HDT is a good friend but a little weird at times

[xaccrocheur]

OK I got my SCSI chain neat and clean now.

Just waiting for Voxel to give me the gory details of my Seagate HAWK.

So here now it's
Conner 500Mb ID 1
Teac CD-ROM ID4
IBM 4600Mb ID 5 - terminated

Everything is showing OK in HDT, but "mounter" list is still void (?)

Oh, and I tested my big SCSI ribbon cable against a working shorter one, it's behaving perfectly well. Cool.

Only thing is that I'm trying to properly format this IBM SCSI drive, it's showing in HDT, all the drive infos filled, everything OK.
Off I go to "presets", select the "2" option, it creates two partitions. I name them within HDT, "Graph" and "Sound", double-check the FS properties (512k blocksize) and click "OK", then reboot when asked.

And then, after a quick reset, only thing I see is one Partition "Graph:Uninitialized" ! :-?

I even tried to format it just to see if the other appears (GVP_HC8+040@25+2.4GB=45Mn) :-x  but no. Still one "Graph" and no "Sound", initialized or not.

What gives ? what should I say to the guy to make him *see* my two parts ?

Thanks

pX

[xaccrocheur]

UPDATE 15.33

I tried to change the formatting sheme, since there is no data on the drive yet.

I used the HDT "automatic" otopn, and it splitted my drive in three 1.4 Gb partitions. Fine. I then named them
"Graph", "Sound", and "Text", saved and rebooted.

And now, I still cannot see the LAST partition, that is, HD2, "Text".

What I see is (apart from my other drives that are OK)
Graph:Uninitialized
Sound:EÿS\3

Yes, you read it right. Sounds familiar to anyone ? It looks like I should low-level format it, but I WON'T 8-)

Please, enlight me ! :-(

[elendil]

It sounds very familiar to me if you are using fast file system, due to the 4gb limit. The last partition is ####ed because it spans above the 4gb limit. At least that is my guess.

There is an updated ffs where this should not be a problem, as well as other and (imo) better filesystems such as pfs or the one I am using that I forgot the name of, freeware, I think...sfs, it was. It rocks.

Still, at least sfs has some strange things you need to be aware of when going above the 4gb limit, but that is (or was when I installed it, at least) very well described in the docs.

Sincerely,

-Kenneth Straarup.

edit: hahahaha. I just noticed amiga.org automatically changes my cursing to #'s - and here I thought people was just mature enough not to write such words

edit2: the filesystems should be on aminet afaik.

[Vincent]

Also, you might need the newest version of SetPatch.  My 19Gb HD only sees the first 2 partitions (below the 4Gb) if SetPatch from OS3.9 isn't running.

I use SFS for most of my drives, but I have WorkBench and 2 other partitions still on FFS (both above and below the 4Gb limit) and everything works ok as long as I have setpatch running.

SFS is on Aminet - make sure you get all the extra files aswell!

I don't know if SetPatch is freely avaliable though.

[pVC]

Hmm.. usually you name them on HDToolbox as dh0, dh1 or something like that and then give them names as Graph when formatting it. Or did I get you wrong... although it can be done in other way too Uninitialized sounds like you haven't formatted it yet.. only made partitions with hdtoolbox.

And like other said here, you should notice the 4G HD limit and 2G partition limit of older FFS and scsi.device, if you're using those. Don't make any partition larger than 2GB and leave the last partition's end position _under_ the 4G area of the HD. If there's partition that goes over that 4G limit and you write data on that area, then you're going to lose data elsewhere on HD. Probably lose partition information and data from the beginning of the hd.

If you want to use more than 4G of your HD, then you must to update filesystem to newer FFS (from os3.5-> or patch for older ones), SFS (freeware) or PFS (commercial). In some situations (like when using internal IDE with scsi.device) you have to update your device driver too. I don't know if there's any problems with gvp's scsi device. Safest bet is to use directscsi version of the PFS3, because then it doesn't matter what scsi-device is in use.

[pVC]

Setpatch (from OS3.5->) is just one tool to update the scsi.device in rom. It can be done with other tools too. And it isn't needed when you use some other device than scsi.device (internal IDE-controller)... if the other device already supports bigger drives.

[Vincent]

Ah right, nicely explained, thanks :-D

[xaccrocheur]

pVC wrote:
Setpatch (from OS3.5->) is just one tool to update the scsi.device in rom. It can be done with other tools too. And it isn't needed when you use some other device than scsi.device (internal IDE-controller)... if the other device already supports bigger drives.

OK, but does that mean that my SCSI controller has to support it ? It's a GVP HC+8, pretty old stuff... Came w/o any software, I asked here for FaastPREP, recalling reading about it in the press, but no one seem to have it, besides it's really old too.

Well, so what you say is that setPatch won't help...

Damn, I really though when buying OS 3.9 that one of the LITTLE improvements that made it superior to my (very system-patched) 3.1 was the support for bigger drives ! And that it would use the best currently available FS !

You mean the 4GB barrier STILL EXISTS ?? :-x

So OK, what would be the best FileSystem now ? One one hand I'm really not keen *buying it*, on the other hand install a BETA *Filesystem* really scares the hell out of me

I made numerous searches for "Amiga File Systems" but  did not find the comprehensive list w/ pros&cons I was looking for.

Does that even exists ?

UPDATE

OK it looks like I'm going 2 install SFS.

Any pitfalls ? I mean, how can I do that quick and easy ? ;-) of course I *will* RTFM, it's a FS 4 christ's sake,  :-P

Seems like PFS is no longer supported, am I right ?

pX

[pVC]

I'd try first if you can make system work with your current setup, but using only max 4G of the HD... then you can see if it's the actual problem.

If you have os3.9 and updated fastfilesystem (version 45.13 or close to it) is in use as it's supposed to be, then it should support big drives and other filesystems shouldn't be necessary (although they're better anyway . I didn't know/remember that you have the 3.9... but if everything is ok, then I'd suspect the scsi-controller's software (in rom)... DirectScsi FS might help...

SFS in that url you mentioned is quite old version. The latest beta by John Hendrikx can be found from http://www.xs4all.nl/~hjohn/ . I'm still using that 1.84 from there. It has worked fine.

Development of the SFS has moved to other developer and those betas can be found from http://home.wtal.de/js/ (or should be... somehow i can only get empty page :/).

About comparison of different filesystems.. I'd say that SFS and PFS3 are quite equal, but PFS3 has better salvage tools and directscsi version (which is removed from SFS). And both are way better than FFS in speed and other features.

Hmm.. I had that Faastprep somewhere, but can't seem to find it atm...

[xaccrocheur]

If you have os3.9 and updated fastfilesystem (version 45.13 or close to it) is in use as it's supposed to be, then it should support big drives and other filesystems shouldn't be necessary

Oh, you mean the vanilla OS3.9 must be updated ? I wanted to have my drives setup before installing the BBags, but is that it ? an updated FS ?

(although they're better anyway

I'll install SFS anyway

About comparison of different filesystems.. I'd say that SFS and PFS3 are quite equal, but PFS3 has better salvage tools and directscsi version (which is removed from SFS).

why is that removed ? Looks like I need this !

Hmm.. I had that Faastprep somewhere, but can't seem to find it atm...

Ready when you are. I'd like to have a look at that beast...

thanks !

pX

[Trooper]

Hi xaccrocheur,

I have just been reading your thread, And about the faastprep program from GVP.

Well i thought i had it on one of my disks from years back, So i have had a look, But no joy. :-(

Did a google and found this

GVP Drivers Etc.

Hope this helps. :-)

Regards

              Trooper

[pVC]

No, I didn't mean that vanilla OS3.9 should updated. I meant that OS3.9 installation successfully updates the filesystem... you haven't disabled any romupdates or something like that which could affect to it.

[trgse]

You should not name the partions in HDT, meaning... keep the HDx (or similar) names, save then when you format give them names.

the format command would then be

format DRIVE HD2: NAME Text QUICK
if you use SFS
SFSFormat DRIVE HD2: NAME text QUICK

DON'T use the format option in HDT ever. and DO only use the QUICK option when formatting.

[xaccrocheur]

pVC wrote:Development of the SFS has moved to other developer and those betas can be found from http://home.wtal.de/js/ (or should be... somehow i can only get empty page :/).

Damn, me too ! Where the HELL is the new, latest SFS ??

grrr  :madashell:  :pissed:  :ranting:

pX

[Vincent]

pVC wrote:
No, I didn't mean that vanilla OS3.9 should updated. I meant that OS3.9 installation successfully updates the filesystem... you haven't disabled any romupdates or something like that which could affect to it.

IIRC, the first versions of the OS3.9 CD does not copy the newest version of FFS to your OS3.9 partition, you have to do that manually (I think it's in the Emergency-Boot drawer).

If it's the 2nd version of the CD, it does copy it over.