ScuzzBlog: Diaries August 2017
Entry 3rd August 2017: Post: 1
Living in a box
Hi
Ever since I received one of my A590's it has been sitting in its box.
In fact I have an A570 and A590 sitting next to each that have never
been used. In truth I have never connected an A570 to a 500. I just
don't like the tray idea for inserting CDs. Anywhoo... I was about to
check one of my other A590's that I have and wasn't up for disconnecting
one of the two I currently have running. I do have one more but that is
connected to the Checkmate. Thing is I have run out of power supplied.
The 590 has an un-switched A500 style brick with a circular
connector.... thinks ?
I hot footed over to the A590 box and opened up and sure enough there
was a suitable power supply. I connected up to the A590 sidecar fitted
to an A500Plus and it booted first time. 1.3.2. no less... a lovely
blue. Good selection of early software and running just fine. Thing is
whilst I had the 590 out I kinda thought why not see if it works. Hmmmm
On the sticker on the front of the box it says Configuration Date
9-10-91 Company Name A-Z Description A590 +2MB Upgrade. The drive is I
assume a 40MB XT Unit. Oh sod it lets plug the unit in. OK never been
used and so the computer basically identified two non-DOS partitions DH0
and CDH1 for some reason. The 590 HD tools identified a Connor drive
unchanged and with two partitions of equal size.
I was hooked in. I dragged out my trusty 2.1 install and was away. In no
time I had set up a System and Work Partition and formatted both
volumes. Next I installed the 2.1 OS and she booted first time.
Amazing.... So I put the 590 back in the box and back on the shelf.
Scratches head.... puzzled. As I uploaded the images from the camera I
noted that the box I just put away had a sticky label on the front
saying the 'Configuration' as I just stated. Thing is the box on my
website does not have a label.
http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/a_scuzz_may04/a_may04_010.jpg
And so I went a searching... and you guessed it I found another A590 in
a box. Took no time to plug the unit in and did it work.... Did it *u*k
! The drive light is on all the time and the machine refuses to boot to
a floppy with it connected. I shall leave the A590 running for a while
and then maybe hit it with a hammer. This box has been stored on its
side for like ten years. The power brick is odd cus it has the circular
connector but has a switch.
.... Gonna have to give you a running commentary as the A500Plus just
kicked into gear and loaded Workbench from the floppy and identified the
DH0 as a non-DOS partition. And the drive light has gone out. I think it
heard me threatening with a hammer. I have fired up the 2.1 Install disk
and have checked the drive....
Western Digital XT 0 Not Changed WD93020 1.0 20 Meg in 1 partition. I am
verifying the drive as we speak. Found a bad block so onwards....
So there you go.
The point I was going to close with is that for all the mutterings on
various groups about new flash drives and the like I just never really
have that much issue with older drives other than the laptop style 2.5"
drives. Sure the odd one falls over, but I have so many units here with
3.5" style and XT drives that generally work and I sense as long as I
use them regularly and do not neglect them I should be OK.
I'll keep you updated on this latest drive.
Happy days
scuzz
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