HD util software

[DanDude]

Is there currently any hard drive utility software that supports partitions greater than 4 gigabytes?

[xeron]

HDToolbox that comes with OS3.9 does.

[KennyR]

Disk repair tools: (Like disksalv) No. Only those that come with SFS and PFS. But they should be enough - using FFS or FFS2 on such a big partition is just plain crazy.

Defragging tools: (Like ReOrg) No. Again, only with SFS and PFS. But you shouldn't use anything else anyway.

Formatting: Various format tools will work (like Format64), OS3.5/3.9 format, etc. Avoid DOpus or 3.1 format tools like the plague.

HD Prepping: HDToolBox from 3.5/3.9, scsiconfig, HDInstTools. Never ever use older HDToolbox versions or QuarterbackTools.

Undeleting: No. Except on PFS and SFS, again.

The moral of this story: don't use FFS. Even using non-4GB aware tools on smaller partitions after the 4GB limit will corrupt earlier partitions.

[DanDude]

Are PFS and SFS very reliable?

[zipper]

Bull...
DiskMonTools and DiskOptimizer do exist, by Jörg Strohmayer, for FFS, 64bit. But I trust on fresh backups still, much much faster with CSPPC/U2WSCSI disks.

[KennyR]

PFS and SFS are rock solid reliable. About 100 times more reliable than FFS. After the 20th time I lost data due to crashing when slow old FFS was writing to disk, I got rid of it for good.

[shIva]

PFS and SFS are rock solid reliable.

yes, sir ! i use sfs on an 8 gig hdd for more than one year now without any problems :-) . the only thing i have to say is, that my boot partition is still ffs.

is there any possibility to convert it ?! :-?

[elendil]

open shell:

type:
makedir :sys
copy sys: :sys/ ALL

convert sys:
format sys:

copy :sys/ sys: ALL

reboot

Or something like that

Sincerely,

-Kenneth Straarup.

[KennyR]

yes, sir ! i use sfs on an 8 gig hdd for more than one year now without any problems . the only thing i have to say is, that my boot partition is still ffs.

is there any possibility to convert it ?

Only one I know - back it up on CDR or another drive, change the filesystem to SFS, format, then copy your stuff back. Tricky though.

[Piru]

open shell:

type:
makedir :sys
copy sys: :sys/ ALL

convert sys:
format sys:

copy :sys/ sys: ALL

You should use copy CLONE ALL.

Also, copy doesn't handle links at all, so if you have those you need to remove them first and recreate them after copying the files back.

If you have softlinks and want to avoid the hazzle, you can use tar or GeekGadgets 'cp -a'.

[shIva]

thx. backing up the partition, converting it, and then write the backup to the converted partition ... that was clear.
i thought of a conversion tool. afaik pfs came with sth. like this. here you could convert a running partition into pfs.

since sfs is similar to pfs i was hoping that sth. like this existed.

[kgrach]

This is important if use HDToolbox please continue to use only HDtoolbox. If you like your data don't ever mix HD partitioning software otherwise you will be putting your data at risk in a very subtle but deadly way. Example ever notice if you use say HDinstools to change a partition on a Hard drive. When you go back to HDtoolbox it will say changed.  If you save in HDtoolbox go back to HDinstools it will say changed. What is happening is that the programs are writing the partition table differently. You will not experience any problems until you get to that magic spot were what is formatted on the drive is different from what is in the RDB. Everything will work just fine until you reboot your machine. Then all hell will break loose and say farewell to your data on one or more partitions. On a large Hard Drive this could takes years until you fill in that spot. So most Amiga users never realize what took out their data.