GVP A4008 SCSI controller speed?

[tonyvdb]

Well, 3.9 would be ideal however it does not support the video toaster so I'm going to have to stick with 3.1
I use 3.9 for when I'm not using the Toaster and just want to play games.

[ChaosLord]

If you have a 100GB drive then the conventional wisdom says you should have your boot partition be less than 4GB like say 3.9GB or whatever.  And then you can have a 96GB WORK: partition.

That is assuming you are using an uptodate AmigaOS distro.

Thomas is the preeminent expert on these matters.  If he shows up then please listen to whatever he says.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Well, 3.9 would be ideal however it does not support the video toaster so I'm going to have to stick with 3.1
I use 3.9 for when I'm not using the Toaster and just want to play games.

I keep forgetting that.  Dang!  No one ever figured out a solution why it doesn't work?  Is it a particular library, or something?

[tonyvdb]

As far as I know there was a workaround in 3.5 but no one got it working in 3.9
Is there a newer version of the HD toolbox that I can install on OS3.1 that will recognize the GVP controller?

[ChaosLord]

Well, 3.9 would be ideal however it does not support the video toaster so I'm going to have to stick with 3.1
I use 3.9 for when I'm not using the Toaster and just want to play games.

These types of things are why you should always keep your boot partition contained entirely within the 4GB limit.

Because when switching things around or installing patches or something, something could go bonkers temporarily and you might lose access to your partitions that are above the 4GB barrier.

You would never want to temporarily lose access to your boot partition.  That would just suxxorize your day.

You can patch OS3.1 up to safely use all your 9GB drive no problem.  Having just fallen out of a timewarp, my head is all wobbly and I can't remember the procedure.  But there are various people out there who can give you detailed instructions.

[giZmo350]

Well, 3.9 would be ideal however it does not support the video toaster

What? :hammer: I didn't know that! Good thing I'll be using a Buddah with TrueIDE & 2 CF cards for hardware multiboot!

[danbeaver]

Ok that brings me to my next question. What is the best way to clone my old drive onto the new SCSI drive? This is an area I'm not familiar with on the Amiga.

I was going to simply copy the files over.

CLI>C:COPY OLD: NEW: ALL CLONE BUF=5000 QUIET

The buffer amount depends on the amount of Fast RAM (5000 = 2.5 MB) you have free and want to use.

[danbeaver]

When you use an SCSI 3 drive you will need Active Termination on the bus as it may not be recognized and even if it is, may have transfer errors.

[giZmo350]

CLI>C:COPY OLD: NEW: ALL CLONE BUF=5000 QUIET

The buffer amount depends on the amount of Fast RAM (5000 = 2.5 MB) you have free and want to use.

Thanks Beave! That's some good info right there!

[Matt_H]

The 4gb barrier has to do with two things: the device driver (e.g., scsi.device) and the filesystem (e.g., FastFileSystem). Well, three things: also the hard drive prep utility's ability to understand the higher capacities as well.

3.9 fixes all of these, but I don't know if it fixes gvpscsi.device (it might). So it's easiest to prep a drive under 3.9. It can be done under 3.1 but it's more complicated, since all three components will need to be patched/substituted manually. An easy way to get access to the 3.9 tools is to use the 3.9 installer to create an emergency disk and then boot from that. No installation required!

[tonyvdb]

Ok, I've been trying to do this without driving everyone crazy with questions but can't find the answer so...
In OS 3.9 when I go to HD toolbox it does not "see" the drive on the GVP controller. What am I missing?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Ok, I've been trying to do this without driving everyone crazy with questions but can't find the answer so...
In OS 3.9 when I go to HD toolbox it does not "see" the drive on the GVP controller. What am I missing?

Are you sure the drive is terminated correctly?

Are you sure it's scanning gvpscsi.device and not just scsi.device?  You can change this via tooltypes if you need to, but as far as I can recall 3.9 is pretty smart and should scan all available devices.  Heck, it even found the USB devices on my system.    I'd check termination first.

I'm sure you already confirmed that the drive is powering up, right?  :rofl:

[tonyvdb]

The drive shows up under OS3.1 using the GVP tools and yes its terminated.
Do I still have to install anything to OS3.9 or is that all included (for 3.1 you had to install the GVP device stuff)
Where do I change the tooltypes?

[amiadudeorwat]

Well, 3.9 would be ideal however it does not support the video toaster so I'm going to have to stick with 3.1 I use 3.9 for when I'm not using the Toaster and just want to play games.

Wait... what?  I have a 3.9 system that works with a Video Toaster, had two but I think I let the smoke out of the Toaster 4000.  I know there's a reaction/whatever the other one is called in that the Toaster 4.3 install breaks some libraries but I just copy the whole libs: devs: storage/ and locale/ dirs back over and it works again.  

On the topic at hand the A4008 has always been finicky for me about termination also there are a couple jumpers on it that I can't find doc on(lost mine long ago), but there's this story about the older GVP SCSI+8 burning a trace on the daughterboard, makes me nervous about playing the jumpers on the A4008.
http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/a4000hard/excrdnot.html

[tonyvdb]

I have the GVP working just fine with an older SCSI drive but I want to use this better Quantum Atlas I have.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The drive shows up under OS3.1 using the GVP tools and yes its terminated.
Do I still have to install anything to OS3.9 or is that all included (for 3.1 you had to install the GVP device stuff)
Where do I change the tooltypes?

You change the tooltypes by right-clicking on the icon and selecting Icons -> Information.  You can see in this screenshot of mine that I have it set to "ASKDEVICE" so it will scan everything.  If I wanted to I could specify a specific device by removing the paranthesis from the next line, and changing that, i.e., to gvpscsi.device.

Just being honest here, please take this as constructive criticism, it makes me a little nervous that you're trying to change these settings without even knowing what tooltypes are.  Don't worry though, we'll get you squared away.  

Also, what version of the GVP ROM are you using?  If it's anything below 4.15 or the GuruROM, stop right now and upgrade that first.  You can buy 4.15 ROM's on ebay or amibay for under $20.