Re: Re 120gb 2.5" hard drive for amiga desktop a1200
I've only just setup a large HD 40GB for an A1200 and got it working perfectly, so I thought I would share how I performed the task on my system so you have some idea.
First of all, the Amiga's FFS only supports up to 4GB partitions, and a total HD size of 8GB. However that is only due to the built in Workbench File System. Others exist for the Amiga that allow you to use much larger HD sizes and SFS is the best one. But you must remember to create an initial boot partition within the first 4GB of HD space on the HD or the Amiga won't be able to find it and boot far enough to load the different file system. I have a 2GB boot partition, and then the rest of the HD partitioned into various sized additional partitions.
Also if you are wishing to use an HD and IDE CD drive you will also need to buy a buffered IDE interface. You can get one from Amigakit for £11 and it works perfectly. I use it for my setup with 40GB HDD and laptop CD drive.
You will need:
- External USB HD enclosure (or other method of attaching the HD to the PC) (I got a USB enclosure from ebay for £3)[/*:m:2fkitso3]
- WinUAE with Kickstart 3.1 rom image[/*:m:2fkitso3]
- Copy of the Workbench Install disk in ADF format[/*:m:2fkitso3]
- The Smart File System files (SFS) http://strohmayer.org/sfs/ (make sure you download both the main OS 3 and the 1.279 update).[/*:m:2fkitso3]
- IDEFix'97 http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/IDEfix97[/*:m:2fkitso3]
- Buffered IDE interface (only if you wish to connect more than one device)[/*:m:2fkitso3]
I first set everything up on the HD using a PC and WinUAE.
Before you begin you need to unlock WinUAE's HD safety checks which will prevent you from partitioning and formatting the HD otherwise. To do this you need to edit the WinUAE shortcut icon and add -disableharddrivesafetycheck after winuae.exe. Make sure you put a space between the .exe and -.
Next make a folder on your Windows desktop called work and extract the SFS filesystem, and IDEFix archives into it.
Once that is done you can put the 2.5" HD into the external USB enclosure and connect it to the PC (but don't format it in Windows if it asks). Then start up WinUAE and add the Amiga HDD to the Harddrives, and then add the work folder you created on your PC desktop as a second HD in WinUAE (this is a quick way to download files and be able to access them from within Workbench), and then put the Workbench 3.1 install floppy (adf) into the DF0: drive. Set WinUAE up as an A1200 with KS 3.1 and some fast ram and started it up.
Once you are booted into Workbench 3.1 you can start HDToolkit and set the drive partitions up. It is worth noting at this point that HDToolkit will give you completely wrong reading for all of the partition sizes, but it will partition the drive correctly for you anyway. I work it out based on the total number of cylinders that the HD has. I then divide the capacity of the drive by the number of cylinders so I can then set up the partitions to the size using the cylinder number. For example, on my 40GB HD a 4GB Partition was about 890 cylinders so I moved the partition size around until it was that many.
Now you can follow the guide here:
http://wiki.abime.net/amiga:killergoril ... ae_realhdd which runs though how to setup the HDD using HDToolkit and the Smart File System. Remember to make the first boot partition under 4GB. Between 512MB and 2GB is probably best.
Once you have setup all of your partitions using that guide, and then formatted these partitions using the SFSFormat command (don't use the Workbench Format command as it will mess up the partitions), you are ready to install Workbench ready to get the HD into the real Amiga.
For this I use the ClassicWB package which is a predefined Workbench setup and contains everything most people need already setup and ready to go. This isn't currently available for download from the official site, but if you need it let me know. An alternative predefined Workbench package is AmigaSYS that is also pretty good. Whatever Workbench setup you are using, it is easiest to set this up in WinUAE as you can quickly get files onto the HD using WinUAE and test it out rebooting WinUAE quickly.
Once you have your Workbench setup how you like and working/booting using WinUAE then you just need to copy the IDEFix files over to the HD (in the boot partition) and then you can remove the HD and install it in your Amiga.
Once installed you should be able to boot the A1200 from the HDD, but you will probably only see the first boot partition. You will now need to install IDEFix so that you will be able to see and access the remaining partitions. IDEFix comes with an installer, so just launch that and follow the instructions. Once complete it should ask to reboot, and if all went well you should now have access to the remainder of your large HDD.
For me I had to edit the startup-sequence and change the IDEFix lines before it worked perfectly. If you fine it doesn't work straight away I can let you know the changes you need to make.
And that should be it.
