ELBOX FAST ATA PROBLEM

[Darrin]

I decided to blow the dust of my old A1200T and I've hit a major problem reinstalling my OS.

The system is as follows: A1200 in Power Tower, Rev 1D mobo, GVP 68030 card with 4MB RAM, Power Flyer Fast ATA-2 card (3.5" HD on #1 Master, CD ROM on #2 Master), Eyetech internal SD/FF, PCMCIA Network card

As I couldn't find the original hard drive, I put in an old PC 3GB one, formatted it and installed the Escom OS3.1. Everything is good up to this point.

I then inserted the Power Flyer ATA3.driver disk (c)1998 Elbox and installed the ATA software followed by the CD ROM software. On reboot the system fails when attempting to mount a device. I rebooted using the OS3.1 install disk, edited the startup-sequence to remove the mount command inserted by the ATA install and then the Setpach causes the boot to fail. Removing that produces a guru.

I reinstalled the hard drive using Commodore OS3.0 and tried again - same errors.

I reinstalled OS3.1 and then ran the Fast ATA prefs on the install disk. The hard drive and CD ROM show up correctly as Master drives on controllers 1 and 2. Installing the CD software only produces no error (but no access to the CD ROM), installing ATA software without allowing changes to the startup sequence allows the system to reboot afterwards (but no access to the CD ROM), and a full installation causes the usual errors.

I need to be able to access the CD ROM in order to install OS3.9.

Does anyone know what is happening or is there an updated install disk/CD DOS driver that can help?

Any advice would be appreciated. I've had OS3.9 running on this tower before (installed over OS3.5 I think).

[jimmyboy]

What did you put in your startup? It makes a diff where and what you put.

Here is the first part of the OS 3.9 S:Startup-sequence:

C:CheckLMB
IF WARN
SYS:Prefs/FastATAPrefs
ENDIF

C:FastATA.driver QUIET
C:Stack 16384

C:SetPatch QUIET

[Darrin]

Unfortunately, I can't get as far as installing OS9 as the Fast ATA software installation is crashing the OS3.1 installation. It's changing the startup script automatically with no input from me.

<long pause here while I reinstall OS3.1 again, note the startup script, install ATA and make a note of what's changed>

Original startup sequence after OS3.1 installation:
C:Setpatch Quiet
C:Version >NIL:
C:Addbuffers >NIL: DF0: 15
Failat 21
C:Makedir RAM:T RAM:clipboards RAM:ENV RAM:ENV/Sys
C:Copy >NIL: ENVARC: RAM:ENV ALL NOREQ
Resident >NIL: C:Assign Pure
Resident >NIL: C:Execute Pure
Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:ENV
Assign >NIL: T: RAM:T
Assign >NIL: Clips: RAM:Clipboards
Assign >NIL: Rexx: S:
Assign >NIL: Printers: Devs:Printers
Assign >NIL: Keymaps: Devs:Keymaps
Assign >NIL: Locale: Sys:Locale
Assign >NIL: LIBS: Sys:classes ADD
Assign >NIL: Help: Locale:Help Defer
Binddrivers
C:Mount >NIL: Dev:DOSdrivers/~(#?.info)
If Exists Dev:Monitors
If Exists Devs:Monitors/VGAOnly
Devs:Monitors/VGAOnly
Endif
Setenv language "english"
Setenv workbench $workbench
setenv kickstart $kickstart
Unset Workbench
Unset Kickstart
C:Adddatatypes Refresh Quiet
C:IPrefs
C:Conclip
Path >NIL: RAM: C: SYS:Utilities SYS:Rexxc Sys:system... etc
If exists S:user-startup
execute s:user-startup
endif
Resident Executive Remove
Resident Assign Remove
C:LoadWB
Endcli >NIL:

After installing the Fast ATA setup, the following lines are inserted at the very start of the startup sequence:

C:Setpatch Quiet
C:CheckLMB
If warn
Sys:Prefs/ATA3Prefs
Endif
C:ATA3.driver Quiet
C:Keycheck 59
If Warn
execute S:CD32-startup
Endif

The startup fails with the error:
Software Failure
C:Mount
Program Failed (error #80000004)

As the Mount command is trying to mount DOS drivers, I removed the existing Pipe and CD0 drivers from the DEVS/DOSDRIVERS drawer, but the error remained on rebooting.

I then removed the line with the mount command from the startup sequence and then got this error:

Software Failure
Devs:Monitors/NTSC
Program Failed (error #80000004)

I then removed the monitor lines from the startup sequence and rebooted and got this:

Software Failure
C:Adddatatypes
Program Failed (error #80000004)

Arrrrggghhhh!!!!

Any more ideas? :-)

[rkauer]

Move the "ATA3.driver" to DEVS:Dosdrivers/ and edit the startup-sequence.

[Darrin]

rkauer wrote:
Move the "ATA3.driver" to DEVS:Dosdrivers/ and edit the startup-sequence.



I've tried it with the same result (software error on the Mount command).

Calling the ATA3.driver from different locations doesn't make a difference and it isn't a DOS Driver filetype.

I don't suppose anyone has the latest Fast ATA install disk that they can email me as a ZIP/RAR/LHA?

[Gris_RT]

The startup fails with the error:
Software Failure
C:Mount
Program Failed (error #80000004)

As the Mount command is trying to mount DOS drivers, I removed the existing Pipe and CD0 drivers from the DEVS/DOSDRIVERS drawer, but the error remained on rebooting.

I then removed the line with the mount command from the startup sequence and then got this error:

Software Failure
Devs:Monitors/NTSC
Program Failed (error #80000004)

I then removed the monitor lines from the startup sequence and rebooted and got this:

Software Failure
C:Adddatatypes
Program Failed (error #80000004)

Arrrrggghhhh!!!!

Any more ideas?
---------------------------------------
Startup-sequence is right.
You have errors of reading of data from HDD.
May be HDD is lost or your FastATA controller has too weak contact with amiga motherboard.

[Vulture]

From what you say I think it's a speed problem. Right when miggy boots keep the left mouse button pressed and the fastata prefs page will come up. make sure you turn them to PIO 0. It's the slowest mode and it should produce no errors. You can then gradually turn it up until you hit the stability wall again (usually 4 or 5).

[Darrin]

@ Gris & Vulture,

Thanks guys. I'll try a different hard drive. I noticed from running the ATA prefs from the floppy that the drives were showing up as PIO4.

Hopefully it's a speed issue.

I apprecaite the help. :-)

[twizzle]

make sure you have the CD0 icon in your device/drivers drawer?

before you can use it, you have to edit the CDO
ie.RENAME > CD2 OR CD3,also you have to edit the tooltypes in the pulldown menu,
UNIT=2 OR UNIT=3.save then double click your new CD2/3 icon to mount it.

[CLS2086]

In last case, you'll have to do the Quartz trick :
replace the 33.3333 Mhz one by a 32 Mhz on the FastATA.