@Chris & Daedalus

Oh no, it's definitely the Floppy light ... I've tried rebooting with no floppy in & leaving it for 24 hours and also with a floppy in and leaving it for 24 hours ... it does nothing !!!

I thought maybe the kids had done something to affect the display, but if I reboot with both mouse buttons held down I get the boot option screen.

I might disconnect the HD & try rebooting. I can understand that me cancelling that HD program *may* cause a HD problem, but don't see why it doesn't boot from the Floppy !!!

Frustrating stuff !!!

Daedalus ... how do I go about making an "Install Disk" then ?

Edit ... Ha Ha ... especially if the Amiga won't work !!!

@Mikey_C ... and everyone ...

All might be lost now !!!

I used the HDTools utility to delete Partition DH1 (work), DH2 (Utilities) & DH3 (games) and create a new single partition of DH1. This left the original 20Mb DH0 partition (Workbench) & seemed to work OK & I rebooted ... got a few errors looking for stuff on the old Utility partition, but nothing that worried me.

Couldn't actually access the new DH1 though, so ran a Quick Format on it ... it said something like Initialisiing Disk, so I left it & went off to watch the football.

About 3 hours later, I went back & nothing had changed, there was no progress indicator, nothing different at all, just "Initialising Disk" across the middle of the screen.

I thought there must be a problem, so turned it off, left it for a couple of minutes & turned it back on ... now nothing works !!! It won't boot into the HD & it won't even boot into Floppies (though having said that, I've tried rebooting about 50 times, and about half a dozen times it has booted from a floppy) !!!

Now if I boot from a Floppy, it starts the process, the light comes on, the Floppy makes the noises it used to make ... and then nothing, except the floppy light stays on !!!

Ahhh, not been my day !!!

I've now read the following :

"Commodore in their infinite wisdom chose not to let the
Install disk be a standard part of the OS disk set in version 3.0, but only to be given with machines which were fitted with hard drives from the factory.

So people who bought a non-HD A1200 and fitted their own hard drive had to find another way of preparing and partitioning it. Even dealers who made package deals with A1200s with hard disks fitted by themselves
were not allowed to provide their customers with the official Install disk.

So it's likely that you don't have that disk. "

That would explain why I don't have the diskette & have not heard of it then !!!

However, as I said earlier, I *do* have the disk "Amiga HD Install", presumably I can use this to reformat & partition the HD ... will the Workbench install automatically onto a newly formatted HD or is there still something else I need ?!?

Thanks in advance to anybody who can seriously help without showing themselves up ...

@Snuffy

There's always somebody who has to be the sarcastic smartarse isn't there ... step forward for today's prize Snuffy !!!

OK, so I'm missing a diskette, that's really all you needed to say isn't it ? Especially as it sounds like one that's quite important !!!

Presumably the instructions that you suggest I should read would be on that diskette that I didn't know existed ... would that be correct ?!?

OK, thanks to everybody who has helped me so far, it's appreciated ... sorry I've been a few days coming back, but I've been laid up on the sofa with a knee the size of a water melon, am just about getting around a bit now !!!

Anyway, I've found the following diskettes :

Amiga Workbench 3.0
Storage 3.0
Locale 3.0
Amiga Fonts 3.0
Amiga Extras 3.0

Amiga HD Install 3.0

Power CD ROM

I, probably foolishly, thought that by booting from my Workbench diskette it would ask me if I wanted to re-install the system and it would prompt me as we went along ... wrong !!! I did say before that I've been spoilt by the hand-holding of Windows !!!

So ... what's my next step ? I want re-format the HD & re-install all the software from scratch. I think I have all the necessary disks, but what steps should I undertake, and in what order ?!?!?

As before, all help much appreciated ...

@Daedalus

Hold your horses young man ... I'm English, not Irish ... I've been living here for 7.5 years though and have 2 daughters, both born in Holles Street, Dublin.

The Amiga has been looking at me since we moved here from Shankill, 15 months ago, and I eventually got around to hooking it up ... but thanks for the offer, I may take you up on that sometime !!!

Anyway, I think I may need to reset the whole system, maybe just reinstall WB3.1, the CD is being recognised, I'll try to explain ...

If I put a Floppy disk in & reboot, it always works.

If I don't put a Floppy disk in & reboot, it tries the Floppy drive & then boots from the Hard Drive. However, I get 4 error messages saying that it can't find Fonts & I have tracked this back to Magic Workbench. If I click on one of the fonts in a Fonts (I think) window where there are these Fonts (and only these fonts) listed, then right click & delete, the machine hangs. This is the case whenever I try to delete or copy anything ... maybe I am just too Window-oriented now and am doing something wrong ?!? For example, I have a Preferences folder & a Copy_Of_Preferences folder ... if I try to delete this, it hangs. If I click on a drawer, then right-click & choose Copy ... it hangs.

If I put a CD in & reboot, it checks the floppy, THEN IT CHECKS THE CD, but then it just gives the 4 error messages again and boots as per a normal boot. There is a Window that opens with some messages .. which may or may not be explaining a problem ... but it closes again before I can read it and I don't know where to find it ... assuming it is a log file !!!

There is nothing on the machine that I need, so I have no problem doing a complete reload & re-install (assuming all the floppies still exist and work !!), does it look like I have a problem or have I been too simplified by Mr Gates ?!?!?

@Chris

I see, thanks, pointless me going through all that expense then if I'm just using it as a games machine !!!

Priority 1 is to get the CD working, then I can take it from there, thanks for your help ...

@Chris

No such luck I'm afraid, Chris, I'm in County Offaly in Ireland ...

@Daedalus & Chris

OK, thanks, I'll get to work on getting that CD recognised, trouble is I'm sitting here with a very painful gout attack & it might have to wait a couple of days !!!

In the meantime, what then, is this OS4.1 that this site promotes, why should I upgrade to 3.9 rather than this 4.1 ?

@Daedalus & Chris

OK, the 64 million dollar question ... how do I go about upgrading the machine ?!?

I can build a a PC from the ground up & install Windows or Linux with no problem, but I can't remember diddly-squat about the Amiga !!!

Can I download what I need ... onto 720 Mb formatted PC disks, obviously ... from somewhere or do I need to buy it ?

And do I then just stick the floppy / floppies into the A1200 & reboot it ?!?

OK ... hope this helps :

My Workbench system was apparently created on 13th February 1996.

If I do an About, I have 3.1 ROM in the top left corner ... I am assuming this means Workbench release 3.1.

Then it says underneath :

Kickstart 40.68
Workbench 39.29

I used to love this game, though I seem to recall it was a bit frustrating ... anyway, I've set up my A1200 after many years of it lying in a box in a dark place, inserted my Trolls disk, booted it up ... and it's asked for Word X line Y page Z ... but do I have the manual ? Nope, can't find it anywhere !!!

I realise that this might look like I have a pirate copy of the game and am trying to circumvent security and I doubt I could prove otherwise, but that is not the case.

Anyway, I have the main storyline page, the one that starts "IMAGINE A VILLAGE NEITHER HERE OR THERE, NOR IN ANY PARTICULAR TIME", if somebody could possibly tell me what actual PAGE that is in the manual, I think that would be enough for me to play the game, so on the off chance that somebody out there still has a manual for this game, thanks in advance !!!

@Daedalus & TSK

Thank you for the PC floppy 720 advice, I nevber knew that ...

... and yes, sorry, I would normally spell everything out from the start, hardware, sowtware, add-ons etc., etc., etc. ... trouble is, I am now so forgetful of how the Amiga used to work that I can't supply all those details !!!

However ... I do boot from a HD & I have RAM ... it was quite a lot when I originally put it in, I think, but I have a feeling it was 4Mb and that doesn't sound right in today's PC world where I have 2 Gb of RAM on this machine !!!

Not sure of my OS, but it will be as originally supplied I guess, 3 point something or other, I'll try & find out & post it back on here later.

"Kickstart ROMs" & "turbo card" I don't know about I'm afraid !!!

@RacerX

IIRC, when I originally set this up, everything worked fine, so I must have termination built in ... hopefully !

@TSK & Chris

I will look into what you both say and see if I can get anywhere ... unless, would I be better off restarting and loading this new OS ?

Problem there is that the Amiga isn't connected to the Internet, so any downloads have to be done from this PC & then copied to floppy, which presumably the Amiga wouldn't recognise, or CD and then ... well, we're back to the question again !!!!!

@ghoolster

Aha ... Surf Squirrel ... now that definitely rings a bell, yes, I have one of those ... I think <g> !!!!

@everybody

Thanks for your replies and help, I've got a little bit back into the swing of things now, though I'm still VERY rusty, as you would expect.

Now I may have to open new threads for further questions, but this first one should be OK in here as it's so similar ... how do I access my CD drive ? I have an adapter in the PCMCIA slot with a thick grey wire that goes into the SCSI adapter at the back of the CD. Apart from the power lead, I assume this is all I need, I don't recall previously having a 9-pin lead into the other port in the PCMCIA card ... though I could, of course, be wrong !

If I put in a CD, Simon the Sorceror, a CD32 disc, for instance, the CD doesn't appear the same way that the Floppy drive does ...

@TSK

Ha Ha Ha ... it's always the way, isn't it, the easier the answer, the harder it is to work it out for yourself !!!

Thanks <blush> ...

But I've now got it up and running, just as a games machine primarily. The biggest problem I have is that I can't remember how I've set it up !!!

IIRC, on the initial Workbench screen you could see your Workbench drawer, RAM, Floppy etc. However, I've got (I think !) MagicWorkBench (MagicWB) installed & when I boot it goes straight into a nice tidy window with 4 drawers in it, Workbench, Games, Work & Utilities ... I obviously knew what I was doing way back when !!!

My problem is ... how do I access the Floppy drive ? I can't find an icon for it anywhere ... otherwise, should I uninstall MagicWB (how ?) or is there a better OS for a 1200 with a HD these days ? If so, is it free, can I download it from a PC & copy it ?!?

Any advice greatly appreciated ...