Weird Hardisk problem...

[Pat the Cat]

I can think of 3, maybe 4 possible causes.

1) You haven't set max transfer rate of the drive to 0X1FE00 in Hard Disk Toolbox (necessary to limit data length in a single transfer, it doesn't affect speed).

2) The Fast File System. This is notorious for "validating", ie detected a problem with the hard disk and spending hours and days trying to fix it. The best solution is to update the file system to PFS3AIO filesystem on the drive, which meanS copying that filesystem it your HDToolbox floppy and starting from scratch on making partitions.

Part of the problem here is the way that FFs updates a file - it can open a new copy of the file, but fail to save any data to it, which is why you get a file length of -4 on the newly created file. PFs3 makes a whole new file, deletes the old one, then renames the new one, which is a much safer way of changing an existing file.

3) Malware causing a fake file to be written to the hard drive. Do you run a virus checker at all?

The other thing could be using Kickstart 3 Rom with that accelrator. It's not ideal because you have to add most of the memory after Workbench has started. Unlikely to be that in this case.

EDIT: Kind of useful if you are trying to do 1 and 2, look up these;-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL8etprxj4E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckL5xYQjqLo

[Pat the Cat]

@Pat the Cat
Thanks for you suggestions.

I have some questions:
I have 3.1.4 roms installed and the i'm using the FFS v.46.20 that came with 3.1.4. Should i replace with the PS3AIO instead?
The max transfer rate of the drive is already set to 0X1FE00.

You need about 1MB of RAM per gigabyte of hard disk partition in order to validate it with FFS. It can take hours for a drive to validate with any version of FFS.

PFS3 doesn't have the issue. The AIO version works on all processors and is generic. But it is limited to a max partition size just over 100GB per partition. I do advise you to try it, it's a bit of a faff to set up but you do get more reliability and less faff using the Amiga that way.

I read that ACA1232 with amiga 1200 could have timming issues (http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACA1232).
Can be this also the source of the problem ?

Thanks

It's not going to help. Different A1200 motherboard revisions need different mods, for a Rev 1 it's usually just taking a couple of components off (or making sure they are already off). Rev 2 is more complex.

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/A1200_Mobo_fix/a1200_mobo_fix.html

Be aware - some software (including games) only work correctly in installed and writing to the first 4GB of a drive.

This could be just software not happy about being run in a big partition, the filesystem is making it more obvious.

3.1.4 fixes Workbench for working with big hard drives, but it doesn't fix old software not liking big partitions.
 
Not a bad plan to stick with a 4GB partition at the start, just use it for Workbench and installed games rather than WHDLoads, adfs and most applications (shapeshifter and PCTask also like being in the first 4gb).

You can still get problems if the first 4gb is more than half empty too. Old software trying to install from old floppies with old versions of the Installer.