SFS problems

[amigagr]

i've been confused with all this
you didn't say about the scsi module and the extra ide interface from the start...
if you don't use the ide buffer inderface remove it or install the softwear, i think that it works with idefix. the cdrom is connected to the ide or scsi module? if it is on scsi you have to set the cd driver to 1230scsi.device. there is an upgrade to the 1230 scsi from phase5 too, version 8,something. i have use my scsi module only once to ''save'' the scsi hard disk of my a3000 and i had the problem that the amiga was booting only from the blizz scsi and couldn't even ''see'' the internal ide!!! and the problem was solved after a lot lot warm reboots so who knows what conflicts happening in the background... at your place i would remove all the extra hardwear, install the os 3.9 and putting it back in place one by one. finaly the scsi.device is ''in'' the file AmigaOSRomUpdate in directory Devs. you must install and the 2 boingbags to have all the latest updates of these files.

don't mess with tools like fastprep use only hdtoolbox, format from os3.9 and of course the tools of sfs if you need them.

[amigagr]

Framiga wrote:
has anyone already installed it?

lo faccio io stanotte doppo il lavoro

[Hyperspeed]

How many 3rd party filesystems are there and is it SFS that's come out on top? What are the benefits and drawbacks?

[amigagr]

for now i think that sfs is the only available for free and there is pfs v3 that cost some money (i'm at work now and i don't have the link available). in the past there was and the amifilesafe afs. the project of afs has been abandoned some time and became pfs. all these promise something that miss from ffs: no more bitmap errors and long times of disk validation after a power down or similar dameges. i didn't test sfs that way (just in case...) but i see much better behavor from it than a thousand broblems that i have with ffs in the past.

[Framiga]

lo faccio io stanotte doppo il lavoro

ok amije.

If your system will not explode, i'll update me too :-D

jokeing! . . SFS is actually, the best choise ATM (along PFS3 if you already have it)

[Hyperspeed]

But isn't a valid bitmap there for a reason?

One program I'm going to have to investigate is BRIC, a CRC checker that comes with MakeCD. My SCSI connection needs sorting out and I get a lot of random Checksum Error messages that suggest a poor contact (they vanish when you click retry!).

Can anyone explain SFS and FFS in terms of block layout or geometry?

A screenshot of the SFS defrag & salvage tools would be nice...

[motorollin]

@Gavilan
You said you copied the data from the 450MB hard drive to the 20GB one, THEN tried to install OS3.9. That suggests to me that you created the partitions on the disk under 3.1? If so then I think you need to boot with the Emergency Disk, reinstall a new RDB on the disk, install SFS, create the partitions, install OS3.9, THEN copy your data.

--
moto

[amigagr]

can't be said simpler, i agree

[Gavilan]

NOW i get it!!!!! I need to format the 20 GB under OS 3.9!!!!

Thanks!!!
Will try it tonight!
Tomorrow i let you know!!

Thanks to all with your great help!!

[Gavilan]

@amije: yeah, im sorry for forgetting telling that vital info...
My 4 way bufered inteface was bought second hand on ebay, so i came with NO idefix software at all
My cd rom is installed using blizzard scsi board (so 1230.device is correct)
But, after i installed 3.9, i no longer have access to the cd-rom drive, so i cant install latest boing bags and all that stuff...

One doubt at this point: if i just install SFS on the 20 GB drive (still under 3.1), and THEN i install 3.9 OS on the 20 GB, i still wont be able to format the third (the partition beyond 4 GB limit), right??

[amigagr]

oh boy i'm gonna shoot my self..., ok the thing goes like this: you have to install the latest sfs 1.252 in the 20gb disk BUT if you do it you must format ALL the partitions one by one. BEFORE you do anything do this: copy all the files of the boot partition (HD0:) to the HD1: and make HD1: bootable. install the sfs to the HD0: format it and then move the files back to the HD0:  if you don't do it and you just format HD0: because you don't have cdrom available at this point you will not be able to install 3,9 at all (...). procceed with the other partitions the same way, copy the files somewhere else install sfs and format, after put the files back.
i wonder why can't the amiga ''see'' the 1230scsi.device...
try to find in DEVS:DOSDrivers directory if there is a file CD or CD0, if there is not, try to find it in the emergency floppy of 3,9 and copy it to the DEVS:DOSDrivers. maybe it is called EMERGENCY_CD.

[Gavilan]

GOT IT!!!!
Thanks once again for all explanation & patience!!

You´ll be rewarded!!!

 :-D

[Thomas]

Hyperspeed wrote:
But isn't a valid bitmap there for a reason?

Of course it is. AFAIK each of the mentioned file systems maintains a bitmap of any kind. The bitmap holds the information which blocks of the disk are in use. Each bit represents one block. 0 means it is free and 1 means it is in use (or vice versa, don't know).

The main difference is how the file system handles the bitmap.

FFS is very safe on one hand because it keeps many redundancies. But it is also very memory efficient on the other hand because is does all changes in-place.

If you write a file to an FFS disk, first the bitmap is marked invalid, then the changed directory blocks are replaced, then the file's data is written to disk, then the changed bitmap blocks are replaced and finally the bitmap is marked valid again.

Now if you crash in the middle of this process, the bitmap remains marked invalid and next time the disk is mounted, the file system has to read each and every file and directory on the disk in order to recreate the bitmap, because it does not know what was changed before the crash. This is called validation (done by a program called Disk-Validator).

PFS handles it different. (I don't know SFS but I guess it is similar). PFS does not change existing blocks but creates copies of the blocks to be changed and only the final write to the root block with pointers to the new blocks in it is an in-place replacement. So if the computer crashes while PFS does its updates, the root block still points to the old directory structure which is completely valid. All changes which were made have vanished. Of course the blocks which were written are still there, but as the old bitmap still shows them as unused and there are no pointers to them, the file system does not know about them.

So with FFS, if a file was partially written, you might have a long validation session afterwards with unrecoverable errors in the end. But part of the data you wanted to save is still there.

With PFS the file system is up and usable again immediately after a crash but all partially saved data is lost.

Bye,
Thomas

[Hyperspeed]

Great explanation Thomas!

If PFS/SFS makes clones of all saved data then I hope there's a zero-writer compatible with this filesystem - sounds like a computer-forensics expert's dream!

So you have the benefit of no long validation procedures (essential for larger drives) but if you have a small drive don't you get the advantage of possibly being able to salvage some data AND not having crap strewn all over your platter surface?

:-D

[vk3heg]

Thomas wrote:

I don't know if the FastPrep software does anything special to the drive. You should try if you could use on of the standard prep programs like HDToolBox (version 3.5 or 3.9 preferred) or HDInstTool.

I have tryed to use the HDToolbox that comes with 3.1. But it just sits there and does nothing. No drives get listed. I have even placed a copy of the gvpscsi.device into the expansion directory of a copy of the install disk. This also didn't work.

[Hyperspeed]

Does the Expansion/ directory have any real system use?

The devices like serial.device, ahi.device and clipboard.device all go in SYS:Devs/

scsi.device is in Kickstart and 1230scsi.device is on the Phase5 SCSI-IV kits ROM, isn't the GVP device on the hardware?