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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: McVenco on October 11, 2006, 09:15:46 PM

Title: More SFS issues
Post by: McVenco on October 11, 2006, 09:15:46 PM

I've got a 4.3 GB Hitachi harddrive which I've been trying to install for about a month now, but I can't seem to get it right. I've tried to partition the drive, using HDInstTools under Workbench 3.0 and also with HDToolBox under OS3.9 (I have 3.1 roms, but no 3.1 disks), and it all seems to go well, but apparently something does not work properly.

I want to have 3 partitions, however only DH0 and DH1 show up on the workbench screen. DH2 doesn't seem to be anywhere (although it's visible in the early startup screen). Same goes with 4 partition (only first 2 are visible).
When I make 1 partition, then SFSFormat gives a guru when executed.

I seriously have no idea what this could be. The drive is correctly recognised by both HDInstTools and HDToolBox, so I guess the problem lies elsewhere...

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: amigagr on October 11, 2006, 09:32:59 PM

do you use sfs 1.254 (http://strohmayer.org/sfs/files/SFS_1.254_68k.lha) or the 2.x version? 1.254 is more stable. do you have set all partitions to been active? finaly in the old guide of sfs is writen clear enough to format the partitions with the workbench format tool. i do it with all my disks and partitions and have no problem. have you set correct the id of sfs in hdtool you use?

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: McVenco on October 11, 2006, 09:38:36 PM

I've got 1.236 here. I've copied the correct ID numbers from SFS to HDToolBox.

But about formatting: when you use the standard WB format, you format the drive as FFS, and not SFS, right? (at least, that's what I recall being told in an earlier topic)

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: Robert17 on October 11, 2006, 09:43:05 PM

If you just go format from workbench, the FastFileSystem option should be greyed out, since you've got SFS on the drive, it will format as SFS. I've had trouble before with SFS not showing partitions, I used OS 3.9 though, so I went Sys:System/Format and selected said partition from there, not sure if you can do that on 3.0 though..

I've found 1.236 to be very stable though.

Robert

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: stopthegop on October 11, 2006, 10:10:15 PM

I had a similar problem not long ago.  I was doing a full format on the partitions, and on each boot only some of the partitions would appear.  I don't know if this is *The* answer you're looking for, but my setup started behaving properly when I used a "quick" format of the partitions rather than a full format.  

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: McVenco on November 05, 2006, 12:24:49 PM

:bump: (sort of...)

I've tried once again to get my harddisk installed. Still, the last partition does not show up on the workbench screen, although it IS visible in the early startup menu.

Example: If I make 2 partitions, only 1 shows up, if I make 5 partitions, only 4 are visible in Workbench. When I try to SFSFormat the last partition, it gives me a guru.

I'm not getting desperate yet, but I'm getting more and more clueless on what the hell could be wrong.

To answer the obvious questions: I use KS/WB 3.1, HDToolsBox from 3.1, SFS version 1.236 and the standard IDE controller on the A1200 mainboard. HDInstTools gives me the same problem, so that's not it...

Anyone? Pwetty pwease? :-(

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: Framiga on November 05, 2006, 01:19:37 PM

try to reduce your HD total size under 4GB.

Otherwise you have to use a NSD compliant scsi.device (IdeFIX or the NSDpatch over Aminet)

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: McVenco on November 05, 2006, 02:22:26 PM

Reducing the size to <4GB works alright, but I'd like to use the whole drive, and maybe even a bigger a drive in the future, so settling for <4GB is not really what I want (it would be sufficient at the moment though...)

How can I use another scsi.device?

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: Framiga on November 05, 2006, 02:29:49 PM

as already said live with 300-400K less "without scsi.device patches" or install IdeFix97 shareware (http://aminet.net/disk/misc/IDEfix97.lha) or NSDPatch (http://aminet.net/disk/misc/NSDPatch43_20.lha) from Aminet.

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: stopthegop on November 05, 2006, 04:09:07 PM

Are you defining your partitions in terms of sectors or in terms of megabytes?  

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: Erol on November 05, 2006, 04:41:00 PM

http://www.gregdonner.org/os39faq/installtips.html

Have a read on this site,  i know theres alot of guys using SFS BUT,  try FFS or PFS3 see if you get the same results when using auto set-up of the partitions.

Title: Re: More SFS issues
Post by: McVenco on November 05, 2006, 05:39:45 PM

Quote

stopthegop wrote:
Are you defining your partitions in terms of sectors or in terms of megabytes?  

In sectors/cylinders. HDToolBox can't specify a certain number of megabytes, only by dragging the sizebar.

Quote

Erol wrote:
http://www.gregdonner.org/os39faq/installtips.html

Have a read on this site,  i know theres alot of guys using SFS BUT,  try FFS or PFS3 see if you get the same results when using auto set-up of the partitions.

I'll give that a go then. I've made a 150MB Workbench partition, and will try to partition the rest after I installed OS3.9.

Thanks for the help so far...