Normally, on all Amiga systems, whether emulated or not, a unique ID is associated to each screen mode. This ID is used, for example, to open the initial screen when the system boots. The default screen mode (and ID) is usually set with the Amiga ScreenMode Prefs. The list of available IDs is the result of the mounted hardware and of the monitor files contained in Devs/Monitors on the Amiga system disk.

Amiga Display IDs are not always portable from one computer (or emulation environment) to the other. Trying to use a configuration that booted well on one system may result in a system that does not boot any more when used on different hardware (because the original display IDs may be unavailable). To make a practical example, a hardfile (HDF file) created from the hard disk of a "real" Amiga computer with a graphics card and mounted in an emulation configuration may result in the emulated system booting with a black screen, or even crashing.

 To solve this problem:

• Move all monitor files except PAL, NTSC and UAEgfx (if present) from Devs/Monitors to Storage/Monitors on the Amiga system disk
• Delete the "screenmode.prefs" file containing the system default screen settings, which are stored inside the "Prefs/Env-Archive/Sys" directory of the Amiga system disk

If this cannot be done because the system has already been moved to the new hardware or emulation configuration, the approach changes depending on whether the Amiga files are on hardfiles or on the Windows file system.

To mount a hardfile without booting from it, add it to an existing configuration, e.g. right-click Amiga 4000 or Workbench 3.X and select Edit, then in the Media tab click on Add... Within the configuration editor, make sure that the boot priority is set to -128, so that the system won't boot from the disk that has the bad display IDs. Then start the configuration, and apply the changes on the additional disk.

If the Amiga files are hosted on the Windows file system, rather than inside a hardfile, select Open Folder/Amiga Files from the File menu, and then browse to the files. By default, the contents of volumes like System and Work as used in the Workbench 3.X environment is located inside Shared/dir.

Additional Information

The following article explains how to programmatically find the "Amiga Files" directory on Windows, independently of an Amiga Forever installation:

• Use of "Amiga Files" in Amiga Forever for Windows

The following article explains how to programmatically find the Amiga Forever installation directories on Windows:

• Locating the Installation under Windows

This article contains additional information about the ROM and operating system versions included in Amiga Forever:

• ROM and Operating System Files in Amiga Forever