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From: maniac@reed.cs.unlv.edu (Eric J. Schwertfeger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Finally: how to install an AdIDE (IMPORTANT CORRECTION!)
Message-ID: <1991Apr9.223729.7215@unlv.edu>
Date: 9 Apr 91 22:37:29 GMT
References: <1991Apr9.025044.25725@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Sender: news@unlv.edu (News User)
Reply-To: maniac@reed.cs.unlv.edu (Eric J. Schwertfeger)
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Organization: UNLV Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
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In article <1991Apr9.025044.25725@sbcs.sunysb.edu>, dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes:

[thourough explanation and VERY USEFULL static control info]

)   Do a low-level format of the drive, then do an FFS format for 1.3 kickstart

WRONG!  IDE drives are factory formatted, and include bad-sector mapping already done for you.  If you low-level format, YOU DESTROY THE BAD-SECTOR MAPPING!!!  May not sound like a major issue, but at work (I work for a VAR that does IBM Clone work), we had to send back a drive for factory refurbishing due to low-level formatting.  We learned our lesson, and I want to pass it on.

In fact, this is one of my two MAJOR gripes with the AdIDE manual.  Yes, you have to low-level format SCSI drives, but doing it to an IDE drive makes the drive behave eratically.

This problem is caused by the fact that the ICD_Formatter program is generic as far as the AdSCSI and AdIDE hardware go.  The manual is generic also.

Second, do yourself a favor and boot off of the disk that comes with the AdIDE.  At least under 1.2, that's the easiest way to do it.  The manual mentions that you need FastFileSystem in L:, but doesn't tell you that you need the device driver in DEVS: in order to format.  A disk file does mention that you need the driver in DEVS: to boot, but never mentions formatting.

The second problem should be obvious to anyone that knows a lot about the amiga, but at the very least, the software should tell you that it can't find the device.

Other than these two problems, the only problem I had stemmed from hardware incompatibility.  For some reason, the AdIDE controller made my EXP-1000 ram board (1 meg, autoconfig, under the CPU) very unreliable.  In fact, if I did a fast-mem-first, the computer would crash on the very next disk access.  I strongly urge anyone that already has any kind of ram expansion under the CPU to look elsewhere for a controller.

Despite these problems I like the AdIDE controller.  There's no other way I could have picked up an 80 Meg Amiga HD for $502 otherwise (please don't ask where I got the drive, my boss gives me his prices on hardware, and I can't get the drive for other people.) 

-- 
Eric J. Schwertfeger, maniac@jimi.cs.unlv.edu