More HD Trouble ;-(

[Piru]

There seems to be a mixed reaction about wether to QUICK FORMAT or FULL FORMAT the partitons.

No, there isn't.

Always quickformat.

[Piru]

@Framiga

If you have some troubles with PFS and SFS, it is better to do a fullformat.

That is not true. From filesystem's perspective it makes no difference if the partition is filled with random data or DOS+ (the pattern Format command fills the partition with). You never need to do a full format for a harddisk before initializing the filesystem with ACTION_FORMAT.

In fact, the filesystem is in 100% identical state after fullformat and quickformat. Quickformat is faster and safer.

Remember that with SFS, you can do a FULL format ONLY using the Format command of AOS. (SFSFormat do only Quick format).

This is a potentially dangerous advice, as it only applies to OS 3.5+ and with NSD cabable devices. For example Phase5 device drivers know TD64 only (however, OS 3.5/3.9 format-command should then fail when it tries to format past >4gig. I haven't tried this however, I don't have a HD to spare).

If you use pre-3.5 Format command for partition residing even partially past 4gig limit, you WILL overwrite the RDB and some partition(s) below the 4gig limit.

As you never need to do a fullformat anyway, it is adviced to always use quickformat. The only even remotely good reason to use fullformat is to get rid of old filesystem structure so that in case of an emergency, no old files/data is found when doing recovery.

[Piru]

@Framiga

I am just stating the information I know to be factual. If I am wrong, someone should prove me wrong [or at least point out where my mistake is - Edit -].

I'm very interested to hear why fullformat should be used, however.

[Piru]

That sounds like a HW problem with Power Flyer to me.

CU_AMIGA could try using the hard disk without PowerFlyer, just to see if the problem persists. Certainly it's much slower, but it would help if the problem could be narrowed down.

[Piru]

@CU_AMiGA

Ok, this sounds like a HW problem somewhere.

The thing is, these issues hardly get better by themselves, so you need to do something.

First of all you should create as clean as possible OS and software installation (no hacks or patches unless absolutely necessary), and get the problem reproduced on that. Once you manage to trigger the problem, make sure it is consistent (for example that you always get the problem after 3 hours). This is the base system used to track the hw problem later. Now backup this testsystem so you can restore it 100% identical when needed.

I suggest you strip down as much HW extensions as possible (while the system is still usable), and then lauch the testsuite. If the problem persists, then the still connected components are to blame. Check PSU, memory, motherboard and so on. If the problem is gone, you now have isolated the problem to extensions you have just removed. Now you can put some of the expansions back (perhaps half of them) and see if the problem come back. And so forth, I bet you've got the idea by now.

Anyway, once you've found out the component that causes the problem, verify your findings by doing extra 5-10 tests with both with and without the component connected. Hopefully the final tests verify your finding and you can replace the faulty hardware.

Now, the thing gets much more complicated if the problem is combination of several components, but even in this case you should be able to find a stable setup.

[Piru]

@Framiga

Like the guide says, the only reason you might want to fullformat is to make sure there are no remains of the previous filesystem left on the disk.

However, at least PFSDoctor is smart enough to find only the latest filesystem on the disk (most PFS filesystem blocks have sequence number on them, so PFSDoctor can find the matching filesystem structure blocks).

Obviously fullformat doesn't help if the disk is physically dead, or if the problem is elsewhere in the hardware. However, in this case it might help identify the physical HD fault before valuable user data is written (and deleted from the copy source!) on the disk.

However, if the suspected problem is not on the hard disk, it makes little sense to do full format.

Personally when I setup a new disk I create the partitions, reboot, quickformat, set filesystem attributes (max filename length, deldir size), and then copy the files over from the old disk. Finally I do checksum checks for the copied files, to see if everything is alright. I keep the old hard disk for backup purposes.