Large SCSI HD's under OS 3.9

[Thomas]

There is not much you can do wrong. After you unpacked the archive, there is a file called SmartFileSystem. This is the only file needed. There is no specific place where it should be copied to, a good place is the L directory. But it is not needed there, you can as well delete it after you installed it using HDToolbox.

Next you fire up HDToolbox, go to "Partition drive" and click on "Add/Update". You should see a list of installed file systems, probably FastFileSystem is the only one for you. Just click on Add, choose the SmartFileSystem file and make sure you overtype the suggested DosType of 43465300 by the one which belongs to SFS (53465300). That's the "installation" of SFS so far. To create a checkpoint you could save changes and leave HDToolbox now. Nothing should have changed.

Now you choose one partition you want to change first. Create a backup of all contents. Run HDToolbox, go to "Partition drive" again. Select the partition you want to change and click on "Change". On the top there is a button which lets you choose different file systems. Currently it should read "DOS\3" or "FFS (intl)". Click on it and choose "SFS\0". Click on ok, save changes and leave HDToolbox. It will tell you that all data on the partition will be lost and that you have to reboot. Commit both questions.

After the reboot the partition you changed appears as unformatted. If you now recognise that it was the wrong partition, you can just run HDToolbox again and change it back to FFS. Then all data will come back magically. So nothing to fear yet.

Given that you chose the right partition, you now do a quick-format and copy all data back. From then on you can work with it as you did before. The only difference is that low-level programs like ReOrg and DiskSalv no longer work with this partition. There are SFS-specific programs for these tasks instead.

It's a little bit tricky to change the boot partition, because you have to have another drive to boot from while the boot partition appears to be unformatted. E.g. the OS3.9 emergency disk, the OS3.1 install disk or another bootable partition on the HDD.

Bye,
Thomas

[Thomas]

Is there an 'Undelete' util. for SFS?

SFS maintains a directory which contains all deleted files, so you don't need a special utility for that. I don't remember how it's called. With PFS3 it's called ".deldir".

I just can't afford to screw this up

Well, as I said before, it is not so easy to screw *everything* up. Usually you touch only one partition at a time and up to the point when you format the changed partition, changes can be reverted quite easily. However, before you format anything you should be quite sure what you do. Because after the format it is difficult to get anything back. Even if it's quick-format.

if something goes wrong, I don't have the money to fix it

IMHO, money probably won't help you. AFAIK there are no professional data recoverers in the Amiga market. And if you ask general data recovery comanies, you probably have to sell your car or your house to afford the job.

Better ask me, I'll help for free :-)

Bye,
Thomas