80G HD only seen as 20G??

[dvvrue95]

HI folks,

I have a Maxtor 6Y080L0 YAR4 80G hard drive which I have installed in a A4000 as a slave drive. When I use HDToolbox it sees it and identifies it correctly and with a capacity of 76.3G, however ...... when I come to partition the drive although it show it as 76.3G at the top of the partitioning screen it only allows me to partition 20G, I have used the default setup so I end up with 4, 5G partitions.
I am running OS3.5, HDToolbox 44.18, FFS 45.1 and SCSI.device 43.3, I have not set any jumpers on the Maxtor to limit its size so does anybody have any ideas what is happening?

Ian

[ZeBeeDee]

Try using the updated version of HDToolbox from Aminet here

[Tumbleweed]

Have a look here:

http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/download.html

software to try:

fixhddsize.lha and check4gb.lha

The former will read in the correct drive size. HDToolbox sometimes has problems with larger drives. The latter will tell you if your set up will allow you to see partitions beyond the "4GB barrier".

One solution is to install IDEFix97 (to get round the limitations of SCSI.device) and install smartfilesystem as the file system.

[Thomas]

I end up with 4, 5G partitions.

Be sure to have the boot partition completely inside the first 4GB of the drive, otherwise it won't boot.

One solution is to install IDEFix97 (to get round the limitations of SCSI.device) and install smartfilesystem as the file system.

He's using OS 3.5, no need for additional software (although SFS is worth using anyway).

Bye,
Thomas

[KatManDEW]

On a somewhat related topic, I just installed OS 3.9 on a 50 gig Seagate on my A2000. I setup the first partition as 1 gig, the second as 4 gig, and the rest of the drive as four 10.4 gig partitiona. It worked, and I was able to install OS 3.9 on the first partition, but none of the other partitiona show up.

Do I have to change the mountlist to get the other partitiona to show up? Auto Mount was selected for those partitions in HDToolBox.

[save2600]

On your accelerator/combo card, you've got a SCSI bios chip. Which revision is it? Usually labeled on the chip itself, socketed and nearest to the SCSI bus (or output in the rear). If you have an older version than 4.5, your GVP card WILL "see" the full GB range of the entire HD and even let you "partition" it, but you will not get the familiar NDOS: icons on the desktop that would allow you to normally format.

If anyone knows of a software workaround that would be great, but I do not believe one exists. The regular ones like IDEFix, fudging with Mountlist, etc., do not work. You must have an updated SCSI chip in your GVP for monstrous drives to work properly.

BTW: Of curiosity, I bet your second partition is slightly larger than 4gb. Get that down to 3.9gb and see if its icon pops up on the desktop...

[KatManDEW]

Thanks for info!

I had to drop it down to 2 gig to get the second partition to show up, but the other partitiona still do not show up.

I'll dig around in there and find my SCSI bios revision.

Thanks!

[save2600]

Ewww... I'd bet you a Smithwick's you have a revision 4.1 or lower. See... with a BIOS that old, you can set up a few partitions anyway you like (just make sure they're 2gb or less), until they equal a certain amount. If you have 4.1 or 3.x - the limit will be 4gb (total, all partitions added up) I bet. HDToolbox will show the entire drive AND your partitions, but you will only be able to realistically work with a fraction of that drive until you upgrade. Even if you can trick OS3.9/GVP to recognise another partition playing with HDToolbox's settings - DON'T DO IT! The other partitions you brought back to life will be unstable at best.

I know what you're thinking... GGRREEAATT! Another Amiga purchase that will get botched and handled unprofessionally!   lol   There's a guy here though that can set you up with more modern SCSI Bios revisions. Maybe even a 'Guru' ROM for your board. Do a search here on A.org and you'll find him...

You should change your tagline to read: "Amiga - the computer you'll need a bottomless wallet for"...  lol

[KatManDEW]

As Rosanna Rosanna-danna says, "It's always something..."

I'm progably gonna owe you a Smithwicks... My best friend drinks Smithwicks, so I'll get one from him. I'm a Fosters man myself.

I'll do a search for that bios update info. Thanks!

[KatManDEW]

Funny thing is that if I hold both mouse buttons for the boot menu, all the partitions show up.

[KatManDEW]

I did searches for all combinations of SCSI BIOS revision, and GURU ROM, and didn't come up with anything relevant.

[Gavilan]

@KatManDEW: i have the exact same HD on my Amiga.

Had the exact same issues (look for a thread "problems using OS 3.9 and large drives).
The tool that Thomas suggested didd a fantastic job.
In about 10 seconds, HdToolbox did recongize all partitions, and im now happy and proud owner of a full 80GB on my Amiga!!!!

Use his tool!! You wont regret it!!

Regards

Sebastian

[dvvrue95]

Hi folks,

thanks for all feedback and nice to see related issues
(sort of) getting resolved.

1. Updating HDToolbox did not imrove things i.e. still formatted as 20g only, but at least I know I'm as up todate
as I can be in this area.

2. Great link from Tumblweeed for Thomas' little progs.
FFixhddsize.lha worked particularly well I too now have
a fully installed and formatted 80G drive.

many thanks, Ian

[Thomas]

Could you please run this little test program: http://mitglied.lycos.de/thomasrapp/getgeometry.lha

I would like to see if there is something HDToolbox stumbles across or if it just does not calculate correctly.

The program reads the drive's capacity with different methods. Perhaps these methods give different results.

Run it from the shell like this:

getgeometry scsi.device 0

replace scsi.device and 0 by the device and unit you chose in fixhddsize.

Thanks
Thomas

[KatManDEW]

The drive in my A1200 is a Toshiba MK1517GAP, which is supposed to have a formatted capacity of 15 gig. fixhdd says it is 9 gig, and so does getgeometry.

I'm using OS 3.9.