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need help getting cd drive working and installing os 3.9 on amiga 4000

oblivion

oblivion

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I have an Amiga 4000/40 with 2mb chip ram and 12 fast ram (sometimes 20) i'd like to get up and running in a better condition. i have 1 hard drive installed and 1 scsi cd-rom drive that i cant get to work. i'm booting up useing a kickstart 3.1 disk and it boots up fine with it showing ram and the hard drive. i'm trying to run the scsi cd-rom drive via a ram expansion/scsi controller add on card. the reason i said sometimes 20 fast ram is because it only seems to only randomly detect the extra ram i have installed via the zorro card. the hard drive is running on the built in ide controller of the A4000. I'm aware the reason this isn't working may have to do with OS 3.1 and the wierd type of IDE they used that it won't recagnize my cd-rom drive (i've also tried a ide drive with no luck.) i would like to upgrade to OS 3.5 or 3.9 but as far as I know they are only avalible to install via cd....but I cant get a cd-rom drive to work so am I in some wierd Amiga paradox?

will a standard ide hard drive work in an A4000 also? i'd like to eventually add a second hard drive as well.

i also know about the IDE fix program but
1) i downloaded it and theres a billion files so how do i install it?
2) my amiga will not read 1.44mb floppies that my PC uses
 
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Actually the reason neither CD-ROM is being recognized is likely due to there being no CD file system present. I don't recall if OS 3.1 included a CDFS out of the box, but it should have crossdos installed out of the box..meaning you could download a CDFS off of Aminet and then copy it over to your A4000 since it will be able to read the PC formatted floppy disk. If your Amiga can't read either 720k or 1.44MB PC floppy disks, then you don't have crossdos installed either and it sounds like your OS 3.1 is incomplete. Have you tried doing a full install of OS 3.1 to the hard disk first? It spans multiple floppies and may likely install the files you're missing by just booting off of the floppy. OS 3.5 requires you to boot from OS 3.1 and then upgrade.

I hope this helps...it's been a while since I did an OS install on my A3000...and even longer since I had an A4000.

Jeff
 
OS 3.1 does have a built-in CDFS. I can't remember exactly how it's done, but I think you copy the CD0 file from Expansion to DEVS and then restart. Oh, and you need to edit the info on the CD0 file to use the correct SCSI ID. You should be able to detect the SCSI device with the prep software that comes with the SCSI card, so at least you will know if it sees it.

The exact same thing applies to using an IDE CDROM. In fact, I've always used IDE CDROM drives on the 4000 rather than SCSI, and they've worked fine.

To get your Amiga to read PC disks, you need to do the same type of thing. Move PC0 from Expansion to DEVS. I sure hope I'm remembering that correctly.
 
Thanks for the clarification Kevin...I'd completely forgotten about moving the files from their default locations. I upgraded my A3000 with a Cyberstorm MkII/060 and OS 3.9 years about 11 years ago and that was the last time I really had to adjust anything with it. A while back I clipped the barrel battery out of it...I've seen a lot of Amiga boards damaged by those leaking batteries but I clipped mine out before it started. I recently powered it up and it still functions as I remembered, SCSI issues and all.

Jeff
 
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been working on the issue all day with the help of some ppl over at english amiga forums but no luck. Kevin, my CD0 file was acually in STORAGE and nothing was in EXPANSION. i tried moving that file everywhere and i changed the UNIT to 3 which was what it was detecting as under the IDEfix program but still nothing. ive been trying multipal things with my scsi drive and several IDE drives as well as several disks but nothing. all i need is the drive to work so i can load up OS 3.9 and i'll be all set
 
What happens if you just double-click on the CD0 icon (in Storage)?
If your AmigaOS is set up correctly that should mount the drive.
If it doesn't, look at tooltypes in the icon for the correct device, unit and so on.
Hint: you can copy the CD0 file to somewhere else if you don't want to mess up the original.
 
tingo said:
What happens if you just double-click on the CD0 icon (in Storage)?
If your AmigaOS is set up correctly that should mount the drive.
If it doesn't, look at tooltypes in the icon for the correct device, unit and so on.
Hint: you can copy the CD0 file to somewhere else if you don't want to mess up the original.
Click to expand...

nothing at all. i've literally been working at this for a days now with several drives (both ide and scsi) and disks. where I got this unit off someone it was already configured, i don't know if the previous owner did something to it. when i got it it had a scsi cd unit installed but it never worked either before i even tried to set up a new drive so i'm starting to wonder if something was messed up from the get go. i've considered formatting and reinstalling the OS to the hard drive and starting fresh but of course i'm missing the WB disk from my 6 OS 3.1 disks. i'm starting to consider just purchaseing a preconfigured HDD with 3.1 already installed. i have OS 3.9 here but its on CD so....

heres the thread over at the english amiga forums http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=65118
 
i got it. you guys were right in that it was an issue with the cd0 mount file. my device was set as scsi when it needed to be gvpscsi. seems to work now. i'll be installing os 3.9 tonight. ive never acually installed a new OS on an amiga, anything i need to look out for or is it was straightforward as windows?
 
i'm going to post my questions here as well to hopefully get some things figured out,

well, i installed OS 3.9 but now i have alot of "minor issues". i guess these are more software then hardware issues now but i'll just number them for ease

1) to make my cd drive run i have to manually go into EXPANSIONS and click CD0. is there a way to make this active automaticly on startup?

2) I seem to be stuck on the 4 color pallette. if i go into Pallette and choose "muticolor" nothing happens regardless if I click save or use, does the fact i'm useing a commodore RGB monitor or have removed the battery have anything to do with this? games run fine with all the correct colors...well the few games i can get running via the DD.

3)on booting up the OS i get
cannot open "resource library" version 44, unable to run "AMIDOCK"
i click to continue and everything boots up seemingly fine.

4) i cant seem to run alot of programs, for instance i cant unzip and ziped files (i thought LHA was included in OS 3.9?) and even when i manually select the LHA program to unzip something nothing happens. do I have to have the LHA file in a specific drawer? also when i go to do something like for example install WDHload i get the message "unable to open your tool 'C:installer' then i get the option to retry abort or choose anouther program...i'm suspecting that has to do with files needing to be in specific places but i have no idea what file and where. I also have this issue trying to install BoingBag1 and thus have been unable to.

last time i touched an Amiga was about 2 years ago when i had my 1200T up and running and i never had any issues with that system on getting things running, unzipping or installing and running whdload.
 
Ok, I couldn't remember where the CD0 device came from, but I think it's supposed to be moved to DEVS to run automatically. Can someone confirm this?

As far as your color palette, you need to also adjust the Screenmode.

Not sure about the rest of the issues right now, but maybe that will help some.
 
cant even get into screenmode, since upgradeing to OS 3.9 i get a cannot open "resource library" version 44 error when i try to do almost anything
 
oblivion said:
cant even get into screenmode, since upgradeing to OS 3.9 i get a cannot open "resource library" version 44 error when i try to do almost anything
Click to expand...

Do you have a lot of software that you wanted preserved? I'm wondering if maybe it might not be a good idea to reinstall everything from scratch. It seems like some critical component is missing from your install. Are you able to make an emergency disk from 3.9? If you can do that, then you should be able to boot from that and install OS3.9 without 3.1 in between.
 
i think maybe you have the right idea. i got this Amiga off a previous ower so who knows what was done to it before i recived it. my only fear was. i have the full set of disks for WB 3.0 but i'm missing 1 disk for wb 3.1 install (the wb disk) so my fear of reformatting was always haveing to be stuck at wb 3.0 since i think to update to 3.9 you must have 3.1 installed. but if the emergency disk is a way around that maybe i should just redo the entire thing.
 
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KevinO said:
Ok, I couldn't remember where the CD0 device came from, but I think it's supposed to be moved to DEVS to run automatically. Can someone confirm this?
Click to expand...

Yes, in DEVS: there are several drawers (sorry, folders). One of them is DOSDrivers. Alli icons / files you put in there will be mounted automatically on bootup.
 
i fixed the "resource library" version 44 error. for some reason OS 3.9 never installed it but it was on the disc so i just copied and pasted it. I can get into screenmode now but it still will not allow me to change it, there is a "test" button but no save settings button.
 
Is there a "use" button on ScreenMode? If so, what happens if you press it?
Environment settings and prefs are stored in ENV: and ENVARC: (the last one for permanent / saved settings). Often you can fin files for various prefs programs there. Copying one from ENV: to ENVARC: is the same as saving that prefs (if the system is correctly set up).
 
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