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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: manicx on January 26, 2004, 09:18:41 AM
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What is the best way to get it partitioned using the full 6GB. I am using a bog standard 3.1 installation and I am going to use SFS. Do I need to apply a patch to see the full 6GBs?
I suppose I have to install WB3.1 first in a partition say of 30MBs, not touch the remaining space, apply some kind of patch (?) to see the full 6GB under HDToolbox, copy SmartFileSystem to l and partition again from scratch?
Never got my hands on any HD larger than 4Gb on the Amiga... Thanks in advance
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Sorry, have no experience with SFS, only the standard FFS and the one of OS3.9. I do know that I need to keep the first partition under 2 Gb, then install the OS3.9 and then to replace the filesystem by the one in SYS:L of the new installed OS3.9, using HDtoolbox of course. Once you do that you can use all the remaining extra space on your harddisc ... does this help ???
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Well, 3.9 fixes the problem with HDs>4Gb. I don't want to use 3.9 on a bog standard A1200 but 3.1 instead. I am sure I can apply a patch while using 3.1 and fix the problem.
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What is the best way to get it partitioned using the full 6GB. I am using a bog standard 3.1 installation and I am going to use SFS. Do I need to apply a patch to see the full 6GBs?
You could try IDEFix. AFAIK it assigns your drives 2 Gig partitions and sidesteps the original 4.3GB limit on 3.1's FFS. There is an aminet patch for FFS to access larger drives that you can apply to your existing setup.
Otherwise SFS might be the answer. It can address partitions 4.3GB or larger so you should be okay there.
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I recall a program called Format64 which did just that.
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Well, stick to SFS.
When I load Workbench3.0 from the original disk, I can access all of my 9,1 GB hdd space. You just need to install the filesystem on the of rdb of your harddrive, and I'm sure you can read about it in the manual.
Allso try downloading hdinst.lha from Aminet. It's a HDToolBox replacement, and it's much better than HDToolBox from the 3.0/3.1 Install disk.
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manicx wrote:
Well, 3.9 fixes the problem with HDs>4Gb. I don't want to use 3.9 on a bog standard A1200 but 3.1 instead. I am sure I can apply a patch while using 3.1 and fix the problem.
3.9 wont run on a standard 1200 anyway IIRC
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Well, with SFS version 1.84 and below you can use up to 8GB on a standard A1200 without any additional patches.
SFS versions 1.87 and above have lost this feature. So you need an additional patch like OS3.9 or IDEfix.
Installing a patch also means the boot partition has to reside below the 4GB limit. Because the patch is installed after the first boot.
Bye,
Thomas
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@HopperJF
Yes it will, but it wont leave a lot of room to move around in ram....
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Thomas wrote:
Well, with SFS version 1.84 and below you can use up to 8GB on a standard A1200 without any additional patches.
SFS versions 1.87 and above have lost this feature. So you need an additional patch like OS3.9 or IDEfix.
Installing a patch also means the boot partition has to reside below the 4GB limit. Because the patch is installed after the first boot.
Bye,
Thomas
Lost this feature? Why? :-x In the SFS website, I read that there is no limit considering partitions! Now I need to install IDEFix as well! :-(
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The 4GB limit is a limitation of the interface between the device driver (scsi.device) and the file system (SFS). The standard interface as used in the Kickstart ROM uses 32bit addresses, so up to 2^32 bytes (4GB) can be addressed.
However, even with the ROM device driver you can use SCSI commands. This is usualy referred to as SCSI-Direct or as HD_SCSICMD. With this interface you can theoretically address 2TB (2^32 blocks of 512 bytes each). Due to a bug the Kickstart driver can only address up to 8GB.
The way to completely overcome the 4GB limit is to introduce a new interface. This has been done by two companies. One introduced TD64 commands, the other introduced NSD. Both require a new scsi.device which is installed by IDEfix97 and OS3.5+.
Well, SFS up to version 1.84 supported all three possibilities: NSD, TD64 and Direct-SCSI. Version 1.87 (or 1.187) dropped Direct-SCSI support. You can read this in the SFS history file.
So with a standard equipped OS3.1 Amiga you can only use 8GB with SFS up to version 1.84 and 4GB with SFS from version 1.87 onwards (I don't remember if 1.85 and 1.86 exist). Only with a patch for scsi.device you can use bigger HDDs.
Things are looking totally different if you don't use the internal IDE bus. For example the Phase5 SCSI controllers all support TD64, so you don't need any patch and can use HDDs of any size with every version of SFS at once. Elbox' FastATA does so either.
I assume there are other SCSI or IDE controllers for which no patch exists and which do not support any 64bit commands, so these won't ever be able to handle HDDs larger than 4GB. However, the SCSI-Direct approach might help here.
Bye,
Thomas
Addition:
Lost this feature? Why? In the SFS website, I read that there is no limit considering partitions! Now I need to install IDEFix as well!
Well, to take your sentence strictly as it is written, it is correct: there is no limit considering *partitions*. The 4GB limit limits the *HDD* size, not the partition size. :-D
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Hmm.. I am in this situation too...
Isn't the easiest solution to use PFS3?
hmm.. wich one is better PFS3 or SFS?
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SFS is free, it supports TD64 and NSD automatically (and SCSI-Direct in earlier versions) and it is still under development.
PFS3 is commecial, it supports either TD64 or Direct-SCSI, depending on which version you install and I don't know if there is still support.
Bye,
Thomas
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So, best bet would be one of the following
a) use previous version of SFS (any links for 1.84?)
b) use current SFS + IDEFix (do I need a special installation option in IDEFix?)
c) Use AFS (?). I have the first version of AFS and I am using it on my A4k
In any case, I want to install the HD in a bog standard A1200 using the INTERNAL 2.5" IDE interface...
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Get SFS 1.84 from here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~hjohn/
I don't know anything about AFS. Because it is old, it probably don't support anything for above 4GB. Get PFS instead, it is compatible.
Bye,
Thomas