Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

• P R O G R A M M I N G •
4
Two types of drive are commonly used with the Amiga. SCSI and
ST506 types may both he used with the Amiga 2090 and 2090A
controllers, but only the ST506 drives are normally supplied by
Commodore. This is not true of some third party supplies, so check
which you have before setting up. It is assumed in this article that you
will be installing an ST506 drive. The software installation is
essentially the same for both types, with the following differences:
ST506 SCSI Description
RESO:
Unit=1
DUO:
RES2:
Itnit=3
1)I-12:
Device name for cylinders 0 and I, used by
A migaDos
Used in MountList RESO: and FFS partition
definitions.
Drive name for first partition of first hard
drive.
Further partitions may be called whatever name you choose to give
them in Mountlist.
IlighCyl values to suit the size of your
partitions. In my case, as DHO: is
using cylinders 2 and 3, the entry for
LowCyl needed changing to 4 and
I lighCvl to 611. as I wanted to use the
rest of the drive as one partition.
If you want more than one partition
in addition to DHO:, set HighCyl to
the value you want for the top of the
first H.'S partition, then copy the
whole entry for FAST: and change
LowCyl for the new entry to start at
the next higher cylinder and the top
with the highest cylinder you want
iind so on until you have created the
number of partitions you want and •
used up all the cylinder. Don't forget
to give the second entry a different
name from the first, by changing
FAST: to something else, say FS2:
Mountlist can then be saved and it
is time to format the different
partitions. This can only be done
from the CU. DHO: will have been
mounted automatically when you rebooted
the computer, so you can just
type:
FORMAT DRIVE OHO: NAME MyName
Once DUO: is formatted it is time to
format the other partitions. Before you
can do this you must mount each
d ri ve. Enter:
MOUNT FS1:
or whatever description you gave the
entry in Mounthst, and follow this
FORMAT DRIVE FS1: NAME MyName2 FFS
Don't forget to add the FFS to the
end of the command this time, so that
40 AAWACOMP/J71VG August1989
the partition will be formatted as a
FastFileSystem drive. Repeat the
procedure of mounting and
formatting for any further partitions
you have created.
You are almost finished now, and
you should find that if you type:
CD FS1:
the new drive responds to other
commands such as Info or Dir. If
everything is OK make changes to
Startup-Sequence so the new drives
will automatically be mounted every
time you boot the computer.
Now copy the Workbench files
from floppy to your hard disc as some
of them xvill be required when you
boot up.
In the S directory of your floppy
you will find a file called Startup-
Sequence.hd. This is the one you
need, and its name must be changed
to Startup-Sequence. Delete the
original Startup-Sequence file on the
floppy as you won't need it again and
rename Startup-Sequence.hd to
Startup-Sequence.
Load the new Startup-Sequence file
into ED and find the BindDrivers
command. Insert lines after
BindDrivers, the new Mount
commands for each partition - except
the first - DHO:. Further down the file
you will see a line assigning SYS to
DHO:. You should change DHO: to the
name you have given the drive
partition which now contains
Workbench.
Save the file and you will then be
able to reset the computer and boot
from the floppy drive. You can make
improvements by editing the Startup-
Sequence files on the floppy and hard
discs.
Startup-Sequence on the floppy
uses an Assign >NIL: DHO: EXISTS
line. This checks to see whether the
drive is present. We know it is, so
comment out the line with a semicolon
and also the If Not Warn line
and all the lines from and including
Else to the end of the file.
Now load the Startup-Sequence file
on the hard disc and comment out the
BindDrivers line, as the command has
already been issued from the floppy
disc. You might as well change the
SYS:System/SetMap usal line to read
SYS:System/SetMap gb, so that the
keys do what you expect.
As a little extra bonus. I also
include the following line
immediately before the EndCLI line at
the end of the file:
NewShell -
NEWC
ON:
This provides a small CLI window
in
440/1
the lower right corner of the
screen,
50/20
on top of the Workbench
screen, so that I can either use the
0/50/
mouse or issue CLI commands
Shell•
directly from the small window.
Guide to setting up
1. Back up any existing data on the
hard disc to floppy, for possible
later restoration.
2. Make working copies of
Workbench 1.3 and HDInstall
discs.
3. Run the Install program, found
on the HDInstall disc.
a). Select option 0 from the list
of hard drives.
b). Answer questions about
number of heads, cylinders, and
so on, according to the drive
you are using.
c). Specify last cylinder number
of first partition.
d). Select default for AmigaDos
buffers.
e). Mark bad blocks, if any.
• fl. Complete Install procedure.
4. Re-boot computer.
5. Check Mountlist file for correct
entries and adjust to suit your
drive if necessary. Add new entries
for partitions.
6. Format DHO:
7. Mount and format each further
drive partition, according to the
names you gave them.
8, Copy required files on to hard
drive.
9. Alter Startup-Sequence as
necessary.