A1200 hard drive installation FFS problem

[vectraman]

I recently started to use my A1200 after many years away from it.
I installed a 325Mb hard drive (ex PC) and used HD Toolbox to partition it into two drives.
I was told by the HELP file to Low level format the partitions, and then format them as with a floppy.
I selected FFS when formatting but a message told me that it could not find L:Fast File System, however it formatted ok and I installed Workbench from my original floppies.
Everything worked fine until I used Action Replay and tried to save the frozen memory to dh0 when it told me that dh0 was not an FFS disk.
I had a WB 1.3 disk with FFS on it, but seemingly earlier versions are not compatible with WB3. (I tried and it did not work)
I have searched the net to try to find a Fast File System file to download, but without success.
Can anyone tell me if I did anything wrong with my partitioning and formatting proceedures, and can anyone email me the FFS file.  

[nex4060]

well firstly do not low level format a IDE drive it may damage it, however many IDE controlers and IDE drives ignorers the low level format command.

You need to get an boot disk with l:fast file system on it in order to format it as an FFS partition, otherwise to will be formated with OFS. And that's what has happened to your HD.

[Thomas]

otherwise to will be formated with OFS. And that's what has happened to your HD.

No, definitely not. OFS cannot handle partitions larger than 8MB. With Kickstart 2.0+ the FastFileSystem is in the ROM, so it is not needed on the disk.

I cannot say why AR does not recognise the HDD, probably because it is too old or too hacky.

The FastFileSystem file is on the Install disk (the same disk HDToolbox is on) in the L directory. You can install it using the Add/Update button in HDToolbox. If you boot from the Install disk, it finds it in the default location. If you start HDToolbox from the installed HDD it should find it either.

Bye,
Thomas

[vectraman]

Thanks for the answers so far.
Unfortunately, I do not have a HDInstall disk.  I have the file HDToolbox that I copied on to a floppy many years ago.
David

[vectraman]

Forgot to mention that the Action replay used to work fine on the same A1200 up to a few years ago.  Only the HD is different.
David

[vectraman]

Good news!  Managed to fix the problem.
Hunted through my old Amiga CD's on the A4000 and eventually found FFS in an L directory on a 1999 CD.
This did not cure the problem on the 1200, so put a spare PC 9.1 gig HD in, and started from scratch and everything worked just as it should do.
At least I've re-learned a lot about setting up an Amiga!

Alls well that ends well!
David

[Thomas]

If you partitioned the entire 9gigs you'll learn a lot more soon.

AmigaOS can only address the first 4GB of the drive. If you have partitions or parts of partitions beyond the 4GB border, the address is wrapped around and the data is written to a location below the 4GB border. So multiple partitions share the same space which will create problems soon.

Bye,
Thomas

[nex4060]

Thomas wrote:

.... and the data is written to a location below the 4GB border. So multiple partitions share the same space which will create problems soon.

hehe.. tell me about it  :lol: spent a couple of repartitions and reformats on the account.

[vectraman]

Thanks for the info about 4gig max.
I have  hd0 at 80 Mb for the OS, so will make hd1 around 3 gig just to be safe.
David

[CU_AMiGA]

Hello

You can get cheap 4gig HD off ebay. I got a 2.5" 4gig HD for £30. It is very suitable, and best of all, fits in the A1200 desktop! :-D

On another subject, you may want to get a better filesystem. FFS is crap and has problems with validation partitions sometimes. I have SFS (search SFS on Aminet) on my 4gig HD, and have had no problems. I think SFS is much better than FFS, although most FFS validation problems occurs with HD over 4gig. But it is your choice, FFS may be suitable for your needs. :-)

Regards,

Note: you will need a power flyer or somesort for HD bigger than 4gig!