WHDLoad suddenly broken

[Franko]

Have you noticed anything else not working properly, or is it just WHDLoad...

[Franko]

Can't think of any memtest progs offhand right now, but an easy way to check the fast ram is to (if you have some), copy lots of lzx or lha archived files onto the ram: disk and then test each one, even one bit of bad memory should cause an error to show during the test, bit time consuming I know, but it does work.

Also noticed that you said you had left the case open recently, first thing I would do is open it up again and check all connection and socketed chip, just in case the heat has caused some movement.

Snoopdos is quite good for tracking down some of these WHDLoad problems also.

[Franko]

Aminet's a good source for memcheck progs, here a quick link to some of them...

http://aminet.net/search?query=memcheck

[Franko]

Look's like the mems ok. So I don't think you need to do the re-seating yet, I would run snoopdos end let it write a log file so that you can see at which point WHDload is failing.

[Franko]

The problem was not with WHDLoad at all but rather with my FastATA it seems. Once I ran a WHDLoad program from my system drive rather than from the FastATA work drive things worked ok. It seems nothing wants to run from that drive. What could the problem be? I have the drive formatted as one 80GB partition, but I was under the understanding that FFS in OS3.9 could handle large work partitions. Do I need to patch/get a new version of FFS?

No FFS can only handle partition sizes of just under 4GB with FASTATA. You need a file system like SmartFileSystem (the one I use), with SmartFilesystem I have varous sized partitons on my 2 500GB HDs and FASTATA, the biggest of which is 250GB, but there is no real limit on partition sizes using SFS and I have never lost even one bit of data in the years that I have been using it.

[Franko]

First thing, if you don't already have SFS you can download it from Aminet here...

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/SFS

It's not really possible to explain here just how to set it up, but the docs included with it explain quite clearly just how to install SFS and set it up.

Only thing I would say is make sure the first partition you create is a FFS system partition, cos if you want to be able to boot from this HD then due to the way the Amigas OS works and the way that FASTATA works you really need a FFS partition of no more than 4GB as the first partition in order to be able to boot up from that disk.

There are two types of filesystems you can use with SmartFileSystem, SFS0 & SFS2, I would recommend you use SFS2 as there is no size limit to an individual file with SFS2 whereas SFS0 if limited to just under 4GB per individual file (a bit like FAT32).

Read the docs carefully before you attempt to install and partition you HD. It might look a bit complicated at first but it's really quite simple once you get the hang of it, and it's certainly worthwhile in my experience, no more file size limits and easy to store DVD images on like I do.

Cheers :drink:

Franko

[Franko]

Got your PM, sent a quick reply back...

[Franko]

Ummmmm no.  I have only ever used the standard Amiga file system with FASTATA.   It has no problems with partitions this size.  especailly under os3.9.
 
There is a limit to filesizes of a couple of gig, cant remember the exact size.  but your 80GB partition/drive should be fine.
 
You dont need SFS.  Though it is a better file system

Hi JJ, can't say for certain whether your right or I'm right on this one. I can only go by my own experience of trying to use 2 500GB HDs on my various amigas, never managed to get them formated or partitioned properly under OS3.9 & FFS, thats why I went with SFS and also for the reason that I have lots of files larger than 4GB and the filesize limit of just under 2GB on FFS was no use to me.

[Franko]

I've installed SFS, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. The problem seems to be that no matter how many times I change the driver type to nosplit in the FastATA prefs, the system always defaults back to split and doesn't detect that I have installed and partitioned the drive as a nosplit drive. What am I doing wrong?

Its a fault in the actual ATA3.driver itself (all versions) if you have one partion set to split then another set to nosplit on the same port, the ruddy driver sets everything to split (no matter what you select in the prefs prog).

The only way I solved this problem was to disassemble the driver and rewrite it to allow you to have both split and nosplit and no more of the annoying default back to split.

Wrote to Elbox once showing them how to fix this bug/problem but never heard a thing from them.

[Franko]

Here's the thing though, I don't have anything set to split. There is just one drive on the Primary port and that's what I'm trying to set to nosplit. I'm using the driver versions from their webpage though because I bought the controller second hand and don't have access to the latest drivers. Could the problem be that I'm using old drivers? Otherwise, how can I fix this?

Dunno about everyone else, I can only say what works on my set ups. For example. The FASTATA MKII manual states that the boot partition must be in the first 4GB space of a hard disk for the OS to be able to recognise it as bootable.

An example of the way one of my 500Gb HDs is partitioned is...

DH0: 1GB partition (used for booting in OS3.0 to 3.9) FFS (ie: contains Workbench for booting up in whichever version you use)
DH1: 1GB partition (used for temp storage) FFS
DH2: 2GB partition (used for booting in OS 4.0) FFS
DHA: to DHW: various partitions used for data etc... (rough total about 80GB) FSS
HD0: 200GB partition (used for data, large files etc...) SFS2
HD1: 200GB partition (used for data, large files etc...) SFS2

Not sure how clear this is to you, but sticking with this type of set up for me causes no problems.

[Franko]

If your talking about the FastATA drivers I use V8.8

[Franko]

Don't go away yet, Im going to PM you.

[Franko]

Why bother, the latest drivers are available at Elbox website.

Hi Bamiga2002, TheRougue had heard that there was a version 7.x of the A4000 drivers, he already had the ones from the Elbox site, I've been scouring the internet but can't find any drivers beyond version 2.5

Anyone else able to help out TheRogue here...