Is there a good Tutorial anywhere on formatting large (40Gb say) drives into one or two logical units using the PowerFlyer interface?

I use a PowerFlyer/OS3.9/BB1+2, but however many times I read the PF manual, it leaves me in the dark. No matter what I do, I can't get the FastATAPrefs to allow the 'No-Split' mode when I use HDToolbox. I really do not want nine or ten units on this drive! (I'll use SFS filesystem).

Cheers,

JaX

Hello x56h34,

That sounds easy enough! I'll give it a shot.

Cheers,

JaX

@x56h34

Yes, I seem to have got it sorted, thanks to your excellent advice. It seems the selection of 'Use' for the amended FastATAPrefs is more applicable here than the 'Save' option.

I couldn't get HDToolbox to run after booting from my Emergency Disk, so I tried just clicking on the 'Use' option under standard Workbench. This popped up a warning that I was about to modify the drives' existing settings and did I wish to proceed? (Never seen that before). Then, after OK'ing the warning, I loaded HDToolbox. This then showed the new drive as a single entry, instead of the nine or ten logical units I was seeing before (as created by the FastATA 'Split' function and which seemed almost impossible to avoid).

I then divided the drive into the larger units I wanted and formatted these with SFS filesystem. On rebooting, there were still icons for the original unwanted 'Splitted' logical drives, so I cleared their RDBs using the old HDInstToolbox. On rebooting again, all the dross disappeared and I had the big logical drives I wanted. Great!

The FastATAPrefs system seems not to be very friendly to say the least! I'm blowed if I can understand the manual on this issue and I'm awaiting Elbox's suggestions on the problem.

Anyway, I seem to have got it fixed and learned a little bit more on the way. Many thanks.

JaX

@JaXanim

Could you please do me a favour ?
I had the same exact problem as you sometime ago, and as i couldn't solve the problem, i ended with the SPLIT mode and like 10 partitions . . .
Are you sure that your partitions are really functional ?
If you can help me, please open the hdtoolbox, and see if only the partitions you created appears, or if you have again all the 10 partitions of the SPLIT mode.
As you wiped the RDB on the old partitions, they do not appears in the WB screen anymore, but you can still have the PowerFlyer driver working in the SPLIT mode.
If this is the case, then you will have problems when you have to write after the first LUN limit.
For me, every reboot, bring back the ATA driver to the SPLIT mode, even after i tried everyhthing i could think of, to wipe the HD, and follow the Elbox instructions, as you did.

Thank you,
Marcelo Pires.

@Jax

quote:

Don't know if this is a cause of the problem, but Elbox said I should delete the RESIDENT switch in my Startup-Sequence:

C:ATA3.driver RESIDENT QUIET
C:Stack 8192

This is for version 7.1

Haven't had time to check this out yet, but it may explain why we have difficulty getting away from the 'Split' mode in FastATAPrefs.
 

      Unfortunately i don't think that the RESIDENT switch is causing the problems, as i removed it as Elbox said, and it doesn't works either.  :-?
      Out of curiosity, what is your HD brand and model ?
      Mine is a Seagate Barracuda 40GB 7200RPM (can't really remember the exatc model, but i'll look at it).
      Maybe this particular mdel have some kind of incompatibility issue (although i don't think so) ?
      I tried a lot of things.
      I don't wanna say that i tried EVERYTHING, because if i did, i probably had the answer for our problem. But i simply gave up, as Elbox doesn't seems to be able to solve the problem.
      The thing is, the older drivers (if i remember well, the 6.1 version and all before that) are able to keep the NO SPLIT mode. This happens, because these drivers, save this option in the ENV variables, instead than in the RDB, as the newer drivers do.
      But even using the older drivers, i have some problems. To say the truth i still have some problems using the SPLIT mode, and million partitions.
      From time to time, when i'm writing to any partition, my Amiga just stops the copying process.
      Let's say i'm using DOpus to copy a file. The progress bar freezes in some point, and the proccess stops. The Amiga is not frozen, but the HD is. The IDE light is off in the majority of times, but i can't access the HD anymore. So i have to reboot the Amiga. And very often, i get a invalid partition, and have to use DiskSalv, or similar tools to validate it.
      And this problem just began from the moment i decided to upgrade my HD to a 40GB one.
      Well, as my english is not very good, even worst to explain these technical issues, i will ask you another favour. If you manage to find a solution with the Elbox guys, please let me know !

      Kind Regards,
      Marcelo Pires.

as far as i remember from my Power Flyer experience on my old A1200 tis problem did not exist with an old version of FastAtaprefs and ata3.driver. After updating it appeared. When i bought a new hdd i simply used the old one to save and then switched to the newer version.