Hardware section guides

I've now been expanding the hardware section of the Wiki.

Today I added a tutorial on how to install large HDD in an Amiga.

http://wiki.classicamiga.com/Install...B_or_larger%29

And also added another tutorial that is linked into that one

http://wiki.classicamiga.com/How_to_..._within_WinUAE

This second tutorial takes a guide originally written by KillerGorilla and posted on the EAB Wiki. I've used that as the basis for this version, and have updated it, adding some new information, but also reformatting the guide to make it much easier to read through and follow.

Can you all let me know if these two guides make sense? And are easy to follow?

I will also create some screenshots for them when I get time to make the guides easier to visually follow them through.

My 1200 setup uses a 800 mb harddrive because when I installed it some 10 years ago I read I couldn't use greater than 1 GB so this will be a interesting artical for me and will use it to add a larger multi GB harddrive to my system through WinAUE.(soon as I get a USB cable.)
Also will IDEfix let me use the CD player with out the shareware plug and play I now use?

What shareware plug and play are you using now?

IDEFix'97 allows a CD-Rom drive and HDD to work perfectly together in an Amiga and requires no additional software to get everything up and running correctly.

I think it's atapi plug and play Demo version G Campari or Campara (sorry this is from memory) think remember august 96 ver 3.0

Oh, you would definitely be better off using IDEFix.

All very interesting, but I do wonder how many would rather install the HD using their trusty Amiga only, rather than using a PC.
I performed this task with my Amiga 1200 only some time ago and now have a 2.5"60 GB HD in my desktop A1200 with a 2 GB (far too large) WB, and other partitions. It was a swine of a job however, although it can be done, and I have written down the complicated procedure should I ever need to do it again. No doubt others have found a shorter way of doing it, and I would appreciate their procedures.
As a matter of interest, I believe WHDLoad installs can have a problem on partitions exceeding 4 GB, something worth bearing in mind when setting partition sizes.
Regards,
Mike.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mpaulj

All very interesting, but I do wonder how many would rather install the HD using their trusty Amiga only, rather than using a PC.
I performed this task with my Amiga 1200 only some time ago and now have a 2.5"60 GB HD in my desktop A1200 with a 2 GB (far too large) WB, and other partitions. It was a swine of a job however, although it can be done, and I have written down the complicated procedure should I ever need to do it again. No doubt others have found a shorter way of doing it, and I would appreciate their procedures.
As a matter of interest, I believe WHDLoad installs can have a problem on partitions exceeding 4 GB, something worth bearing in mind when setting partition sizes.
Regards,
Mike.

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I've got a 6GB partition for all my games and I've never had any problems with WHDLoad installs.

Same here. I've got a 24GB partition with all my games and demos installed on and they have all run perfectly so far. Maybe it just has a problem when using the original FFS? I'm sure there was something mentioned in one of the last WHDLoad updates about large HD partitions though, but can't remember.

That is a good point regarding installing a large HD on an Amiga only. However the process is very much the same, except you have the more difficult task of obtaining the software needed and getting it on Amiga floppy disks so you can install and setup IDEFix, SFS etc...

When I get time though I will make a separate guide on how to do it just on the Amiga.

The big advantage of using a PC and WinUAE is the ease of copying files onto the HD and setting it up just right before its connected back into the Amiga. It is a lot more hassle and fiddling around on the real system and I can't imagine how you would copy the complete KGWHD packs onto the Amiga. Maybe if you have a CD-Rom connected then you could burn them onto a disc and do it that way, but if you were using a PC to do that then its quickly to just hook the HD up to the PC.

The other option is getting some removable media to transfer across the necessary files like a ZIP/JAZ drive etc (I cheated on my newest HDD. I had my old 3.2GB HDD on the primary IDE port and the newer 20GB HDD on the secondary and just partitioned it under my old WB and copied across files. After a few minor modifications to the Startup-sequence and user-startup I just then moved the 20GB HDD to the primary and unplugged the old drive. I could have used my backup copy of my WB from my ZIP disks though.

All I do is copy these from my PC to a re-writable CD and then copy them from the CD to my A1200 HD.
For smaller downloads I use a Zip cartridge in the same way.
Regards,
Mike.

Yes, this is an obvious easy way to get such collections over to an Amiga with a CD drive. However for convinience being able to copy the complete 4GB+ KGWHD set of game packs onto the HD in one go on the PC is quicker. I do however add the update packs to the already setup HD in my A1200 by burning the update packs to a CD-R and copying them over that way.

However that still doesn't solve the issue of copying the files for any version of ClassicWB over to the Amiga, or the SFS and IDEFix packages that are larger than a floppy disk. And the think is you need IDEFix installed along with your OS setup of choice before you can access the CD drive. There are ways but not are as easy or as quick as the PC and emulator route.