... Nah. The wrong version wouldn't boot at all.
I still reckon it's a buggy version 3 controller chip causing the issue.
On smaller (<128MB) drives nobody noticed, but when bigger drives arrived, people started having these sort of problems.
Even with V7 ROMs, there's a size limitation.
2.20 * Why does HDToolBox limit partitions on the A2091/A590 to 4 GB?
This happens because even the latest version 7.0 ROM for the A2091/A590 controller does not support partitions greater than 4GB.
HDToolBox will automatically limit the allocable drive capacity to 4GB. This is to protect users who may not have a file system supporting "SCSI Direct Transfer", or who don't know how to enable this SCSI Direct option with the FastFileSystem.
However, if you feel confident that you have both, then you can override this protection by setting "LIMIT_4GBYTE=OFF" in the HDToolBox's Tool Types. Another option is to purchase the latest version of the third-party GuruROM upgrade for the A2091/A590.
From;-
http://aminet.net/docs/help/AmigaOS_3.2-FAQ.txt
I think you are right and what has been in my head now for a the last few days.. I have tried every trick I can think of from back in the day when I was with Commodore to the stuff you all have suggested. That only leaves one possible option. The 7.x and higher are supposed to support 4 GB+ but there is a bug that is not allowing the copy process to complete properly. In some ways, it is almost like it is too fast copying files so that it is not able to validate or clear its buffer quickly enough on each file.
It acts like it gets into a buffer lock sometimes, other times it loops until the file increases the size to fill the entire HD.
I have been reducing the size of the partitions. Down to 2 GB now and still seeing the problem. Ironically, on the other machine that has older slow mechanical HD's, I have seen this as well but rarely and only if I try to copy a large amount of files at the same time.
But I don't think the size limit is the problem. This HD is 540 meg, I also have a 270meg and a 4 gb hd partitioned into two 2gb partitions.. I am using 2 gb CF cards if I also plug those in. I Have 3 sets of 7.0 roms, a 6.6 and an 8.0 version (unreleased). I have four A2091 cards. All exhibit this issue under OS 3.2 and the 3.2 kickstart installed. If I drop to 2.04, I have to use smaller partitions but this problem disappears.