NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/programmer/2781

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 5.6 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Mats Magnusson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: How do I replace the HD I boot from?
Date: 4 Feb 1996 22:50:49 GMT
Organization: Uniplus Internet Access
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>Some time in the hopefully not-too-distant future, I plan to replace
>the hard drive I boot from.  The trouble is, I haven't been able to
>find any documentation on how to do it.

If you just add a new HD, and have the old to boot, you don't have to go
throug the whole procedure that i describe downunder. Anyway, it's almost
always best to boot from the newest HD, as it's probably tha fastest, and
it's not that hard to move your OS...

>Can anyone help?  My situation is complicated by the fact that I have
>a ROM-less A3000 (*).  I did find some documentation on the programs
>PrepHD, FormatHD, and InstallHD, which are supposed to be able to
>completely restore a trashed system disk (at least, the system part
>of the system disk).  Will this work even if the disk isn't the same
>size or kind as the original issue?

In fact, you'r A3000 isn't ROM-less, it just contains a beta version of
2.0, that loads a newer version of the kickstart from wb_2.x:devs/kickstart
when started up. If it doesn't find a partiton named wb_2.x: nor a
'superkickstart' diskette, it just starts the beta version of the os, which
at least can run almost all well-written 1.2/1.3 software. Get hold of a
copy of the old hdtoolbox (if you don't already have that), with the round
gadgets (the new hdtoolbox has style-guided square gadgets, and work only
with kickstart 3.0+), and also get a copy of 'icon.library' from libs: of a
workbench 1.3-diskette. Now format an empty disk, put hdtoolbox on it, and
create a 'libs' drawer where you put icon.library. To test if it workt
correct, switch off and on the power of you'r A3000 (so it looses the
kickstart from ram), and hold both mousebuttons. After a while, you shoult
see a screen with four large gadgets, 'kick 2.x floppy' 'kick 2.x hd'
'kick 1.3 floppy' 'kick 1.3 hd' (or similar) some may be shadowed. You also
se a small gadget down under these gadgets. Now comes the tricky part,
there is also an invisible gadget somewhere near the upper-left-corner of
the screen, if you click around somvhere in the first 100*50 pixels you
will soon hit it, then the machine will boot with the beta version of the
OS in rom, and you should have your diskette prepared. You recognise that
all gadgets and so look a bit strange compared to both 2.04 and 1.3, that's
normal. Now try to start hdtoolbox from the diskette, it it start's, you
have a safe 'boot'-diskette.

When you have all this working, just insatall the new harddisk, boot the
ordinary way (if you have a higher scsi-id on the new disk, that should
always work, but it often works anyway), and make your partitons with
hdtoolbox, copy all things from the old to the new HD, and when all that is
done, restart hdtoolbox, rename the wb_2.x: partition of your old harddisk
to something else, and then rename the partition vith devs/kickstart of the
new harddisk to wb_2.x:, do 'save changes to drive' on boths harrdisks, and
then reboot. You shuld now have booted off the new HD.

Forget the old PrepHD and that stuff, HDToolbox is what you should use!. If
you don't have hdtoolbox, it's on the original disks for A590 and A2091
f.ex., and i think you should have it with A3000 also.

>On a more general note, is there any documentation on the lower
>level workings of the Amiga?  I mean stuff like what exactly
>entries in the MountList mean, and what happens at boot time.

Well, the official book is called 'the amigados reference manual' or
something likely. It describes all dos-commands, and the complete
dos.library. That book isn't too great though. I think there is a book
called the amiga guru book which is far superior, of what i have heard.

But, if you're interested in the rest of the OS, the
RomKernelReferenceManual series is what you should have, there are three
important books, includes&autodocs, libraries, devices. Other books is
hardware reference, which is mostly for developers of other OS, and
demo/game-makers. Also there is a 'user interface styleguide' which isn't
worth paying any for, it just a book that describes how programs should
look, but i think most of us can judge our self if a program looks like the
one supplied with the OS or not ;)

>(*) Speaking of which -- is there a reasonably easy way to fix my
>    ROM-less situation?  It's a drag having the OS suck away 1/2 meg
>    every time I boot.  *This* situation is complicated by the fact
>    that I don't even have sockets on the motherboard -- just the
>    holes where they belong.  So -- is there any more to this than
>    soldering in some sockets, plugging in the ROMs of my choice,
>    and booting my computer? (ie, do I need to change jumpers or
>    anything like that?)  Thanks again...

Well, as long as you don't get a 040 or 060, it's only good to have the
'superkickstart' rom's (which i think is the official name for your rom's),
as you easily kan run kickstart 3.1 without haveing to replace rom's e.t.c.

However, you'r rom's doesn't work with 040 och 060 cpu's, so if you get
some speed-up board with 040 och 060, you have to buy new 3.1 rom's. They
cost something about 100 pounds or so, so i don't think it's worth buying
rom's as you get more ram for that money, if you lack of ram. Anyway, with
any rom version, loading a rom image into ram usually makes the machine
faster, as ram usually is faster than rom. Stick with you'r roms as long as
you can...