d8b Data Cable

[juanbanzai]

Well, here's where things stand now:

I tried every possible MBR editor I could find in my arsenal here, but outside of making the primary partition of the HD active (where the d8b OS files are located) , I don't see anywhere else I could edit an MBR to point to the PME.sys file as the boot file. I keep getting the "No operating system installed" error every time I tried to start the d8b up.

OK... so there's no operating system installed. With nothing to lose but more time, I installed DOS 6.22 on the drive... which went in without any problems. However, when I take the install disks out of the floppy drive and restart the d8b, the machine posts, then it gets stuck on "Verifying DMI Pool Data."

Thinking that perhaps DOS doesn't like the BIOS settings, I reset the BIOS back to factory and tried booting again. No luck. So then I tried to take a look at the MBR that DOS may have created by connecting the HD to my IDE to USB adapter and viewing the drive on my laptop. There's no DOS directory ANYWHERE on the drive. I looked for a partition that the DOS install disks may have created but there's nothing there. I don't get it. Three floppies with DOS 6.22 on them and I watched them get installed but there's no trace of it anywhere on the HD.

I'm afraid that this is getting way beyond my pay grade now.

Aaron

[Phil.c]

Another option just to get it working, what about buying a 32gb HD with v5.1 installed, I've seen them advertised.

[juanbanzai]

A good option for sure… but at this point it seems like such a trivial problem/error that I’d hate to give up when I feel very close to a solution. I’ll just wait to see if someone smarter than me can point me in the right direction. At this point, it seems like the MBR is my issue, but I just can’t figure out how to solve it.

Since the thread is getting long and I'm still not at a solution, I want to summarize what's happened so far.

After multiple tries of trying to install a replacement hard drive in the d8b, I found it was the original motherboard that was causing the issue of the HD not being detected by the BIOS. Swapped out the motherboard and the unit boots as it should. Checked the BIOS settings against the documentation for the motherboard found on the forum.

Based on instructions found from this forum, I formatted the new HD to a FAT32 system and partitioned the drive to 30gb.

I created three floppies with Mackie OS3 on them. I also got the service pack and the patch loaded onto floppies.

I inserted disk 1 of the OS3 install and booted the d8b. After the post screen, the floppy loads and shows that it will install OS3. After a few seconds, the screen goes black and a green asterisk appears in the upper right corner. I waited several minutes for anything to happen, but nothing did. My only choice is to restart and try again. The results were always the same... nothing. Oh! I made sure that "format: on" was typed into the tools.ini file.

I got a copy of the image of OS5.1 ready to go as an alternative way to install ANY OS at this point. I used the AOMEI partition program to delete the partition previously installed on the new HD and then created a new 30gb partition; reformatted to FAT32.

Used AOMEI Backupper to restore the image of OS5.1 on the HD. All the files and folders are there. Rebooted the d8b and after it posts, I get a message saying "Operating System Not Found."

One more time to condition the new HD and then do a full install of DOS 6.22 so I can try to install OS3 from the floppies again. DOS went in without a problem. However, when I reboot the d8b, the unit crashes on the "Verifying DMI Pool Data" message. Nothing happens beyond that. The unit is completely locked up.

And that's where I'm at today. I can't thank you enough for the continued assistance. I feel it's something stupid that's causing all of these problems... I just can't put my finger on it.

Aaron

[Old School]

I believe the problem here is the creation of a 30gb partition, even though the motherboard will recognize the drive this way, it's just not what the Mackie OS installer wants to see. I suggest you get a 30gb (or less) ide drive and see if she won't fire up.

Have a blessed day,
Mike

[Y-my-R]

This still very much sounds like a formatting problem to me.

Other than cloning a drive with an intact Mackie OS incl. a correctly written boot sector, the only way I'm aware of to format a drive for use with the D8B OS, is by adding the "format:on" flag to the tools.ini file on the first install floppy disc for the D8B.
Not sure what went wrong during your cloning attempts... but the symptom in the end still sounds as if the data may have been copied, but the drive wasn't written in a way where it would be bootable. So, either a non-bootable OS drive was cloned, or something wasn't done right, when the clone was written to a new drive (e.g. wrong boot record method selected or something).

Then you put that floppy in the D8B (with the CF card or harddrive installed on IDE1-Master), start it, and when it prompts you to format the drive, let it do it.

NOW you could simply copy the files from another D8B drive on there (e.g. by connecting the CF card to a computer) and it will boot after that.

The formatting step is ever-critical, though. A DOS 6.2.2 formatted drive (or FAT16 or FAT32, or whathaveyou) will NOT work just like that, from all I understand, and you will get a variation of bootup issues, similar to what you've been describing.

I'm not sure what's so special about the way the D8B formats these drives... but I'd recommend to stop trying to get around using the D8Bs method of formatting the drive, since that didn't get you any closer... and just do the "official" drive-format from floppy, as it was meant to be done.

What Mike just pointed out also makes sense, though... not sure if a 32GB PARTITION is the ticket, if the drive is much larger (is it?). But as long as the D8B BIOS recognizes the drive, I think that should then no longer be the problem. If recognized, and then formatted via "format:on" from the first install floppy, the D8B should afterwards be able to boot from that drive (once the OS files were copied to it).

Best of luck!

[juanbanzai]

Thanks for the reply. I'm SURE it's a boot issue and that's what's killing me. I need to get out of trying to think that this is a DOS machine running Mackie OS, when in reality it's a Mackie OS that's running the entire machine.

The BIOS on the new motherboard I installed definitely sees the new HD. It's a Western Digital 40g that actually reads 37.2g or something to that effect. When I brought the d8b home, there were stickers all over the power supply saying NOT to use a drive or partition larger than 32g because the BIOS won't read it but it DOES. Again, this d8b was in use for many years before we replaced it 5 years ago. But I also remember reading in the forums that you need to keep the drive size down to 30g or less. The failed drive I pulled out of the power supply unit was a 20 gig WD. The collection of Mackie drives I found in the shop (all failed) were all Western Digital Protégé at 20g each.

So if the formatting is the issue at hand, should I just wipe the new drive completely; no partition, no format... then try installing OS3 with the floppies again? I made sure the tools.ini file had the "format:on" command on the last line.

When I installed the image of OS5.1, wouldn't AOMEI Backupper restore everything from the source drive including any formatting or boot files necessary to start the OS? The reason I'm asking this is because I had installed DOS 6.22 on the d8b drive, but when I restored the OS5.1 image to the drive, it wiped out all traces of DOS and what I was left with seemed to be a dedicated Mackie drive.

I'll head back to the shop to see if I can find a 20g drive but that might be tough. I went through 6 of them on Friday and all were dead.

Thanks again for the help.

Aaron

[doktor1360]

Thanks for the reply. I'm SURE it's a boot issue and that's what's killing me. I need to get out of trying to think that this is a DOS machine running Mackie OS, when in reality it's a Mackie OS that's running the entire machine.

In actuality, the MackieOS is a shell that sits atop their custom Windows 95 implementation - MS-DOS at the heart - and it's old AF. IIRC, this has topic has taken thorough beating before somewhere on this forum, along w the hard disk capacity / formatting included... segues into CF cards, etc. But I digress...

The formatting utility included with the D8B's operating system is only gonna format 8GB of the disk, if memory serves. Most of the hard disks, and I have a few on hand, that are 'official' Mackie stamped drives are of 20GB capacity (Seagate & Maxtor). At the time of manufacture (late 90's), they were plentiful. If I remember correctly, you might be able to alter a 32-40GB hard disk by some manufacturers to be 'recognized' by the system BIOS by jumpers (cylinders/heads). But for most of what I just posted here, I'm scraping off brain cells off to even remember any of it...

Bottom line, if you're prepping any drive/media for installation (assuming the drive issue has been mitigated), I'm a big FDSIK fan... mount the disk on a reader, and bring it up in FDISK at the command line. Delete any/all partitions, set the boot flag as active (usually a 1) write it to the boot record. Then remove it from the reader, install it into the D8B's host and go about the business of installing the operating system (using whichever method you choose)...

As the usual caveat, if any of this is ultimately erroneous, I fully stand corrected...

Of course, you knew this was coming, so here it is:
[Standard Management Disclaimer] - "Your actual mileage may vary..."

Advance apologies for the waste of anyone's personal or professional bandwidth...

[juanbanzai]

Well... for the first time since I began this journey, I've FINALLY made some progress beyond discovering that the original motherboard that came with the d8b was faulty. I found a brand new, unmolested 30g drive in the shop. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on it. I put it in the unit then checked my first install floppy for OS3. Oh man... am I an idiot. The tools.ini file had the addition of the "format:on" command... only I typed it in as "format: on"! DOH! There obviously shouldn't be a space in there. I guess I was used to typing in Linux.

Anyway, OS3 successfully installed on the new drive. I was able to see the format and insert disk 2 prompts on the mixing board's display and all looked great... finally! However, when I saw the message that said everything had been installed correctly and I needed to remove the floppy and reboot... once I hit the OK button, the screen went blank and absolutely nothing happened. The PC never rebooted on its own. All I saw on the screen was a blinking green asterisk. When I did a manual reboot but shutting the unit off then back on, the BIOS posted then I immediately got a error saying "Copyright 2000 MDI, FILE NOT FOUND, BOOT ERROR."

Now that ain't fair!

But guess what? When I checked the BIOS for the HD settings, it was set for LARGE rather than LBA. Once I changed it, the d8b BOOTED!!!!

The board lives! Now I have to feed audio to it to see how it sounds! Stay tuned.

Aaron