MountList for my 120MB Quantum HD for A1000

[blakespot]

Hey there,

I am trying to get a Quantum LPS120 HD formatted for use under KS/WB 1.3 with an Amiga 1000. The drive will be connected to a Microbotics StarBoard II with StarDrive SCSI module. I've been running a 40MB Quantum in this config for some time, but the drive became corrupted when a Guru landed during a write and disk-verifier won't fix it.

So here's another drive.

Now, the StarDrive software is geared towards WB 1.2 - pre FFS. There's an addendum on the disk that speaks of larger than 32MB or whatever it was volumes working fine with the controller under WB 1.3 with the proper MountList entries, etc. But the tools are 1.2-centric.

Here's a conversation from years back I started, showing some of the issues I hit with this first time around...

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49567

So, I've run the AskDrive software to get info on the drive, part of the StarDrive disk, and it shows me this - but some of the info is conflicting. I want to use this to build a MountList by hand, but it seems I need more than what's here:


drive info for a Quantum LPS120 HD by blakespot, on Flickr

Any helpful tips on what this MountList should look like for this drive? Seems I need to mount it and then format it under WB 1.3, as opposed to with the StarDrive formatter that thinks 32MB or so is the max partition size allowable (pre-FFS).

Thanks...





bp

[blakespot]

What util would I even use to format the disk under 1.3? There's no HDToolbox. Or is there a 1.3 HDToolbox somewhere?

Tnx.




bp

[Thomas]

I am not sure what you are asking for. All needed information is shown in the screen shot. It even has the correct syntax. You only need to copy & paste it into the mountlist.

Why do you ask for HDToolbox? You can only use either a mountlist or HDToolbox, not both(*). You say that the software is "pre-FFS" (whatever that means) so I'd suppose that the controller is not RDB-compatible and thus HDToolbox wouldn't be of any help anyway. Anyhow, HDToolbox of WB 2.1 does work on Kick 1.3.

(*) well, you could use both, but you have to be very careful to not create overlapping partitions

[blakespot]

I am not sure what you are asking for. All needed information is shown in the screen shot. It even has the correct syntax. You only need to copy & paste it into the mountlist.

Well, for one, does it have 87 or 173 BlockPerTrack?



bp

[Thomas]

You should only use the lines which contain a '=' sign.


Edit: here is a mountlist made from the screenshot with lines added to use FFS:

Code: [Select]


DH0:
     Device         = StarDrive.device
     Unit           = 4
     Flags          = 0
     Surfaces       = 1
     BlocksPerTrack = 173
     Interleave     = 0
     Reserved       = 2
     BufMemType     = 0
     Buffers        = 30
     LowCyl         = 0
     HighCyl        = 459
     FileSystem     = l:FastFileSystem
     GlobVec        = -1
     DosType        = 0x444F5301
     Mount          = 1
#

DH1:
     Device         = StarDrive.device
     Unit           = 4
     Flags          = 0
     Surfaces       = 1
     BlocksPerTrack = 173
     Interleave     = 0
     Reserved       = 2
     BufMemType     = 0
     Buffers        = 30
     LowCyl         = 460
     HighCyl        = 919
     FileSystem     = l:FastFileSystem
     GlobVec        = -1
     DosType        = 0x444F5301
     Mount          = 1
#

DH2:
     Device         = StarDrive.device
     Unit           = 4
     Flags          = 0
     Surfaces       = 1
     BlocksPerTrack = 173
     Interleave     = 0
     Reserved       = 2
     BufMemType     = 0
     Buffers        = 30
     LowCyl         = 920
     HighCyl        = 1379
     FileSystem     = l:FastFileSystem
     GlobVec        = -1
     DosType        = 0x444F5301
     Mount          = 1
#


[blakespot]

Great. I did go ahead and build that mountlist and ran the StarDrive software to detect errors and to low level format the drive (whether that was needed, or wise...).

So, how do I actually format the disk? The tools that came with the StarDrive controller are pre-FFS and there is an addendum that speaks of full FFS compat, but the formatting software that came with, I believe, will not do a FFS format.

Can I use the AmigaDos 1.3 CLI 'format' command to do it, or is that only for floppies? Any suggestion on switches to enable, other than FFS?

Thanks much.




bp

[nicholas]

C:Format should work nicely.

I recommend PFS3AIO rather than FFS though, assuming it works on your machine but I see no obvious reason why it wouldn't.

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/pfs3aio

[blakespot]

I recommend PFS3AIO rather than FFS though, assuming it works on your machine but I see no obvious reason why it wouldn't.

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/pfs3aio

Why, in a nutshell?

All the old 1.3, 1.2 apps will play happy? What is the win? Thanks.



bp

[nicholas]

Why, in a nutshell?

All the old 1.3, 1.2 apps will play happy? What is the win? Thanks.



bp

Faster file and directory operations, rock solid stability, slim to no chance of any filesystem corruption, small memory footprint, still actively maintained, open source, very optimized code and Toni Wilen and Piru are both working on it which is a +75bazillion in my book.

It rocks basically!

edit: Your apps will be blissfully unaware of what filesystem they are running on btw. apart from Disksalv type tools I guess, but there is PFS Doctor for that. not that you'll need it very often if at all.

You'll find the tools and docs in this archive but don't use the filesystem handler from this one as it won't work, use the PFS3AIO handler I posted earlier.

http://aminet.net/disk/misc/PFS3_53.lha

[Thomas]

C:Format should work nicely.

Actually it is Sys:System/Format.

You should use the quick option with it because you already low-level formatted the drive and the format command cannot reformat it anyway.

Code: [Select]

format drive dh0: name MyFirstPartition ffs noicons quick

[nicholas]

Actually it is Sys:System/Format.

You should use the quick option with it because you already low-level formatted the drive and the format command cannot reformat it anyway.

Code: [Select]

format drive dh0: name MyFirstPartition ffs noicons quick

So it is, my mistake. That'll teach me to post without having slept at all last night!

I still think he should go with PFS3 rather than FFS though, unless you can suggest any reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea?

[Thomas]

I am quite sure that the PFS3 tools need Kick 2.0+

Also I don't know if the WB 1.3 format program is able to format foreign file systems. So if pfsformat does not run on WB 1.3, you are a bit lost...

[nicholas]

I am quite sure that the PFS3 tools need Kick 2.0+

Also I don't know if the WB 1.3 format program is able to format foreign file systems. So if pfsformat does not run on WB 1.3, you are a bit lost...

Toni Wilen fixed it to run on KS1.2+

From the readme:

This is improved all-in-one 100% OS 1.x/2.x/3.x/68000+ compatible
port of recently open sourced Professional File System III (PFS3),
SVN version. Sources available in AROS source tree.

Changes:

2.1
---

- Fixed access fault when booting under KS 1.3.

2.0
---

- Improved version of PFS3 for KS1.x
- Direct SCSI merged with standard PFS3.
- NSD support added.
- Autodetects block access mode (TD, TD64, NSD, DirectSCSI),
  does not mount any partitions that can't be fully or partially
  accessed due to driver limits.
- >256 block transfer ROM IDE driver bug workaround included.
  ("Max Transfer" bug)

Includes also all PFS3 for KS1.X updates:

1.1
---

- Merged latest official SVN updates.
- Compatible with KS 1.3 + 2.x extended ROM CDTV with v37 exec.
- Enabled removable media support.
- Fixed ACTION_DIE (unmount) crash.
- WB 1.x C:Info reports correct state information.

Autodetection details:
----------------------

If last block of partition is inside of first 4G of drive:

- Test if standard CMD_READ can access last block.
- Test if HD_SCSICMD Read(10) can access last block.

If both tests failed, do not mount, show error requester.

HD_SCSICMD test is needed because A590 pre-7.0 and CDTV SCSI
CMD_READ have 1G limit, HD_SCSICMD does not have any limits.
(Other old SCSI controllers may have similar restrictions.)

If last block of partition is outside of first 4G of drive:

- Test if NSD is supported and can access last block.
- Test if TD64 is supported and can access last block.
- Test if HD_SCSICMD Read(10) can access last block.

If all tests failed: do not mount, no requester shown.

If DOSType = PDSx: test HD_SCSICMD Read(10) first.

[nicholas]

I am quite sure that the PFS3 tools need Kick 2.0+

Also I don't know if the WB 1.3 format program is able to format foreign file systems. So if pfsformat does not run on WB 1.3, you are a bit lost...

Ah, I see you wrote "PFS3 tools" not "PFS3".

That could indeed be a sticking point but there's no harm in trying them or just a plain old "format DRIVE dh0: NAME System QUICK" if the PFS3 tools failed.

Nothing ventured nothing gained.

[Thomas]

I just tried it and it's like I said: the normal Format program of WB 1.3 is not able to format a PFS partition and sfsformat does not run on Kick 1.3. So there is no way to use PFS3 on Kick 1.3 without preparing the harddrive on a Kick 2.0+ machine first.


Edit: here is the mountlist changed to use PFS3aio if you want to try it anyway:

Code: [Select]


SDH0:
     Device         = StarDrive.device
     Unit           = 4
     Flags          = 0
     Surfaces       = 1
     BlocksPerTrack = 173
     Interleave     = 0
     Reserved       = 2
     BufMemType     = 0
     Buffers        = 30
     LowCyl         = 0
     HighCyl        = 459
     FileSystem     = l:pfs3_aio-handler
     GlobVec        = -1
     DosType        = 0x50465303
     Mount          = 1
#

SDH1:
     Device         = StarDrive.device
     Unit           = 4
     Flags          = 0
     Surfaces       = 1
     BlocksPerTrack = 173
     Interleave     = 0
     Reserved       = 2
     BufMemType     = 0
     Buffers        = 30
     LowCyl         = 460
     HighCyl        = 919
     FileSystem     = l:pfs3_aio-handler
     GlobVec        = -1
     DosType        = 0x50465303
     Mount          = 1
#

SDH2:
     Device         = StarDrive.device
     Unit           = 4
     Flags          = 0
     Surfaces       = 1
     BlocksPerTrack = 173
     Interleave     = 0
     Reserved       = 2
     BufMemType     = 0
     Buffers        = 30
     LowCyl         = 920
     HighCyl        = 1379
     FileSystem     = l:pfs3_aio-handler
     GlobVec        = -1
     DosType        = 0x50465303
     Mount          = 1
#