Setting up an 80Gb hard drive on OS3.9

[Toddles]

Hi all,

I have a Western Digital 80Gb Hard drive that I rescued from an old PC that I have been trying to get going properly on an A4000 Desktop via the motherboard's IDE interface. I'm using PFS3 and its supplied HDToolbox program which says it's an 8Gb drive. I've then added the SCSI direct PFS3 filesystem to the partitions, done a quick format on them and installed WB 3.1, then 3.9 with 3 boing bags, including the ROM updates. The OS 3.9 HDToolbox then sees it as a 80Gb drive but won't let me set it up using any more than 8Gb. Any ideas how to overcome this?

[johnklos]

I've set up larger than 8 gig drives in 3.1 by manually setting the parameters (for blocks per track, tracks, et cetera) in HDToolBox. It isn't straightforward, but it works.

[NovaCoder]

Hi all,

I have a Western Digital 80Gb Hard drive that I rescued from an old PC that I have been trying to get going properly on an A4000 Desktop via the motherboard's IDE interface. I'm using PFS3 and its supplied HDToolbox program which says it's an 8Gb drive. I've then added the SCSI direct PFS3 filesystem to the partitions, done a quick format on them and installed WB 3.1, then 3.9 with 3 boing bags, including the ROM updates. The OS 3.9 HDToolbox then sees it as a 80Gb drive but won't let me set it up using any more than 8Gb. Any ideas how to overcome this?

Maybe switch to SFS?

[zipper]

If only 8 GB is available it's not a file system problem but device driver AFAIK.

[Tumbleweed]

If only 8 GB is available it's not a file system problem but device driver AFAIK.

yep. Its mot likely an issue with scsi.device, you need to patch it to see beyond 8GB. You can find the patch on aminet. However, a better solution IMO is to install idefix. Thats what I did and I am running an 80GB Samsung drive on the internal IDE port alongside an IDE DVD-Writer. I am also using Smart File System, but PFS3 I have heard is also good.

Also to fix HD size you can use FixHDDsize by Thomas Rapp - http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/download.html

Weed

[jenfry]

yep. Its mot likely an issue with scsi.device, you need to patch it to see beyond 8GB. You can find the patch on aminet. However, a better solution IMO is to install idefix. Thats what I did and I am running an 80GB Samsung drive on the internal IDE port alongside an IDE DVD-Writer. I am also using Smart File System, but PFS3 I have heard is also good.

Also to fix HD size you can use FixHDDsize by Thomas Rapp - http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/download.html

Weed

I'm trying to install a 20GB hard drive on a 1200 with accelerator board; I have 3.0 kickstart and I'm trying to use FastROMAtaPatch for the scsi.device and fixhdsize, but the maximum amout is always 8GB!!
What can I do??

[whiteb]

I'm trying to install a 20GB hard drive on a 1200 with accelerator board; I have 3.0 kickstart and I'm trying to use FastROMAtaPatch for the scsi.device and fixhdsize, but the maximum amout is always 8GB!!
What can I do??

The answer is in the posts above.

Run IDEFIX, it contains a number of patches to Scsi.device that are sessential, and run a better File system than FFS, like SPS or something.

I have a 20GIG in my A1200.

But AFAIK, Workbench 3.9+ you do not need IDEFIX.  BUT !!!!!!!!!!, to install 3.9, you need a CDROM, to access the disk, and since you do not get those drivers from the CDROM until you have a cdrom drive working.... hmmmm..

Use IDEFIX, install 3.9, delete IDEFIX.  but as you have kickstart 3.0, you are running Workbench 3.0/3.1 yes ?, IDEfix for you my buddy.

[jenfry]

The answer is in the posts above.

Run IDEFIX, it contains a number of patches to Scsi.device that are sessential, and run a better File system than FFS, like SPS or something.

I have a 20GIG in my A1200.

Buf IDEfix is free? I found idefix97.lha, is the one you are talking about?

[whiteb]

Buf IDEfix is free? I found idefix97.lha, is the one you are talking about?

IDEFIX is not free, you can 'Register it' through Vesalia, but it is FULLY functional in its downloadable state, yes IDEFix97 from Aminet. Check the docs.

[edit] from Readme file.

"Restrictions of unregistered version: Nag requesters, otherwise fully functional."

[jenfry]

IDEFIX is not free, you can 'Register it' through Vesalia, but it is FULLY functional in its downloadable state, yes IDEFix97 from Aminet. Check the docs.

[edit] from Readme file.

"Restrictions of unregistered version: Nag requesters, otherwise fully functional."

From the idefix manual:
   To use a new harddrive or removable media you need to format it first using the program HDToolBox. This program is located in the Tools directory of your Workbench partition. For instructions, consult your Amiga operation manual.
As you can see idefix does nothing about preparing the hard drive... the original hdtoolbox and the alternative one configure the drive 8GB maximum.
I'll continue reading the idefix manual, but I think it will not help me.
There's nothing more to read about that. The HD must be prepared with hdtoolbox or similar before proceding and they all see it as 8GB, as mentioned before...

[Tumbleweed]

Your sort of stuck in chicken and egg situation. What to do is construct a custom boot floppy, which includes idefix. You can boot the A1200 using it and then run HDToolBox to configure the HDD. When configuring the HDD create a small no more than 4GB boot partition and isntall workbench on it. For my set up I have my 80GB drive configured with a 2GB boot partition (DH0) and a 2GB cache partition (DH1) and the rest is (DH3).

Weed

[rvo_nl]

Your sort of stuck in chicken and egg situation. What to do is construct a custom boot floppy, which includes idefix.

Yes. like the os3.9 bootdisk. Just put c:idefix in the startup-sequence, make sure it loads the OS3.9 ROM update from CD and reboots, and you're set. (under WB3.1 you'll always need to use diskchange command to mount partitions above 8GB, unless you use PFS3 iirc). Dont forget to change your filesystem to something that supports large devices, like SFS, PFS3 or a patched FFS! And dont make your boot partition larger than 4GB, to be safe.

[smf]

You should prepare your partitions with the os3.9 hdtoolbox since that's the best partitionprogram we got for classic.
It's great that you have PFS3, use the directscsi version so that you wont have to bother about your version of scsi.device.

Check this out  btw->
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fixhddsize

[a1200]

Keep your boot partition relatively small, I think >2GB partitions are problematic when using FFS.

[rvo_nl]

yes, although Im pretty sure its 4gb. I do recommend starting with a 100mb wb3.1 partition used just for solving problems. its always  a good idea to have a partition that doesnt require rom updates or idefix patches to start.