CompuServe Thread

#pc type HD

3 messages in this thread
#115026From: Dennis DranMar 22, 1988 12:32 AM
I havean A200 and a bridgeboard and am interested in getting a hard drive. I have the following questions about the relative merits of installing a 1 Amiga side vs. the PC side: Is there a loss in speed using a PC side drive from the Amiga side? (As opp osed to accessing a PC type drive through an Amiga controller.) What is necessary in terms of boot up in order to access a PC side hard drive from the Amiga side? (Must a PC window be open?) Will it be possible to boot up from a PC side hard drive as I understand will be possible with an Amiga side drive under v1.3 of Amigados? How will the hard drive boot work any way if Kickstart, which is in ROM, always looks for DOS in df0:? An immediate transfer to dh0: or jh0: ? I'm very impressed with the Jlink virtual drive, especially to ram:. Any known problems using an Amiga side hard drive through Jlink? Thank you and sorry for the jaggies./ex
#115039From: Don Curtis/SYSOPMar 22, 1988 1:24 AM
Dennis, Yes…you lose speed by accessing a HD from either side to the other side, as the data must pass thru the interface. To access a PC side HD from the Amiga on bootup, you must have the proper files run first (such as PCDisk) and so forth. That also means you must wait for the PC side to complete it's boot up. No, it is not, nor do I believe it will be possible to boot from a PC side HD (for the Amiga that is) for the reasons mentioned above… certain Amiga programs must be run first. Amiga side HD's work fine with the PC side, but again, they are slow compared to a real PC HD on the PC side because of the required transfer of data thru the interface and the need to use AmigaDOS to get into the JLink'ed file. There is one MAJOR gottcha using a JLinked Amiga HD on the PC side. You MUST completely fill the allocated space on the JLinked drive and then unlink it. After doing that, you can then re-link it and delete whatever files you used to fill it up in the first place (fill it with any old thing, just make sure you fill it). That prevents loss of data in the JLinked drive if you get a lock up. Also, you can NOT use JLINK and ARead or AWrite at the same time. Don
#115153From: Dennis DranMar 22, 1988 11:09 PM
Thanks alot Don. That's what I wanted to know. Your helpful comments are much appreciated. DD