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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:	AMIGA NOTES
Notice:	Join us in the NEW conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:	HYDRA::MOORE

Created:	Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:	Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5378
Total number of notes:	38326

4670.0. "Boot prob with A590" by VIVIAN::D_VISTUER () Tue Apr 09 1991 12:46

    About 2 weeks ago I decided to take the plug and get a hard drive. I
    was'nt after Giga bytes of storage, slabs of Silicon neurals and a
    multitude of other bells and whistles, all I wanted was something that
    would make the hours on my Amiga; more productive, etc.
    Anyway the choice was an A590 (20meg) with 2Megs on board.
    
    Installing the beast was very easy as it comes standard with W/B 1.3
    and Extras. After installation, powering up the A500 brings up the
    A590 and it starts autobooting. Great 34sec later you have W/B, you do
    what you have to do, and (as stated in the A590 manual) before you power
    off run 'PARK' to park the heads of your drive (all 2 of them on an A590)
    in the landing area, which on my Western Digital WD93028, is at cylinder
    782.  
    So far so good.
    
    But,I have noticed that the drive does not like to always autoboot
    after I run the PARK program. Doing a warm reset will clear this
    condition everytime. I have not tried just powering off the Amiga
    without running the PARK program ..just in case I trash the drive.
    So I sort advice from the supplier, who state that they have a
    technically switched on enquiry desk. The response I got, was
    quite amusing,
    
             ' DON'T WORRY MATE, IF IT CRASHES, IT'S STILL IN
               WARRANTY, WE'LL GET YA A NU ONE !!.'
    
    Yeah!!!, but what about my data ?
    
    Several other suppliers were approached, but alas nobody seems to know
    wether I can just switch off the A500 without parking the heads, or I
    must run the PARK program everytime, resulting in twitchy Autobooting.
    
    I even tried Commodore UK. 
    
    	     ' SORRY SIR, THIS IS A SALES DESK WE CAN NOT ANSWER
    	       CUSTOMER TECHNICAL QUERIES. FOR THAT, YOU MUST 
    	       GO THROUGH THE DEALER YOU BROUGHT IT THROUGH TO 
               PLACE YOU ENQUIRY'
    
    Finally. I would be extremely grateful if anybody can help me in this
    minor predicament, i.e.
       
               . the phone number of Western digital
               . the drive spec for a WD93028
    	       . anybody in commodore to speak to about it
               . etc,etc.
    
    
    Thanks in Advance,
    
    Dave

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
4670.1	I don't think I park	CRISTA::LEIMBERGER	I have my marbles now I want yours	`Tue Apr 09 1991 12:58`	12
	Dave , I never give it a thought. I read that you should park the heads before moving the system but nothing more than that. I always assumed that the heads retracted on powerdown. I did read that you want to wait 30 seconds after you issue commands that write to the disk to make sure the process is done. An example of this is after you do a init for example, the system comes back,and 5 seconds later you see the drive light flicker. Let take a survey on this I'll go first I don't park my heads manually. bill
4670.2	Just an annoyance	ULTRA::KINDEL	Bill Kindel @ LTN1	`Tue Apr 09 1991 13:50`	15
	Re .0: > But,I have noticed that the drive does not like to always autoboot > after I run the PARK program. Doing a warm reset will clear this > condition everytime. I have not tried just powering off the Amiga > without running the PARK program ..just in case I trash the drive. My A590 exhibited the same behavior. Not knowing for sure whether the WD93028-X autoparks, I made it a rule to park it before shutting down. On startup, I'd wait for a few seconds and Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga the system to get it to boot. I've since replaced the WD93028 (you want to buy a spare? 8^) with a Quantum 105S, which I know autoparks. It also starts up cleanly when I power up the system.
4670.3	Mine did the same thing	CSC32::K_APPLEMAN		`Tue Apr 09 1991 15:00`	10
	I had a A590 for 1.5 years, never used PARK after the first month (except when moving the drive) and never had as much as a burp out of it. I don't think you really need to park the heads under normal use. Mine did exhibit the same symptoms as yours. Maybe it is some kind of timing problem with the drive taking more time to initialize itself after being parked vs. the time when the cpu wants to look for the boot block. Ken
4670.4	Thanks	VIVIAN::D_VISTUER		`Tue Apr 09 1991 18:01`	21
	Thanks for the advice on the topic. After I wrote the entry, a chat with a friend confirmed what Bill said in .1 . He brought one of the first A590s in the UK (800 pounds) and never once bothered to park the heads on power down. Now either that man has got money to burn or he knew what he was doing. Subsequently, he never once had a problem with it in the 3 years of daily use. I think the statement to park the heads, as made in the user guide, is done so that in the event of a failure Commodore can say to the unfortunate individual, that he/she should of followed procedures, thereby putting the blame squarely on the customer. Anyway I have now decided the park facility will only be used when I move the drive from it's current position, as per older models of PCs. Once again thats for the help and advice. Dave. P.S. Thought for the evening... Why is Commodores after sales service so about as useful as a chocolate fireguard ?.
4670.5		NOTIBM::MCGHIE	Thank Heaven for small Murphys !	`Wed Apr 10 1991 01:55`	16
	Funny I do park my heads (the disk's that is), and normally don't have a problem with it autobooting. I've got an A590 with some type of WD drive. I park the heads primarily as the manual warns that you should do it if you are going to move the system. Well I have a couple of children in the house and there's no telling when something might get moved (rapidly towards the floor that is). Regards Mike p.s. I'd love a higher speed SCSI autoparking drive...
4670.6	It's a feature!	UFHIS::JMASLEN	The wheels fallen off your day yet?!	`Wed Apr 10 1991 07:26`	5
	I have just found the same problem over easter but it only seems to be 'now & then' so I warm boot it.......a feature! The disk is 2 months old! cheers fjeff
4670.7	The Answer to 'Park'	VIVIAN::D_VISTUER		`Wed Apr 10 1991 17:25`	32
	Hello once again, I have had some info regarding Commodore A590 drives that I simply must share with others. This info has come from someone in Commodore, via a middle. It relates to Western Digital versions of the A590. Although it would not surprise me to find that this info also relates to the Epson versions as well. The Hard disk units in these drives are auto parking on powerdown. This can be seen in operation by simply switching off the unit. You will notice the 'HARD DISK' led will flash momentarily as power is removed. This action is in fact the heads doing what they call in the trade 'RTZ' or 'Return To Zero'. The heads are moved off of the data area and into the park zone. An added bonus is the fact that if the drive is idle i.e. no files are being accessed you may see a momentary flash of the 'HARD DISK' led. Again, as above, the heads are being moved off of the data area. This flash should occur after about 3 secs of idle time. I have tried this myself and indeed there is a flash of the led. However, this does not happen all the time. I think it may have something to do with the physical position of the files on the media. This flash is most prominent immediatley after the system has booted and I double-click on the DH0: icon. Hope this info is useful. Regards. Dave.