Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Everblue on January 27, 2009, 05:24:37 PM
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I have an Amiga 1200 with a 60GB HDD - I had previously installed a few SFS partitions and all of a sudden a couple just 'disappeared'. I tried to create them again, but they won't appear on Workbench even though they are visible in HDInstaller software.
I have subsequently created a 500MB Partition in FFS and another two 3.5 GB FFS partitions and all seemed fine.
Suddenly today, my 500MB partition suddenly became "NDOS" and I had to format it again :(
Any idea what the heck is going on?
Thanks!
E'Blue
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Do you let iBrowse cache thousands of small files to your HD?
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Are you using a patched scsi.device which allows you to write data beyond the 4GB barrier?
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moto
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Hmmmm not that I know of. I cant create partitions larger than 4gb.
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It doesn't matter how big they are. What matters is whether they extend more than 4GB in to the drive. You said you are using 0.5GB FFS and 2*3.5GB SFS. That means you're using 7.5GB of the drive. If you haven't taken steps to ensure your scsi.device is able to write beyond the first 4GB of the drive then when it needs to do so, it will start writing to the beginning of the drive instead. That overwrites the partition table, hence the disappearing partitions.
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moto
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Oh crud :( - makes perfect sense.
Using workbench 3.1, how can I fix it to go beyond the 8gigs limit?
Cheers :)
E'Blue
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Using 3.1, you can install IDEfix (http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/IDEfix97) to patch scsi.device to allow it to write beyond 4GB. You also need to ensure that any partitions which cross (or are beyond) the 4GB barrier don't use 3.1's FFS - so SFS will be fine.
Once you have done all that, it might be wise to run check4gb (http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/check4gb) as this will ensure that your configuration is safe.
One final point to make is that OS3.9 comes with an updated scsi.device and FFS which does all this for you.
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moto
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Wow thanks a lot for the info... So just to double check I understood:
1. I create a small partition for Workbench 3.1 (100megs)
2. Install Workbench 3.1
3. Install IDEFIX
4. Create partitions of any size, including >4gib
5. Fill them with goodies :)
Thanks!
E'Blue
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Spot on. Just a couple of clarifications:
0. Install SFS in the RDB of the drive
1. I create a small SFS partition for Workbench 3.1 (100megs)
2. Install Workbench 3.1
3. Install IDEFIX
4. Create SFS partitions of any size, including >4gib
5. Run check4gb to ensure everything is ok
6. Fill them with goodies :)
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Thanks a lot!
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Still one important step is missing:
0. Install SFS in the RDB of the drive
1. I create a small SFS partition for Workbench 3.1 (100megs)
2. Install Workbench 3.1
3. Install IDEFIX
3a. edit s:startup-sequence and replace c:idefix by c:loadide reset
4. Create SFS partitions of any size, including >4gib
5. Run check4gb to ensure everything is ok
6. Fill them with goodies :)
If you leave out step 3a, IDEfix does nothing for you.
Note that IDEfix is shareware which nags with registration requesters. There is a free solution, too, but it is more complicated to install. The files needed are:
http://os.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=en&page=37
http://aminet.net/package/util/sys/patchstrip
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/FFS43.19_patch
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/LoadModule
Bye,
Thomas
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Thanks Thomas!
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I forgot about the loadreset :oops: I haven't used IDEfix for years though.
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moto
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Maybe I don't read this right, but..
Install SFS in the RDB of the drive??
I think I have missed something!! :-?
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taunusand wrote:
Maybe I don't read this right, but..
Install SFS in the RDB of the drive??
I think I have missed something!! :-?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Rigid_Disk_Block
HDtoolbox has an option to install a filesystem in the RDB. Just read the guide that comes with SFS package.
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I also have a question regarding this procedure. ;-)
When using IDEfix, do I also have to use the CD filesystem that is included in the package or can I choose a different one (such as AmiCDFS)?
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I thought HDToolbox always did this.
SFS = Standard File System ??
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Colani1200 wrote:
I also have a question regarding this procedure. ;-)
When using IDEfix, do I also have to use the CD filesystem that is included in the package or can I choose a different one (such as AmiCDFS)?
You can use any CDFS you want. The IDEfix patch will still apply to scsi.device and fix >4GB support.
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moto
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taunusand wrote:
I thought HDToolbox always did this.
SFS = Standard File System ??
No, SFS = SmartFileSystem. It's not installed as standard. If you don't install it in the RDB then the Amiga won't be able to see the SFS partitions.
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moto
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I have done exactly as stated below.
I have created an 8gig partition using HDInstTools, and check4gb reports its size correctly. Theproblem is that when I double click the partition's icon in Workbench itstates that there are 3134 megs free, when there should be 8g. What am I missing?
Thanks
E;Blue
Thomas wrote:
Still one important step is missing:
0. Install SFS in the RDB of the drive
1. I create a small SFS partition for Workbench 3.1 (100megs)
2. Install Workbench 3.1
3. Install IDEFIX
3a. edit s:startup-sequence and replace c:idefix by c:loadide reset
4. Create SFS partitions of any size, including >4gib
5. Run check4gb to ensure everything is ok
6. Fill them with goodies :)
If you leave out step 3a, IDEfix does nothing for you.
Note that IDEfix is shareware which nags with registration requesters. There is a free solution, too, but it is more complicated to install. The files needed are:
http://os.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=en&page=37
http://aminet.net/package/util/sys/patchstrip
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/FFS43.19_patch
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/LoadModule
Bye,
Thomas
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Oh, I think I have made a big mistake then :roll:
Thanks for the info!
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@Everblue
Theproblem is that when I double click the partition's icon in Workbench itstates that there are 3134 megs free, when there should be 8g. What am I missing?
Workbench 3.1 doesn't understand partitions larger than 4GB. Basically when the math overflows 32bit it gets total size and free size wrong. In workbench use this is no problem, other than that the free storage figures are "off".
Sometimes some "smart" applications (often game HDD installers) perform storage availability checks and refuse to write files to disk if they think the disk is full. This happens when the free storage gets close to x * 4GB + small_amount. If this happens, just write some dummy file to the disk so that the free size (as reported by workbench 3.1 for example) wraps to <4GB again. Once the installer has completed you can delete the dummy file.
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So, if I try to copy copy filies in the HDD, once it goes over the 3gigs, will it give me an error that the HDD is full, or it will copy everything regardless?
Thanks!
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@Everblue
So, if I try to copy copy filies in the HDD, once it goes over the 3gigs, will it give me an error that the HDD is full, or it will copy everything regardless?
It depends on the application. Most (including Workbench and Copy CLI-command) do not perform any "is the disk becoming full?" -checks but rather trust the filesystem to report an error once full. As such they will work just fine with any filesystem size (even though Workbench reports the filesystem total and free capacity wrong).
If the application does perform these checks, it usually depends on the age: Older apps mostly fail in this fashion (back then no one expected HDDs sizes to grow over 4GB...). New applications should not have this problem.
Anyhow, if you do get the problem you can use Workbench or Copy command to "workaround" the issue as described in the earlier post.