Hard drive power supply?
8 messages in this thread
I've recently purchased a multi-I/O board with an IDE controller and I'm
now considering adding a hard drive to it for my BridgeBoard. One of the
areas I am uncertain of is the power supply to the IDE hard drive.
I've got an A2000 with a Vector 68030/25 accelerator and a hard drive on
the Amiga side and I've got the Bridgeboard, the Multi-I/O card and a
Sound Blaster on the IBM side.
Does the A2000 have a spare power connection that I can connect to to
power the BridgeBoard's hard drive? If not, is there a standard "Y
connector" to split the Amiga power supply to provide a connection for the
BridgeBoard drive and where can I get one?
Also am I getting anywhere close to exceeding the power supply capacity of
the Amiga by adding this IDE hard drive?
Any other pointers or considerations in adding a hard drive to the
BridgeBoard would be appreciated.
Ronnie,
JDR Microsystems sells a Y connector for $2.95 which you can use. The
newer IDE drives only use about 6.5 watts which hopefully won't overtax your
power supply. If you don't want to buy a new 3000 tower, you can buy a larger
replacement power supply for the 2000. I think it's called Big Foot and comes
in 250 and 300 watt versions for under $200. Suppliers advertise in Amiga
World.
When youu install the IDE drive you might find that the BB won't find
the drive. To fix this problem add TWO lines to your startup after
Binddrivers: run pcreset; run pcreset. The two pcresets will solve the
problem, at least they did for me (I have the multi-i/o card, as well.) You
will have to enter the CMOS setup before using the IDE drive and set Hard Disk
1 to User 40, then enter the track, blocks, sector size, write precompt, and
landing zone parameters. This is documented in the Janus manual. The drive
should come with a small set of docs telling you what should be used. Once the
CMOS setup stuff is set and saved, reboot the BB from a floppy and run FDISK to
pre-format and partition the drive. Reboot again from a floppy and run FORMAT
C: /s to format the drive and transfer the operating system files. You should
then be able to boot directly from the hard drive.
On the multi-i/o board be sure to jumper the IDE controller enable to
ON. It normally comes disabled.
This is exactly the info I was looking for. Thanks for the help. But one
more question.
I am currently using my Amiga hard drive for my Bridgeboard (through
makeab). Once I've got my IDE installed and recognized by the Bridgeboard
do you know if there is anyway to get the BridgeBoard to recognize both
drives (perhaps the Amiga drive could be drive D) so that I can transfer
all of my files from the Amiga drive to the IDE without having to go
through a floppy backup?
Ronnie,
That's a good question. Hard drive installation on the BB and most PCs
default to the first hard drive as drive C, and the makeab hard drive also
defaults to drive C. What you might need to do before hand is to create a
jlink drive on an Amiga partition with enough space and copy all the files from
the makeab drive to the jlink drive, then delete the makeab drive (simply erase
the aboot.ctrl file and the psuedo-drive file.) Since a jlink drive cannot
boot, the BB will now boot from the IDE drive. Then you can simply copy from
the jlink drive to the IDE drive.
You create a jlink drive by first putting JDISK.SYS into the config.sys
file and rebooting the BB. Run JLINK D: dir:fname /c:nnnn, where dir:fname
refers to an Amiga drive and a filename (give it whatever name you want, like
VDrive) and nnnn defines the size in kilobytes. Make the drive large enough to
handle the files you will copy to it. Now, once that's done the NEXT time you
boot the BB from the IDE drive you need to re-jlink the virtual drive. You do
that by running JLINK D: dir:fname. DO NOT use the /c:nnnn the second time.
This will re-link the virtual drive which should now be accessible as D and
have all your files. Now just copy them onto the IDE drive.
I would suggest you first experiment with this by creating a small
jlink drive, copy a few files, reboot and re-link to be sure you have the hang
of it. Don't delete your makeab drive until you are sure you know what you're
doing so you don't accidently lose everything.
Oh, BTW, before rebooting after you create a jlink drive you have to
unlink the drive. DON"T reboot the BB without first unlinking the virtual
drive. You do that by running JLINK D: /u. This is all discussed in the BB
user guide on page 4-28.
Ronnie,
Radio Shack sells a standard Y-adapter to split the power supply output.
I'm using an A2000, '030, hard drive internal, SyQuest internal, memory
expansion board, two SCSI controllers, and external disk drives for Amiga
and AMAX. It doesn't seem to bother the power supply at all.
Chris
I was hoping someone would say that. Good old Radio Shack comes through
again. Looks like if you can power all of that with the original
equipment power supply I shouldn't have any problem either.
Chris, thanks for the help!
Chris,
you are running 2 SCSI controllers? I have a similar configuration like
you have: A2000, A2620(68020 inside), Syquest internal etc.
Do you have an scsi controller on the pc side and the other on the amiga?
Do you have both on the same scsi bus? And can you use an external scsi
device (like syquest or CD ROM) from both processors?
I ask because I am considering such a setup but I am not sure, whether or
how it will work.
Manfred <- flying from FRA via Autopilot (Amiga) 1.052
Manfred,
Yes, I'm using two SCSI controllers. No PC side in this machine. 🙂
I've got a KRONOS controller (older belated CLtd product), and a GVP
Series II card. The KRONOS did handle all my drives plus the scanner and
laser printer (LED actually, a GCC PLP, RICOH engine). But now just a
PRIAM ST-506 100MB 5.25" FH and the printer and scanner. The GVP Series II
handles two SyQuests, the Wangtek 5150ES tape drive, an 80MB Seagate,
100MB Conners and occassionally a Quantum 210. I share some of the
external stuff back by moving cabling back & forth to a MAC II cx. Gee, if
I get more drives I guess I'll have to connect them to the KRONOS or maybe
put the older GVP Series I back inside the box. I wonder if that is gonna
work? Hmmm…maybe its time to get larger capacity drives and get rid of
the small stuff? Nah!! 🙂
Chris