Designed By Malc Jennings 1999-2000
HOW TO Install Workbench On A HDF
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Introduction To Tutorial

Assuming you have previously created either the HDF (hard drive file) created earlier in the tutorials or you have already created a HDF file before this tutorital will show you how to install Workbench (both native and retail) onto your newly created HDF.

Once we have finished this you will be able to boot from your HDF file instead of using those floppy disks.


Requirements

You will need the following to follow this tutorial:

  • WinUAE (any version)
  • Workbench (Retail)
  • OR Any ADF with some form of Workbench (native)

Once you have all of the above proceed to the guide.


Guide Retail

Let's start by looking at the retail edition of Workbench - the one you get with your Amiga, which you probably downloaded from the internet. Follow these steps:

  • Launch WinUAE
  • Select the ALE configuration (the one with the HDF) and click LOAD
  • Now insert your Workbench ADFs in the Floppies tab
  • Click OK to start the emulation

This is really simple, all you need to do is drag and drop all of the files from your Workbench ADF to the Hard drive, to do this:

  • Double click your Workbench disk
  • Double click your Hard Drive
  • Select your Workbench disk's window
  • Right click and from the Window pull down menu select Show - All Files
  • Now right click again and select "Select Contents" from the Window menu
  • Hold Shift & Drag the files & folders over to your HD

See the illustration below:

This is enough for most systems although you are better finding a copy of updated libraries as the ones that came with Workbench have since been updated, check Aminet for updates. These should be placed in your Libs folder.


Guide Native

This one is especially for those of you that don't have the original Workbench disks and can't find them anywere. The Native version of Workbench has many valuable files missing such as important run-time libraries and system files so you may run into problems later but - hey it's worth a shot right?.

  • Launch WinUAE
  • Select the ALE configuration (the one with the HDF) and click LOAD
  • Now insert your ADF that boots into Workbench
  • Click OK to start the emulation
First of all we will need to copy the most important folders accross to the HD so:
  • Double click your Boot disk
  • Double click your Hard Drive
  • Select your Boot disk's window
  • Right click and from the Window pull down menu select Show - All Files
  • Now select the C folder, press SHIFT and select DEVS, LIBS and L (if it exists) and drag them accross to the HD
  • Press your right mouse button and select Icons - Make New Folder, enter S as the name and press return.

Now, the startup-sequence on the boot disk is obviously not designed for Workbench use only so we are going to make a new startup-sequence. You don't have access to the Workbench text editor so we will need to ALT-TAB back into Windows and open Notepad to make our startup sequence for the new HD.

Type the following in Notepad - exclude the bullets:

  • ASSIGN ENV: RAM:
  • ASSIGN T: RAM:
  • LOADWB
  • ENDCLI

To save the file click Save As from the file menu and select All Files and enter startup-sequence as your file name, do not include an extension. Now ALT-TAB back into WinUAE and in that AmigaShell we mentioned earlier, type:

  • DH1:
  • COPY STARTUP-SEQUENCE DF0:S

Note: DH1: is the name of your PC hard drive.

If all goes well you can reboot the emulated Amiga by holding left and right ALT keys followed by CTRL. Remember to remove the ADF images from the floppies tab, press F12 and EJECT on all of the disk drives. Your emulated hard drive should boot and load Workbench.


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