Amiga HDD Partition just became NDOS

[Everblue]

I have an Amiga 1200 with a 60GB HDD - I had previously installed a few SFS partitions and all of a sudden a couple just 'disappeared'. I tried to create them again, but they won't appear on Workbench even though they are visible in HDInstaller software.

I have subsequently created a 500MB Partition in FFS and another two 3.5 GB FFS partitions and all seemed fine.

Suddenly today, my 500MB partition suddenly became "NDOS" and I had to format it again

Any idea what the heck is going on?

Thanks!


E'Blue

[Tenacious]

Do you let iBrowse cache thousands of small files to your HD?

[motorollin]

Are you using a patched scsi.device which allows you to write data beyond the 4GB barrier?

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moto

[Everblue]

Hmmmm not that I know of. I cant create partitions larger than 4gb.

[motorollin]

It doesn't matter how big they are. What matters is whether they extend more than 4GB in to the drive. You said you are using 0.5GB FFS and 2*3.5GB SFS. That means you're using 7.5GB of the drive. If you haven't taken steps to ensure your scsi.device is able to write beyond the first 4GB of the drive then when it needs to do so, it will start writing to the beginning of the drive instead. That overwrites the partition table, hence the disappearing partitions.

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moto

[Everblue]

Oh crud - makes perfect sense.

Using workbench 3.1, how can I fix it to go beyond the 8gigs limit?

Cheers

E'Blue

[motorollin]

Using 3.1, you can install IDEfix to patch scsi.device to allow it to write beyond 4GB. You also need to ensure that any partitions which cross (or are beyond) the 4GB barrier don't use 3.1's FFS - so SFS will be fine.

Once you have done all that, it might be wise to run check4gb as this will ensure that your configuration is safe.

One final point to make is that OS3.9 comes with an updated scsi.device and FFS which does all this for you.

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moto

[Everblue]

Wow thanks a lot for the info... So just to double check I understood:

1. I create a small partition for Workbench 3.1 (100megs)
2. Install Workbench 3.1
3. Install IDEFIX
4. Create partitions of any size, including >4gib
5. Fill them with goodies


Thanks!


E'Blue

[motorollin]

Spot on. Just a couple of clarifications:

0. Install SFS in the RDB of the drive
1. I create a small SFS partition for Workbench 3.1 (100megs)
2. Install Workbench 3.1
3. Install IDEFIX
4. Create SFS partitions of any size, including >4gib
5. Run check4gb to ensure everything is ok
6. Fill them with goodies

[Everblue]

Thanks a lot!

[Thomas]

Still one important step is missing:

0. Install SFS in the RDB of the drive
1. I create a small SFS partition for Workbench 3.1 (100megs)
2. Install Workbench 3.1
3. Install IDEFIX
3a. edit s:startup-sequence and replace c:idefix by c:loadide reset
4. Create SFS partitions of any size, including >4gib
5. Run check4gb to ensure everything is ok
6. Fill them with goodies

If you leave out step 3a, IDEfix does nothing for you.

Note that IDEfix is shareware which nags with registration requesters. There is a free solution, too, but it is more complicated to install. The files needed are:

http://os.amigaworld.de/index.php?lang=en&page=37
http://aminet.net/package/util/sys/patchstrip
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/FFS43.19_patch
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/LoadModule

Bye,
Thomas

[Everblue]

Thanks Thomas!

[motorollin]

I forgot about the loadreset  :oops: I haven't used IDEfix for years though.

--
moto

[taunusand]

Maybe I don't read this right, but..

Install SFS in the RDB of the drive??

I think I have missed something!! :-?

[Colani1200]

taunusand wrote:
Maybe I don't read this right, but..

Install SFS in the RDB of the drive??

I think I have missed something!! :-?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Rigid_Disk_Block

HDtoolbox has an option to install a filesystem in the RDB. Just read the guide that comes with SFS package.