 based,
there were 472 good cylinders and it failed on the 473rd. Go back into
HDToolBox and now tell it the drive only has 472 cylinders and reformat it (you
can do a quick format this time). Everything should be ok now.
If the original format works, then increase the number of cylinders by
50 or so and try again.
Don
p.s. This presumes someone here doesn't have the actual numbers for you.
Jayson,
You've already gotten good advice and I know there are a few out there
with absolutes, but they're hiding.
GVP Faaastprep tells me I've got a Maxtor 7120SCS (I thought it said SR on
the label but, I'd have to open the box and I have a hard time getting
closed again…), Rev: 3235 Size:121MB, LoCyl: 1 HiCyl: 874, Heads: 4
Sectors: 71, Blocks: 248502. I really don't recall whether I specified
this or it just defaulted (I think the later).
Just 'cause you asked, it might save you a little time, I hope.
Robb
Jayson –
if it gets down to it and you need the Maxtor cylinders and head count,
they have a 24 hour automated systems on an 800 number. I just called it
last week for my drive. Its really a rather complete system and you can
get to know anything you need to about your Maxtor drive.
The number is 1-800-2Maxtor.
OnLine since 1982
Roy Pahnke – Casper WY
Hi there..
You might want to try the IBM Hardware forum 'cause there you can find a hard
drive list with the physical parameters for all kinds of harddrives… (sorry
but i don't know the filename. hmmm…. if i remember right i did find the
drive in THIS library section…)
Axel
Greetings from Hamburg, Germany