SFS and PFS won't work

[RCtech]

Hello,

after some years I'm rebuilding my A4000T again. It works rather fine, but I have problems with filesystems - only FFS works. Additional hardware is a Cybervision64/3D with Scandoubler, Cyberstorm MKII/060 with 128 MB RAM and 12 MB RAM on the board - the leftmost (S354) is empty.

I'm using the standard 4000T controller with an Maxtor Atlas V 146 GB 10k drive und an 50->80 adaptor. These drives are awesome, when powering on they make for about 10 secs some self test clicks, then the drive is absolutely silent and doesn't get too hot. The Atlas V is also available in 73 and 300 GB.

I'm still in preperation, booting partially from floppy or MO drive. I'm using WB 3.1 with the AmigaOS ROM Update from 3.9 and HDInstTools 6.9. The Maxtor Atlas is fully recognized, low-level-format works, 560 cylinders are 682 MB. Formatting FFS partitions is no problem, either from HDInstTools or Workbench.

So, now I wanted to use SFS and got the latest package from the aminet. I loaded it into the RDB with DOStype SFS\0 and changed the filesystem in the partition settings. But it won't work. I tried the default Mask/Maxtransfer values 0x7ffffffe/0xffffff, the ones I found in the net 0x7ffffffe/1fe00 and the ones from the SFS_old.guide, 0x7fffffff/0x7fffffff, and combinations. Buffers are mostly 100, or the default value 30. Nothing works. I also tried to change the DOSType to SFS\2, no change. I could format a partition using SFS\0 in HDInstTools, but after the next boot the partition isn't visible, although it is listed when you type 'assign devices'. SFSformat crashes with a software failure when your're trying to format this partition, this also happens if you are trying to boot from it. The partition is listed in the Early Startup Menu.

But PFS won't work, too. I think I had the Direct SCSI version, so I tried PDS\0. Nothing, like with SFS HDInstTools got the error messages 'format failed' or 'object not found'. Something else is weird: If I'm changing a SFS partition to FFS and reboot, it is visible as DH0:SFS0. So the formatting must have worked earlier. Unformatted FFS partitions are automatically as DHx:? or similar on the Workbench, but there was never an icon of a partition with another filesystem visible.

Do you have some ideas? Could it be a software problem? The 68040/68040old/68040new/68060.library are from the BlizzardPPC disk, but I also have another version, not tested yet. The ROM Update, NSDPatch and SetPatch are from one of the BoingBags, not from the 3.9 CD. The same MO also boots on my Amiga 500 with A570 and 3 MB RAM. I have no idea why this doesn't work, I had it working years ago on my A1200/040, A1200/PPC and the A4000T. Any help would be appreciated.

Greets, RC.

[RCtech]

I erased the RDB with HDinstTools, switched the computer off and turned it on again, created the partition, but still the same problems. If I'm trying to boot from such a partition, I'm getting a Software Failure window without task name and the error 80000008. I searched for it and it could be the 68060.library, actually I have 43.1 installed. I'm trying to install a newer one.

It's a bit difficult to transfer files: I don't have any computer with a disk drive. And the A4000T has no CD-ROM or driver. But my A500 has - in form of the A570. I didn't think of this before, but I was talking with a friend about an old PC-CD-ROM with caddies, then it came like a flash of light ;-) Now I have to burn the files to a CD in ISO9660/RockRidge format, then have to copy the files to my MO. This is helluva slow - not only because it's a 7 MHz A500, but a single speed CD drive and MO writing are all adding up slowness. MO's are writing very safely - first erasing every sector, then writing, then verifying. But that's rather slow.

Now I have to remember which programs, addons and DOS commands I used years ago - I have to start completely from scratch. And I don't want to waste a CD for just 200K, so I have to find enough stuff to fill 700 MB ;-) But it's still fun somehow. BTW: Does anyone know where to copy the BrowserII keyfile? I used the files from the Aminet, but I'm still getting the unregistered message.

[RCtech]

Well, it's no matter what filesystem I'm using until it's not FFS. If the partition is not vaildated it takes millions of years until a large partition is finished. I has PFS3 earlier, but it used a lot of space for metadata. OK, wouldn't be a problem anymore. Which version would better, standard PFS oder PFS direct SCSI? I thought on using SFS because it seems to be a standard now, at least MorphOS and AROS are using SFS.

Why should't I use HDInstTools? I was always using it. HDToolBox from 3.1 wouldn't be a very good choice, and I'm not planning to use 3.9. Is there another partitioning tool?

I read in another forum that a guy had the 80000008 problem on an A1200/060. He updated them and the problem was gone. So I'll try this, and it can't be bad to have newer versions.

Actually I can't add any more stuff because my A4000T setup looks like this. The system gets a new E-ATX case and it has to be modified for the Amiga. If anyone has the schematics of the ports board, that would be great.

[RCtech]

Well, I'm not using HDToolbox anymore. It isn't even compatible to MO drive until you've patched it. The HDToolBox from 3.9, AROS and MorphOS is very complicated in my opinion.

HDInstTools has some problems with too big harddisks while partitioning.  A 300 GB drive with one partition is shown with about 7600 MiB, the  Cylinders section is distorted when the values are too big. The size  slider creates some weird results, but the size display is correct. The  drive info is also correct, I also made a bad block check and had one at  324.146.587.

One big difference from HDInstTools to any HDToolBox version is that it shows the partition layout, but you can't work with it. So it's difficult to  modify free areas of the drive. You can avoid problems if you're planning the drive from the beginning on. I'm always using 6 system partitions in the 4 GiB area:

1 - Workbench 3.1
2 - Workbench 3.1 Backup
3 - Workbench 3.9
4 - Workbench 3.9 Backup
5 - System
6 - Temporary

The first are easy, the System partition is an addon partition which are used by all partitions. This is useful for additional libraries, huge font collections and more. You just have to check in the startup-sequence if this partition exists, then you can assign or assign ADD these directories to your system. So on the boot partition just have to stay the important files you need, this saves space and the partitions can stay smaller. Workbench 3.1 and 3.9 can use different libraries by checking the system with the version command. Each partition is 682 MiB in size, so they're all below the 4 GiB border. The size useful because you can backup it easily to a CD or a 640 MB MO, here it is even bootable.

I'm always partitioning by cylinders. This needs a bit calculation, but it's safe. I now have all models of the Maxtor Altlas V here, and all have different cylinder/size values. By the way, I'm using the expressions MiB (Mebibyte) and GiB (Gibibyte) because its using base 2, not base 10 (MB, GB) like it's written on hard drives. These are the values:

Maxtor Atlas V 73.4 GB version

1 GiB = 7768 cylinders
4 GiB = 31072 cylinders
682 MiB = 5178 cylinders

Maxtor Atlas V 147 GB version

1 GiB = 17478 cylinders
4 GiB = 69912 cylinders
682 MiB = 11652 cylinders

Maxtor Atlas V 300 GB version

1 GiB = 6991 cylinders
4 GiB = 27946 cylinders
682 MiB = 4660 cylinders

So I'm using 6 partitions to 682 MiB. To match exactly the 4 GiB border, the 147 GB version can use 6 partitions without modifications. The 73.4 and 300 GB model need a 4 cylinder filling partition until the 4 GiB border is reached. The rest is easy - if  I want to create larger partitions after the 4 GiB border, I just have to multiply the size by the cylinder value for 1 GiB. So there's no need for any size sliders or everything, and the partitions are always exact the same size.

[RCtech]

After some years of no working Amiga I finally found time to check out my A500/A570 again. I'm now using the last version of PFS3AIO, and it works fine on the 68000. I've got some partitions in the 4095 MB, and a dummy partition with one block directly on the 4G border, so no partition can be across this area.

Actually I'm using about 6 GB, all partitions are formatted in PFS3AIO and shown in Kickstart 1.3 and 3.1. The rest of the drive is splitted in three partitions to 22 GB each. And this is the problem: I can format them in HDInstTools, the PFS window pops up and after a while the drive shows up. But after a reboot the 22 GB partitions are not existing, they're not even listed in assign devices. Is there a partition size limit in PFS? I'm actually using PFS\0. What is the difference between PFS3AIO and PFS3AIO-custom?

Another question is: How does Kickstart 1.3 handle the 4G-Border? I've copied a disk to a partition directly above the 4G-Border and it worked.

Other things: There is somewhere a patch that Workbench 3.1 shows large partition sizes. I haven't found it yet, is somebody using it? For Workbench 1.3 an enhancement existed, it provided nearly all functions of Workbench 2.0. But I don't remember the name anymore. Has anyone an idea what this could be?

Greets, RC.

[RCtech]

If it wasn't clear, no partition is FFS 45.9 because it doesn't work in 1.3, and I don't wanted to use the original FFS.
So the question is exactly: Is it possible to use partitions formatted in PFS3AIO above the 4G border in Kickstart 1.3 ?

Workbench 3.1 shows in the window title only partitions sizes <4G correctly, larger partitions have an incorrect size.

[RCtech]

I've never heard about Workbench 3.1.4... ok I'm 15 years out ;-) Is it available to buy somewehre or isn't it finsihed yet?