Hi

I am in the hunt for an Amiga 1060 5.25" DOS disk. I have no way of creating the disk without the 1060 DOS disk so having an image or the software isn't going to help. I cannot mount the drives. The sidecar is working as is the 1010 but they just give an error of non-system disks so I cannot get past this without an actual 5.25". So any help would be appreciated

Commodore Sidecar BIOS 2.06

LPT 1 at 0378h
RAM 256 KBytes OK

Janus Handler V2.20
found at segment E000

Non-System disk or disk error
Replace and press any key


http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz548.htm

Many thanks

scuzz

@scuzz

I have a sidecar and a bridgeboard and the disks. I'm keeping the disks. Sorry. On the Amiga side, the sidecar and bridgeboard use the same disks. There could be some early sidecar disks, since it came first. On the PC side any bootable DOS 3 disk will work. I haven't tried anything past DOS 3, maybe higher DOS's will work. Since the sidecar and early bridgeboards didn't have memory managers you couldn't get more than 640 bytes. Maybe there were memory cards with drivers. I don't know. I think there are some drivers you need if you want to establish communication between the Amiga and DOS side. If you are just trying to boot just find a bootable disk. The problem you're having is the disks you're using don't contain the boot code or they are bad disks.

The problem with the Amiga bridgeboards is speed and memory limitations. Real PC's changed so fast and the bridgeboard couldn't keep up. The whole concept was doomed from the start. They are a kind of fun and interesting toy is all.

Last edited by thinkchip on 06-May-2017 at 03:04 PM.

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X5000 / microA1(OS4.1 FE U2) / CodeBench / Imagine / Blender
Lightwave 2019 / Microsoft Visual C++

@thinkchip

Sadly the Amiga 1000 or Sidecar or both are busted. I have been at this all day to be honest. The problems of simply creating a disk has been so challenging. The 1.3 disk will not be recognised by the 1000 no matter how many version copies I create. And then if I use the later version of the PC install I run out of RAM. And the connection to the sidecar is so hit and miss. I have tried reconnecting the sidecar so many times.

Sadly though when I do run the PC software using a 1.2 boot I get a window but there is no response from the keyboard. I cannot see and drives from the Sidecar on the Workbench. I have tried various DOS disks from 3 on wards plus I created a PC disk for the A1010... but the problem is I just don't understand how the emulator works.

I have done all that was said in the manual and the disk help and trust me I have done this a hundred times. But the communication with the Sidecar has worked a couple of times with the disk activity and the message not a DOS disk but there is no response from the keyboard on the PC side. To be honest I have no idea what the PC side should look like . I have run in colour and get a window with prefs etc but the cursor is just a flashing horizontal line with no letter or arrow or any input I can give from the Amiga.

Worst now is that the Amiga and Sidecar have stopped talking to each other completely. I boot the kickstart and then the sidecar boot and there is no reaction from the sidecar.. no sound and no disk activity on the 5.25". Then when I am in 1.2 as I am unable to create a 1.3 disk for the sidecar I click the PC drawer and then the mono or the colour and it doesn't recognise the Janus handler, no RAM check and no disk check... Just an empty box with nothing written in it. There is something very wrong sadly.

I think now the DOS disk is the least of my issues.

I have walked away from this for a while. It is difficult knowing what is wrong when there could be so much wrong. Had it been just the Amiga and the OS for the Amiga thats easy to sort. What bewilders me at the moment is the emulator because I have no experience of what it looks like, how it should work, how they talk to each other. Also the sidecar has various dip switches and settings which may have been set for someone elses kit. I have no idea how the sidecar was originally configured.

Sorry babbling. Kinda struggling. I need a break from it and then I'll go back in when I'm more refreshed.

I have DOS 3.10 as the earliest 5.25" I have but that didn't work. But then nothing has so far. I am not seeing anything on the monitor that suggests I have made contact with the sidecar. Feels like an 'x' parrot at the moment.

Never mind.

scuzz