Partitioning 8GB CF?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Dumb question, but it's 4am local time and brain isn't working anymore.  

Finally getting around to fully prepping my 8GB CF card.  Had previously been using it with a couple small partitions without issue.  Now I'm trying to create the following:

DH0: Workbench 3.9, 400MB
DH1: Work, 1.8GB
DH2: Documents, 1.8GB
DH3: Games, 3.3GB

After I save changes to drive and reboot only the first two partitions show up on Workbench.

I have no problems setting up the partitions under HDToolbox, it sees the full capacity of the CF card, and am running a fully patched 3.9 with all the Boing Bags so shouldn't have a problem with drives that size... Also I've successfully created more than two partitions in the past, but they've been smaller, so it's not some odd limitation of only supporting two partitions.  Any ideas what I need to do to get my other partitions to show up?

Ummmm... it just dawned on me as I was writing this, could it be a limitation of the GVP ROM on my GeForce controller?  Will need to check Babel's website again.  Ugh.  I suspect if that's the case, even an alternate file system like PFS wouldn't resolve this issue, I'd need the Guru ROM.  :-/

Is anyone with a GVP controller able to address more than 4GB drives?

[Thomas]

Please run this: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/downloads/check4gb.lha
and attach the report here.

[Kesa]

Oh thank god. Now there is 2 of us whos brain don't work properly  :crazy:

[Bamiga2002]

Just switch to PFS3ds or PFS3-AIO and with some luck things will suddenly work. Just remember to use "quick format" when formatting the partitions.

[orcish75]

Hi Oldsmobile_Mike,

I've got a GVP A2000-HD+8 in my A2000 and running an 18GB SCSI drive off it. I've got the GVP ROM 4.15 from Ralph Babel's site and running PFS3ds as the filesystem. You certainly don't need the Guru ROM to access more than 4GB safely on a hard drive.

The Guru ROM does have a couple of extra features over the GVP 4.15 ROM, but if you set up your HDD properly with PFS3ds and the GVP 4.15 ROM, your access speeds and ability to read more than 4GB is exactly the same as if you were using the Guru ROM.

I haven't yet played with PFS3AIO, so I'm not sure if there's an option to force the Direct SCSI option in PFS3AIO which is needed to access more than 4GB, I'm sure the docs will mention how to do it.

I've always used HDInsttools rather than HDToolbox for drives larger than 4GB and always use the quick format option as Bamiga2002 has pointed out. I've also found that it's best to keep your boot partition smaller than 1GB otherwise it doesn't always boot.

Cheers

[Bamiga2002]

I haven't yet played with PFS3AIO, so I'm not sure if there's an option to force the Direct SCSI option in PFS3AIO which is needed to access more than 4GB, I'm sure the docs will mention how to do it.

I've always used HDInsttools rather than HDToolbox for drives larger than 4GB and always use the quick format option as Bamiga2002 has pointed out. I've also found that it's best to keep your boot partition smaller than 1GB otherwise it doesn't always boot.

Cheers

PFS3AIO should sniff the right access mode automatically, so no need to worry. Also HDInstTools is good on WB1.3, but with WB2.0 and up use HDToolBox. HDInstTools often gives wrong values.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Please run this: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/downloads/check4gb.lha
and attach the report here.

Hi Thomas!

Thanks for the link.  I ran your program a couple different ways, from Workbench and from shell with different options.  Attached are a couple screenshots of output, can you help me understand what I'm looking at here?  The first detected all my partitions and is showing "Check * S"... not sure what that means?  SCSI-Direct?  And the second shows "gvpscsi.device unit xx does not support harddrives larger than 4GB".  That does not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling that this is going to work.  

On the bright side I got an email response from Ralph Babel, but it's almost too technical for me to understand, haha.  I guess I just assumed that 3.9 should include everything to support hard drives larger than 4GB without changing the file system, no?  Do I need to mount the partitions separately somehow?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Bump?

Any feedback on the above screenshots?

Feel like there's got to be an obvious solution to this, if the GVP controller doesn't require a Guru ROM to address partitions outside of 4GB and OS 3.9 should have support for it built-in... you'd think they should just work?  Never that easy.  I know, I know, install PFS, I'll get around to it if no other solutions present themselves, LOL.  

[Thomas]

I don't know what FFS V46 is. It's surely nothing official and thus not recommended.

You shouldn't use Directory Cache on harddrives. It adds unnecessary redundancies and is prone to errors.

The driver of your SCSI controller does not support NSD or TD64 and therefore needs a file system which uses Direct-SCSI to accesss harddrives larger than 4GB. PFS3ds or PFS3aio are two options. FFS V44 is another option (not V43 and not V45+). SFS V1.84 is also an option (not V1.277+).

[zipper]

You shouldn't use Directory Cache on harddrives. It adds unnecessary redundancies and is prone to errors.

True and even underestimated - did it once by oversight and oh boy those errors! Luckily under 4 GB so ReOrg could fix it.

[nicholas]

As others have suggested you are best off installing PFS3AIO to the RDB with HDToolBox and then quick formatting your partitions with PFS.

Or keep the boot partition as FFS (NoIntl, NoDirCache) and copy pfs3_aio-handler to L: and quick format the remaining partitions with PFS.

[Thomas]

copy pfs3_aio-handler to L: and quick format the remaining partitions with PFS.

It does not work this way. Files in L: are not used unless referenced by a mountlist entry or DosDriver. To use PFS with partitions, you have to install it into the RDB.

Keeping the boot partition on FFS is stupid because the boot partition benefits the most from PFS.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

All right, all right, you guys are killing me, I will try installing PFS. :p
 
I'm running OS 3.9 with Boing Bags 1-4 installed, no other modifications to the file system. FFS 46 is the version that comes with those.
 
Have always used DirCache since around 1996, never had an issue with it. Am seeing definite speed improvements using it with the slow SCSI controller on my GeForce 040 card and my CF, so I guess "you pays your money and you takes your chances", haha. Obviously this will be irrelevant once I switch to PFS.

[nicholas]

It does not work this way. Files in L: are not used unless referenced by a mountlist entry or DosDriver. To use PFS with partitions, you have to install it into the RDB.

Keeping the boot partition on FFS is stupid because the boot partition benefits the most from PFS.

Indeed, but Mike's successfully avoided all my attempts thus far to pimp PFS to him so I thought I'd break him in gently this way.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Hi Nicholas!
 
Well, you started this. Been trying to install PFS for the past two hours without success. I downloaded the AIO handler file off Aminet (sure would be nice if it came with instructions!!!), booted off my backup CF, stuck handler in L:, replaced it on all the partitions on my main CF, changed the "File system" dropdown from "Standard file system" to "Custom file system", changed the "Identifier" to 0x444F5303, tried to save, rebooted, nada. It was like I'd made no changes at all and my original two partitions were still visible.
 
So then I went through "Install drive", wiped out the RDB on my main CF, recreated my partitions (to the exact same size as previous), re-loaded the PFS handler onto each partition, changed all of those other options again (even though it keeps changing back to "standard file system" each time I select "custom file system"), and still nada.
 
I'm getting no love, is there somewhere with easy installation instructions for PFS? Obviously googling "install amiga pfs" isn't finding me anything. Attached are some screenshots, what am I doing wrong?