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[werthers93]

I am trying to install a 3 gig old laptop hard drive on my A1200 using the HD toolbox in workbench 3.1. When setting up the drive (it reads it as a 549mb disk) I cannot manage to save the changes to the disk and get the message "error -3 on write".

does anyone have an answer to this?

[Effy]

How you tried to change the drive type first ?? If you don´t then HDtoolbox will read it as the last harddrive you have installed. It needs to read the new info about your drive. Then try a low level format and after that you can do the partitionning, but be sure that the first partition is not bigger than 2 Gb.

[werthers93]

I've tried to set it up numorous times, the old setups are there and wont delete. Everytime I setup a new one it wont low level format or save.

[werthers93]

I've tried to set it up numorous times, the old setups are there and wont delete. Everytime I setup a new one it wont low level format or save.

[Brian]

Load HDToolBox, define new drive type, define new, read configuration. Drive info might not be read correctly so make sure that Cyls, Heads, BpT and BpC correspond with what is printed on the drive. Size will often show wrong or even negative numbers, ignore that as long as the other is correct. OK it, Ok next, partision drive (if using old FFS then remember not to pass the 2GB per partision, as the drive is only 3Gb there's no "max 4Gb" problem).

[werthers93]

It verifies the cylinders and heads correctly and even displays the correct manufacturing name (IBM) but I cannot save the changes to the drive or low-level format.

I'm starting to think the drive is faulty but it verifies no bad sectors. It says the interface is SCSI but its definately an IDE Drive.

there must be something I'm doing wrong. bugger!

[Effy]

First thing you really need to do is stay calm !!! Don´t panic and don´t get angry !! Don´t throw the harddrive out of the window yet !!! Have you tried HDsetup yet instead of HDtoolbox ??? Sometimes this works !!!

[werthers93]

yeah all I get it "sorry this hard drive cannot be partitioned".

i'm trying to stay calm but Ive got no way of checking if the drives faulty as I only have a desktop pc.

[Brian]

Well.. the IDE interface on an A600, A1200 and A4000 uses SCSI.device. Don't know why but I guess it was easier to do it that way back then even if it have confused loads of ppl ever since.

You never need to low-level format a drive... never... in fact, doing so can destry some drives.

The fact that you can't save to the drive in HDToolbox do indicate that something is up with the drive, could be that it's dead as you say but could also be one of few drives that just don't like the Amiga and it might work perfectly in a PC. :/

[Ilwrath]

It says the interface is SCSI but its definately an IDE Drive.

This is normal behavior for an A1200. It detects all drives as SCSI, because it uses "scsi.device" as it's ROM-based IDE interface driver. Don't ask me why. I don't know. It's quite confusing, but it IS the proper behavior for an A1200.

I'm starting to think the drive is faulty but it verifies no bad sectors.

I don't know if the "verify" and "low level format" commands actually do anything, at all. They light the activity light for a while, but I've seen drives pass the "verify" test, while they were making obvious, hideous, IBM "DeathStar" style grinding noises.

And, as for the "low-level format" command not doing anything discernable, that's probably a good thing, as if you ACTUALLY low-level formatted the drive, that would probably destroy it. Most modern drives aren't meant to be low-level formatted.

As for the wrong drive geometry showing, and the "error -3 on write", it sounds like the Amiga is having a tough time handling the drive. Perhaps it's not totally compatible, or has a scrambled RDB already written to it, which the Amiga is trying to interpret?

[Ilwrath]

d'oh! Brian beat me to this one by 2 minutes.

[doctorq]

@werthers93

I know what you are talking about, but I actually hoped that I didn't :-(

I once had a 6 GB IBM hdd, also taken from a laptop. I tried to install the drive many times, using both HDToolBox and HDInstTools from Aminet. HDToolbox told me that the drive was write protected, but HDInstTools could save my changes. After a reboot the changes were gone though :-(

My brother hooked the harddrive up to his tower PC, and after he failed to access the disk using FDisk we concluded that the drive was dead. I'm afraid this is the same outcome for your disk.

I never got my drive installed even after 30+ attempts, so the drive has been in the bin for long time now.

[werthers93]

ta mate, I bought from a second hand dealer but hopefully i can exchange it.

tossers.