How to prepare 40Gb Drive for A600

[XDelusion]

So I partitioned out a 40Gb drive for my A600 under WinUAE using FFS. It made the 3.9Gb partitions, saved, rebooted, then will not let me format them.

What approach must I use? I tried to install PFS in WinUAE for use, but the installer was broken on that end for some reason and when ever I select PFS (after a manual install) it only gives FFS as an option anyhow, plus the HDTool for PFS does not see my card.

[danbeaver]

To stay under the 4GB limit, a 3.7 partition is safer; this is a GB/MB conversion to bytes -- 2 KB is 2048 bytes.  When you add a file system, you have to convert the hex number into the ASCII code: PFS/00 IS x50465300 and SFS/02 is x53465302.  You also need the correct versions, for FFS to support up to 4Gb, you should use TD64 version such as 45.9 or 45.16, PFS-aio version 18.5 and SFS version 1.277 or 1.279 are the most recent.

[itix]

Shouldnt SFS use an ID 0x53465300 ?

[Thomas]

FFS needs a lot of RAM to initialize a partition. You should count ca. 1 MB RAM per GB harddisk space. So if you don't have at least 4 MB RAM you won't be able to format a 4GB partition.

SFS is irrelevant because it needs a 68020. It does not run on an A600 without accelerator. SFS\0 is the right identifier for SFS. SFS\2 is experimental support for partitions bigger than 128 GB.

PFS fails for install for 68000 if you select to install pfs3ds because pfs3ds for 68000 does not exist in version 18.5. Only the original 18.3 CD contained it.

To access anything outside the first 4GB of the harddrive you need a patches scsi.device, too. This will eat up another few KB of RAM. Dividing the harddrive into a lot of 4GB partitions does not help. All these partitions will write into the first 4GB of the harddrive, corrupting each other.

IMHO using such a large harddrive on an A600 is overkill. You should go for a 4GB CF card, then you don't need to care about limits, patched drivers etc.

[XDelusion]

I've got a 030 with 32Mb of RAM, so I'm set in that regard. As for why this has been problematic, I don't know. I've set up a 8Gb CF card before with PFS and had no issues. The HDTool (on the real Amiga) saw the drive just fine, and I was able to select PFS (custom FFS) from the men with ease, though it looks like with this drive I'm setting my partitions to high.
 Anyhow, the reason I am trying a real hard drive and one so large at that, is because A. with a CF or SD card, Workbench always ends up telling me one of my partitions is corrupt, even after a fresh format and install. I always end up having to back up that partition, re-format, then I'm fine. Secondly, the 40Gb hard drive is as small as I could get my hands on for free.

 I'll play around, see if I can get it, if not I guess I'll dance with the devil again, aka the CF and SD cards, though it really would be nice to use that 40Gb cause I want to install Half Life 2 on my hard drive.

[paul1981]

I've got a 030 with 32Mb of RAM, so I'm set in that regard. As for why this has been problematic, I don't know. I've set up a 8Gb CF card before with PFS and had no issues. The HDTool (on the real Amiga) saw the drive just fine, and I was able to select PFS (custom FFS) from the men with ease, though it looks like with this drive I'm setting my partitions to high.
 Anyhow, the reason I am trying a real hard drive and one so large at that, is because A. with a CF or SD card, Workbench always ends up telling me one of my partitions is corrupt, even after a fresh format and install. I always end up having to back up that partition, re-format, then I'm fine. Secondly, the 40Gb hard drive is as small as I could get my hands on for free.

 I'll play around, see if I can get it, if not I guess I'll dance with the devil again, aka the CF and SD cards, though it really would be nice to use that 40Gb cause I want to install Half Life 2 on my hard drive.

Use PFS3 AIO from aminet: http://m68k.aminet.net/package/disk/misc/pfs3aio

If you haven't done so already, download the main PFS3 archive too: http://m68k.aminet.net/package/disk/misc/PFS3_53

Two more files are required: a replacement (updated) scsi.device and the LoadModule command. For the easiest I just got them from the ClassicWB_GAAE distribution available here: http://classicwb.abime.net/classicweb/68k.htm

LoadModule is available seperately here: http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/LoadModule

That's it....that's all you'll be needing most likely. I'm going to assume that your real Amiga hard drive partitions are to be labelled DH0: for your boot drive (Workbench) and DH1: for your Work drive (Work). Make sure your WinUAE partitions aren't labelled the same or you'll end up formatting them by mistake and that would be unfortunate. I won't be held liable for any data loss! Users are to follow this guide at their own risk!

From the pfs3 main archive, locate the pfsformat command and use this to format pfs partitions (copy it to your C: drawer on your WinUAE Workbench). That's the only file you'll be needing from the main archive.

Now, inside the PFS3AIO archive is a single file called pfs3_aio-handler. Copy this to L: on your WinUAE Workbench.

I personally use the OS3.9 HDToolBox but others should be okay as well. I'd start a fresh with the drive and get HDToolBox to detect the parameters (reset the drive). Sometimes this has to be done again if you find that it isn't saving partition or filesystem changes. Once it's done this it may ask for a reboot. But anyway, for a large drive such as 40GB I'd setup a boot partition of 1GB or less for DH0 (I use 256MB for OS2/3) and the rest can be your Work partition (DH1).
You'll need to remove the fast file system from the RDB if present and upload the pfs3_aio-handler in its place (located in L: now). This can be done under advanced options in HDToolBox or Change File System (I'm going from memory here). Check that both partitions are using pfs3-aio-handler and not FFS....and double check FFS is removed on both partitions. I can help you further with this if you're not sure. I also recommend 70-100 buffers for DH0 and 300 buffers for DH1. The Filesystem Identifier should be set to PFS/03 (0x50465303). MaxTransfer should be 0x1fe00, and Mask should be 0xfffffffc. I think HDToolBox of OS3.9 makes it look like 0x001fe00 or something....again I can check this if you need further help. All settings you enter in HDToolBox must be followed by the return key, or it may not register the changes. Don't forget to tick the box to make DH0 partition bootable. After you have saved the settings, HDToolBox should ask you to reboot.

After the reboot, enter this at the shell:

pfsformat drive dh0: name "Workbench" quick noicons fnsize=107

then this:

pfsformat drive dh1: name "Work" quick noicons fnsize=107

Both partitions should then be available. To verify that they are using PFS, type in this at the shell:

version dh0:

Then repeat for DH1. Both should display a name and version number of the filesystem in use; this should reveal PFS and not FFS as filesystems.

So that's your partitions ready. You then need to install your OS to DH0.
Once this is done you need to get your hands on the LoadModule command and an updated scsi.device. Both of these are easily available and ready to use in the ClassicWB distributions. Under ClassicWB, in the SYS:MyFiles/LargeHD there are some further drawers. One is 128GB support. Find the SCSI_v43_24/Patched/A600IDE.scsi.device file and copy it to your Devs drawer on your new Workbench partition. And whilst your'e at it, locate the LoadModule command (in the Tools drawer under LargeHD) and copy it to your C: drawer on your new Workbench partition.

Then edit the Startup-sequence on your new Workbench partition:

Enter this at the shell:

ed dh0:s/startup-sequence

Enter the following line before any other command (this has to be the very first command to be loaded).

C:LoadModule SYS: Devs/A600IDE.scsi.device

(I have put a space in after SYS: because if I don't I get a smiley)

Save the changes and then reload the Startup-sequence to make sure ED hasn't trashed the top line (happens frequently to me, so  I always make the top line a ";".

So that's it... Install the drive in your real Amiga and power on!
This above "rough guide" works for me, even with Kickstart 2 (37.300) and a 68000 CPU. That's how I'm using mine at the moment and I haven't had any problems at all. It will even work on machines without FastRAM. The scsi.device I chose here is the official one as released by Amiga International. There are more recent ones, but I've had no reason to use them yet, and I'm not sure under what circumstances they need to be used (I'm sure someone here will correct me).
There's a few minor details missing as I'm not by my Amiga or WinUAE setup, but I'll help in any way I can if you're still stuck.
If you're installing ClassicWB to your real Amiga drive, then the A600IDE.scsi.device needs to be renamed to scsi.device, as the LoadModule command is already present in the ClassicWB Startup-sequence and assumes a file name of "scsi.device".

[gertsy]

That's why I still come to AOrg.  

Great advice and help.

Kudos.

[PanterHZ]

You'll need to remove the fast file system from the RDB if present and upload the pfs3_aio-handler in its place (located in L: now).

It is a nice tutorial you give here paul1981, but why do you recommend that FastFileSystem is removed before adding PFS3-AIO? I have never had any problems with having both on my harddisks.

For those who don't use ClassicWB, the LargeHD drawer + PFS3-AIO can also be found here: https://app.box.com/s/xfby0lqm25bfsn2xusoa

[fitzsteve]

If your turbo board is an ACA630 you would be better off putting the updated scsi.device inside a custom Rom and using the ACA's Maprom facility

[XDelusion]

If your turbo board is an ACA630 you would be better off putting the updated scsi.device inside a custom Rom and using the ACA's Maprom facility

 I'd love to see a guide for that as well!

[Thorham]

If your turbo board is an ACA630 you would be better off putting the updated scsi.device inside a custom Rom and using the ACA's Maprom facility

Or use IdeFix

[fitzsteve]

Or use IdeFix

Since Maprom on the ACA cards adds so much performance it's really a no brainer to put update modules inside, I don't see how using IDEfix would be better?  Unless the OP has a 4way IDE device and is using CD/etc.

@XDelusion,

There are some guides around for building your own custom Roms, using the maprom fuction it's self is dead easy, it's just a case of adding the following declaration to the first line of your startup sequence:

c:acatune -maprom devs:ks31.rom >NIL:

This assumes ACATune is installed in sys:c/ and your Rom image (called ks31.rom) is in sys:devs/

See mfilos' guide here at Amibay about making custom Roms:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=11935

[XDelusion]

Sweet, thank you, I'll look it all over.

Since Maprom on the ACA cards adds so much performance it's really a no brainer to put update modules inside, I don't see how using IDEfix would be better?  Unless the OP has a 4way IDE device and is using CD/etc.

@XDelusion,

There are some guides around for building your own custom Roms, using the maprom fuction it's self is dead easy, it's just a case of adding the following declaration to the first line of your startup sequence:

c:acatune -maprom devs:ks31.rom :NIL>

This assumes ACATune is installed in sys:c/ and your Rom image (called ks31.rom) is in sys:devs/

See mfilos' guide here at Amibay about making custom Roms:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=11935

[fitzsteve]

You're welcome, it's a fair amount to get your head round so set yourself a few hours aside.

It's totally worth it though, especially if you run OS3.9 as you wont need the soft reboot if you put the boing bag modules in the Kickstart

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

@Paul1981 -
 
You sir, I owe you *all* the beer!
 
 
:drink::drink::drink::drink:
 
 
I struggled for hours trying to get PFS working on my A2000 without success. I'd put it on the back-burner of my long list of projects until I saw your post, which I followed up until the part about loading the OS on (since I already had 3.9 on a backup partition and just moved it over).
 
Your instructions worked perfectly, and contained info like the 0x50465303 identifier that I couldn't find anywhere else. Now booting off a PFS-formatted 8GB CF card in my MechWare reader, SysSpeed reports that my Create/Open/Dirscan/Delete/Seak/Read operations have gone from about 50% faster to over 400% faster, depending on the operation. Thank you so much!!! The GeForce 040 controller is still a bit of a slug, but at least now it's a fast slug!!! :banana:
 
Just one question which I know everyone hates: In your post you mentioned MaxTransfer of 0x1fe00 and Mask of 0xfffffffc. I've read in other posts that those are the correct values for A1200 IDE controllers when using a CF, but since I'm using SCSI I can use MaxTransfer of 0x7FFFFFFF and Mask of 0xFFFFFFFF. If I understand correctly this should have the effect of transferring data in larger chunks, since I'm not limited by the IDE bus. Thoughts on which would be "more correct"?
 
 
Thanks again! :drink:
 
Only 472 things to do to have this system complete, LOL.