SFS problem

[SimonV]

Today I tried to install SFS with a modified WB 3.1 INSTALL disk. I discarded what was not needed and placed Smartfilesystem 1.279 in the "L" drawer and SFSformat in the root.

I more or less followed the tutorial as described in the wiki that explains how to use winuae to prep a HD with SFS for use in an A1200. Obviously I just skipped the winuae part.

I used a 60gb HD that I wanted to split in 2. I made one DH0: with 400Mb and  with the remaining space I made DH1:

DH0: shows up fine and I can format it with SFSformat after it shows up as DH0:ndos

But now the problem: DH1: show up fine in HDtoolbox ( but wrong partition size ) but it does not show up on my workbench as DH1:ndos and so I can not format it.

On DH0: I could install workbench without problems, and it boots fine.

So how do I get my second partition with all the diskspace ?

[Heiroglyph]

I had a similar problem.  The partition was there, but no ndos icon.

I had to format it from the shell instead of through Workbench.

[SimonV]

I tried that ... my system crashed when I did that.

[Heiroglyph]

It was my understanding that you could only do a quick format on large drives.

Did you try quick?

[SimonV]

i did: df0:SFSformat DRIVE DH1: NAME Work

isn't that a quickformat ? It formatted my dh0: instantly this way .

[Heiroglyph]

I looked at the docs and sfsformat only does quick.

I'm afraid I can't help, good luck.

[Xanxi]

I guess this is a problem of 4GB limit.

Do you have anything providing access to more than 4GB (NSDpatch, patched scsi.device)?

If not, you could make DH1: within the limit of 4GB only.

Tell us more what hardwareand ROM you have so we can point you to a suitable solution.

[SimonV]

I used a standard escom install disk with standard hdtoolbox

I have an A1200 with blizzard 1230@50Mhz with 32MB and 3.1 kickroms

Why am i trying SFS when there is still that 4gb limit unless it's the HDtoolbox that is giving me problems now ?

[wawrzon]

my understanding is that big drives may wery well be full formatted but it isnt necessary because it takes time as quick format is enough. anyway i dont think it causes trouble. not from my experience. what i wonder about is why is everybody asking for trouble using sfs. sigh.

[Xanxi]

Everything about passing the 4GB barrier is explained here.
http://www.youngmonkey.ca/nose/articles/NewTekniques_9810/AmigaInMotion.html
Your setup won't allow you to have more than 4GB, regardless if you are using SFS or not' without a patch for the scsi.device.

[A4000_Mad]

Everything about passing the 4GB barrier is explained here.
http://www.youngmonkey.ca/nose/articles/NewTekniques_9810/AmigaInMotion.html
Your setup won't allow you to have more than 4GB, regardless if you are using SFS or not' without a patch for the scsi.device.

Useful link thanks :drink:

[SimonV]

Why SFS ... I just want bigger partitions and seemed the most modern filesystem to me. If I am mistaken please enlighten me ;-)

[wawrzon]

sfs has long time reliability problems, at least from my and some other people experience. with data loss in perspective. i would advise to stay with ffs or to get pfs3. its been told it has been released to the public. it also has been supplied on cd with amiga future no 85. although the update there doesnt function out of the box and its difficult to tell how oficial this release is.

[Xanxi]

Why SFS ... I just want bigger partitions and seemed the most modern filesystem to me. If I am mistaken please enlighten me ;-)

I tried to explain you that it is not a problem with SFS, it's a problem with your device that needs to be patched to use more than 4GB on a hard drive.
It is the same problem with SFS, FFS or PFS here.

Just follow the instruction on the link to learn how to patch your system.

[mechy]

Today I tried to install SFS with a modified WB 3.1 INSTALL disk. I discarded what was not needed and placed Smartfilesystem 1.279 in the "L" drawer and SFSformat in the root.

I more or less followed the tutorial as described in the wiki that explains how to use winuae to prep a HD with SFS for use in an A1200. Obviously I just skipped the winuae part.

I used a 60gb HD that I wanted to split in 2. I made one DH0: with 400Mb and  with the remaining space I made DH1:

DH0: shows up fine and I can format it with SFSformat after it shows up as DH0:ndos

But now the problem: DH1: show up fine in HDtoolbox ( but wrong partition size ) but it does not show up on my workbench as DH1:ndos and so I can not format it.

On DH0: I could install workbench without problems, and it boots fine.

So how do I get my second partition with all the diskspace ?

Sfs is a good filesystem, its much faster than FFS and supports long filenames,but it cannot fix the scsi.device which only supports 4gb partitions! you need to use nsd or td64 patches.

I have run SFS since it originally came out,and my system is still going fine(10 yrs?) as a matter of fact,its run on all the amigas i have.. Don't listen to the people above who don't set their stuff up correct and then complain its not reliable.You will need td64 and or nsd patch to be able to use all of the 60gb hd.
Its worth getting the full 1.277 archive that has the sfs docs. read them!

http://strohmayer.org/

Be sure to set the mask and max transfer on the crappy 1200 ide so you don't have problems(i assume you are using a A1200).values for these are suggested in the docs.you MUST do this.be sure to hit return where you type the mask and max transfer in or the values won't "stick".
As far as i know you should ALWAYS format sfs with the quick option. You can use workbench to format it just fine,you do not need to use sfs format.
you can use SFSCHECK in the 1.277 archive also to check the partition and make sure its ok after formatting.

Its amazing so much misinfo and problems still go on with sfs. RTFM people