Commodore Amiga Retro
IDEFIX Help
GENERAL: A typical buffered interface has PIN 1 to the left hand side with Channel 2 upermost (40 way), then Channel 1 (40 way) Channel 1 (44 way) and then at the bottom the connector to the Amiga 1200.... They usually consist of two small (44 way) and two large (40 way) IDE connectors. They can usually support upto 4 devices with the necessary software. When installing an interface, or trying to eliminate problem, the best solution is to connect the devices up in stages: (1)Ensure that your computer will boot up with your original hard drive connected. N.B. A good tip to reduce the amount of time waiting for the system to boot is to hold both mouse buttons buttons down when you first switch on. Providing you can see the early Boot Options screen, then the computer is usually OK. Please also ensure that all necessary precautions are taken when working on an open Tower or computer. Needless to say, these notes are provided to assist you in fitting your equipment and no responsibility is taken for any damage to either yourself or your computer. (2)Now you need to connect a 44-way IDE cable from the computer to the buffered interface. Most if not all , cables have a single coloured wire which is normally used to connect to and identify Pin 1. Pin 1 on the A1200 motherboard is clearly marked, but for clarification it is the side of the connector closest to the front of the motherboard (PCMCIA port). (3)Then connect the other end of the 44-way cable to the buffered interface. The connector on the interface labelled normally to the A1200 is the bottom most connector. You must ensure that Pin 1 on the interface is connected to Pin 1 on the motherboard . Since the 2.5"(44-way) IDE interface carries the power as well as data signals you can damage both the interface and the cables by connecting the cable incorrectly. Care should also be taken to ensure that when connecting the 44-way IDE cable onto either the motherboard or interface that you do not miss any of the gold pins. It is very easy to miss a pair of pins at one end of the connector, or miss a whole row of 22 pins completely. Again damage may sometimes occur when connecting a cable incorrectly. You could at this point try to switch the computer on. Having just a cable and interface connected will not affect the operation of your A1200. - You should still be able to get the early boot screen. (4) The next stage is to connect your hard drive. In order to boot from a HD attached to your interface it must be connected to Channel 1, sometimes called the Primary Port or Channel. If you are using a 3.5" HD it must be set as Master. There are jumpers to configure the drive and usually instructions or a diagram on the drive to show you how to do this. The drive should be connected to Channel 1, 40-way IDE connector. If you have a 2.5" hard drive then it will most likely be set to Master or only work as Master. This should be connected to Channel 1, 44-way IDE connector. You may intend to have another device also connected to Channel 1 on the same cable but it is usually better in the long run to test the system at this point before adding any more devices. (5)Once the system is working you can then continue and add more devices again testing, and installing software where necessary, each time before adding the next. General Notes/Tips: If you connect a ribbon cable incorrectly it will usually damage the interface cable itself. It is therefore usually a good idea to test, where possible with the system open so you can see any damage as early as possible. A good tip is to watch the power LED on your A1200 or tower. A working system will provide an early indication of the operation through the LED. The correct signal should be :- When you first switch on, the LED should be lit dim, then after a moment the LED should become bright. ( Note with a PPC fitted it may take several seconds before this happens ). If this happens then you have most likely connected everything correctly and will be able to verify this by checking the Early Boot screen. If the LED remains dim then the last item connected or added is preventing the computer from operating - check the connections. If the LED flashes dim and bright then again check your last connections. If the LED does not light first dim then bright in the normal time ( approx 2 to 3 seconds ) then switch your system off immediately. Cables can and do melt if connected incorrectly and the sooner you switch of the better your chances of preventing permanent damage. The orientation of Pin 1 on the most if not all drives should be the same. On HDs and CD ROMs Pin 1 is on the right hand side when you look at the rear of the drive. If you intend using Channel 2 to connect a HD or removeable media drive (LS120/ZIP) then you will need to install EZ-IDE/IDEFIX. To add a HD using Channel 2 you will also need to add C:IDEFIX to your startup-sequence just after the C:SETPATCH line. You can use an editor or open a CLI/SHELL and type "ed s:startup-sequence" and press enter. N.B. do not type the inverted commas. Then add the C:IDEFIX line on the line below C:SETPATCH, and save changes and exit. You will need to reboot your computer for the changes to be recognised. This alone will not allow you usually to recognise the HD. You must also run HDTOOLBOX, normally on your INSTALL disk or most magazine cover CD's and select save changes to drive. The program should tell you that drives have been added or removed and that you need to do this! You may at this point need to ensure that the maxtransfer setting is correct. Incorrect settings can result in corrupt or lost data during data transfer. The recommended setting is 0xFE00. This setting can be changed by clicking on advanced in the partition section of HDTOOLBOX. Please note that you will to press ENTER before you click OK, otherwise the program does not recognise the new value. This setting must be set for ALL the partitions on your drive. When you have done this a re-boot may be necessary. Once this has been done WB should recognise the new drive. It may recognise the partition as DH0:ndos or HD0:???. This is usually a sign that the drive has not been formatted. You can normally just carry out a quick format using the WB format menu. DO NOT DO A LOW LEVEL FORMAT as suggested in HDTOOLBOX - This can damage the drive !!! To correctly install and use an LS120 or ZIP drive you must first connect the hardware and then run the INSTALL LS120 program. This is usually installed within your IDEFIX97 drawer on your HD. You use the same installer for both LS120 and ZIP drives. During the installation process it will open the FindDevice program and should correctly identify the device. You may need to select ATAPI.DEVICE and then click use. When the installer has finshed it should have added a new line to your user-startup and mount the drive. You will need to reboot. When you have rebooted put a disk/cartridge in the drive. You may get two icons appearing PC4 and DF4 - there are two dosdrivers to allow the reading of AMIGA or PC disks. You can prepare either type by doing a QUICK format on the appropriate icon. Some new UDMA CDs need to be set as Master in order to get the best performance. Some CDs also hang the system when used on their own with C:IDEFIX in the startup-sequence. If you use the drive as a slave to another then they usually work fine. If the drive is on its own then you do not need the C:IDEFIX command in the startup. Simply put a ; in front of the line eg ;C:IDEFIX - This will instruct the system to ignore it. When you require the command (recognise a HD ) then just delete the ; Usually the preferred configurations for HDs and CDs are as follows: ---------------------- 1 x HD and CDROM Channel 1 Master Hard Drive Slave Channel 2 Master CDROM ---------------------- 1 x 2.5" HD, 1 x 3.5" HD and CDROM Channel 1 Master 2.5" Hard Drive Slave 3.5" Hard Drive Channel 2 Master CDROM Slave Note: If your system will not work with a 2.5" Drive with a 3.5" Slave you may have to set up as below. ---------------------- 1 x 2.5" HD, 1 x 3.5" HD and CDROM Channel 1 Master 2.5" Hard Drive Slave Channel 2 Master 3.5" Hard Drive Slave CDROM EZ-IDE/IDEFIX Required ---------------------- 2 x 3.5" HD and CDROM Channel 1 Master Hard Drive Slave Hard Drive Channel 2 Master CDROM Slave OR ---------------------- 2 x 3.5" HD and CDROM Channel 1 Master Hard Drive Slave Channel 2 Master Hard Drive Slave CDROM EZ-IDE/IDEFIX Required ---------------------- 1 x 3.5" HD , 1 x LS120/ZIP and CDROM Channel 1 Master Hard Drive Slave Channel 2 Master LS120/ZIP Slave CDROM EZ-IDE/IDEFIX Required ---------------------- Quick Installation Guide for CDROM Drives 1: If you have one Hard Disk make sure it is connected to either Port 0 connectors. [ Channel 1 ] 2: Connect the CDROM drive to OUT PORT 1 (Channel 2: Make sure the CDROM is set to slave )Make sure the IDE cables are plugged in the right way ( The red wire on the IDE cables all match Pin 1 ) 3: Make sure CDROM is switched on. Let Workbench load up and insert IDEFIX disk. Run the install icon. 4: Select "proceed" and "yes" for all options. 5: When the "find device" program is run, click on the atapi.device on the left hand side window. 6: The name of your CDROM should appear on the right hand side window. Select the CDROM and click "use" and carry on with the installation. 7: Once installation is complete then reset the computer . Insert a CD and an icon should appear on your Workbench. For more information look at the documentation in the docs drawer on the IDEFIX disk.
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Last updated 22:36 15/04/2010 |
