2.5" harddisk question

[McVenco]

I'm currently looking for a harddisk to use in my A1200. Is there any specific thing I must look at or will any regular 2.5" drive work?

For instance: I can buy a Hitachi DK227A-50 very cheap, but will it work? According to the Hitachi website it has a IDE/ATA-3(UDMA) interface.

[TjLaZer]

Depends what OS you are using.  If you are using 3.1 or below you can use a HD up to 4GB no problems.  4GB and up will need a patched device driver and tools that can handle the larger drive.  OS 3.9 will be able to handle almost and 2.5" HD.  I would get a 20GB or 40GB to be safe.  The problem you will have is getting it partitioned and setup properly.  With some of the newer larger drives you will need to boot from a WB 3.9 disk to get it setup properly.  If you use a 3.1 disk it may not see it correctly.  You can also try HDInstTools from Aminet, that tool seems to work great as well.  Do not use HDToolBox from 3.1 or 3.0.

[McVenco]

Well, I have bought the Hitachi drive, and HDToolBox does see it correctly. I have made 2 partitions with it, one of 1GB, the other 3GB (plus something). I've only done this to test the drive. I currently have 3.0 roms and WB 3.0 disks (with a faulty install disk), but the 3.1 roms I bought at Vesalia should arrive this week.

I'm thinking of installing OS 3.9, can I install this without problems, or do I need the 3.1 disks for it?

Furthermore: what is the best filesystem to use if I want to install 3.9? I know that there are better ones than the 3.0/3.1 standard FFS, but which ones are there?


EDIT: I also own a copy of Amiga Forever 2005. Is there some way to copy Workbench 3.1 from there or is this not possible/allowed?

[CLS2086]

As you own it, you can.
Just copy over your WB 3.0 all the WB3.1.
You can also do a softkick of the k3.1

[McVenco]

CLS2086 wrote:
You can also do a softkick of the k3.1

That seems a bit redundant, as the 3.1 roms will arrive (probably) tomorrow :-)

[McVenco]

EDIT: double post. Sorry...

[McVenco]

I'm thinking of installing OS 3.9, can I install this without problems, or do I need the 3.1 disks for it?

Furthermore: what is the best filesystem to use if I want to install 3.9? I know that there are better ones than the 3.0/3.1 standard FFS, but which ones are there?

:bump:

Anyone?

[Thomas]

I'm thinking of installing OS 3.9, can I install this without problems, or do I need the 3.1 disks for it?

You don't need 3.1 disks. But you need an Amiga with 68020 processor, at least 6 MB RAM and a CD-ROM drive. And you need an installed Workbench (any version) with CD-ROM drivers. If you don't have access to the CD-ROM drive, you cannot read the OS3.9 CD.

If all the prerequisites are fulfilled, just insert the CD, run the OS3.9 installer and create an emergency boot disk. After that you can through away all your previous boot disks because now you can boot into OS3.9 from the emergency disk.

Furthermore: what is the best filesystem to use if I want to install 3.9? I know that there are better ones than the 3.0/3.1 standard FFS, but which ones are there?

You cannot use 3.0/3.1 FFS for a HDD bigger than 4GB. You have to use 3.5/3.9 FFS. Or SFS. There is also PFS3 but it does not work with OS3.9 if IDEfix is not installed, too.

Bye,
Thomas

[McVenco]

Thomas wrote:
You cannot use 3.0/3.1 FFS for a HDD bigger than 4GB. You have to use 3.5/3.9 FFS. Or SFS. There is also PFS3 but it does not work with OS3.9 if IDEfix is not installed, too.

Is there any difference in those filesystems? I'll be using a Blizzard PPC/68040 with enough RAM, so I'd like to have a file system which is pretty fast. Or would the A1200's own IDE controller be a bottleneck in speed?

[Flashlab]

I use SFS which works very well. I use it on all my partitions. SFS is free while PFS3 is not.

I read somewhere that they perform about equally. Maybe someone with more experience with PFS and SFS can tell you more because I only tried SFS.

You can use Blizkick with SpeedyIDE to speed up the IDE a bit I guess.

Also you don't really need a CD-ROM to install OS3.9. You could also copy the cd contents to you harddisk and assign AmigaOS3.9: to the folder you copied the files to. Only problem is you need to copy the files to you harddisk using a PC or other Amiga... Could be difficult since you have a 2.5" HD and those cables don't fit in standard 3.5" IDE systems like the PC...

[krize]

You should go for SFS, PFS3 is also very good, but commercial (and still availible?)..

The orginal IDE will sure be a bottleneck, but much better with SFS/PFS3..

[zombi]

Flashlab wrote:

Also you don't really need a CD-ROM to install OS3.9. You could also copy the cd contents to you harddisk and assign AmigaOS3.9: to the folder you copied the files to. Only problem is you need to copy the files to you harddisk using a PC or other Amiga... Could be difficult since you have a 2.5" HD and those cables don't fit in standard 3.5" IDE systems like the PC...

It is very easy to connect a 2.5" HD to PC. Just use an usb harddisk case. Those are about 10$.

[McVenco]

You can use Blizkick with SpeedyIDE to speed up the IDE a bit I guess.

I've seen the Blizkick .readme on Aminet, but I'm still not quite sure what it exactly does. Any light on that?

Also you don't really need a CD-ROM to install OS3.9. You could also copy the cd contents to you harddisk and assign AmigaOS3.9: to the folder you copied the files to.

Since I have an Archos Overdrive CD-ROM, that is not a problem :-D

[Flashlab]

Well the CD-ROM problem is solved;-).

Blizkick softkicks kickstarts. But that's not all. Blizkick can make your OS3.9 system a single reboot and remove some rom problems and add functionality to your existing kickstart. I use NoIDE (as I have a SCSI system) NoClick for my floppy drive and fixes. I also have a lot of 3.9 RomUpdate modules loaded with Blizkick.

[orange]

There is also PFS3 but it does not work with OS3.9 if IDEfix is not installed, too.

but Thomas, PFS3direct_scsi seems to work just fine on A4000,80Gb IDE,KS3.1, builtin IDE port   without any extra software like IDEfix?