Help me with SFS...

[jonssonj]

Hello All!

I have a new harddrive. The new harddrive is a Western Digital and the size of this harddrive is 20GB.

The problem is this:

The harddrive was totally empty when I inserted it. This forced me to first make a partition with WB3.1 HDToolbox and then I installed WB3.1. Thereafter I installed the driver for my Elbox IDE controller and then I could use my CD-ROM, and I installed OS3.9 and I configured my mediator and voodoo card. So far so good. But now this partition is FFS and I want to use SFS.

I thougth that I could make an another partition and use SFS on that partition and backup my system to this partition and then make my DH0: partition use SFS also and then restore the WB to DH0: again.

I can make a new partition and this is 16,7GB and I have installed the SFS on the partitions RDB block. But I don't seem to be able to format the drive. I have tried to use WB's format, from the menu and that went ok until it got to 100%, the system freezed and when I rebooted the partition was still uninitialized. I tried the SFSFormat command and it seems to work, until I try to copy a file to the new partition, the system freezes.

How do I format the ***ing partition?

/Jörgen

[jonssonj]

One more thing, I'm using SmartFileSystem Version 1.214. Is this the latest stable release? What identifier am I supposed to use? I currently have this identifier: 0x43465300

/Jörgen

[jonssonj]

Is there no-one who uses SFS?  Please help me!

/Jörgen

[JaXanim]

Have you read all the notes which accompany the SFS download? I managed to change from FFS to SFS without a problem and I'm certainly no wizkid!

Make sure you have the SFSfilesystem icon in the L: directiry of Workbench. Then when you use HDToolbox, you will be able to use the Change Filesystem button to get the appropriate DOSdriver.

If you find you need to type in the SFS DOScode, you'll find it in the SFS Notes.

Good luck!

JaX

[jonssonj]

Hello JaXanim and thanks for your answer.

I have now tried to get the SFS to work for about 5 hours, and I still don't get it to work. My computer freezes all the time. Now I give up using SFS for now. I just want to install OS3.9 and then go to bed and sleep.

Thanks anyway!
/Jörgen

[HotRod]

You just copy the file "SmartFileSystem" to L: (SYS:L/). In HDToolBox you choose "Change Filesystem" and choose the file you copied to L: (SmartFileSystem). It will get a name like CFS/00 (I think) wich you choose buy clicking the partition that you want to use SFS on and change the settings to SFS with the popup-menu (don't remember exactly now). Then click on save and and exit. When prompted to reboot do so and when you're back to workbench you just mark the partition-icon and select format. Do a quick-format and you're done.

[NightShade737]

SFS/00.... for obvious reasons  :lol:

[jonssonj]

Hello!

I did exactly as you described, but When my format came to 100%, my Amiga froze, and I could only move the mouse. I could not do anything. I waited several minutes, but nothing happened. When I rebooted the computer, the partition was still uninitialized.

I tried to make a partition on 16,7GB.

Now I have formatted the partition with FFS, and everything works well.

/Jörgen

[manicx]

Just noticed this topic. SFS after release 1.84 doesn't support Partitions larger than 4Gb. You should try v 1.84. I think this will solve your problem.

[NightShade737]

Strange, the Read.me for 1.214 says...

Support for partitions larger than 4 GB or located (partially) beyond the 4 GB barrier on your drive.  There is support for the New Style Devices (NSD) and the 64-bit trackdisk commands (TD64) which support 64 bit access.

[doctorq]

Hi,

I have also installed SFS yesterday, as I got a new Seagate Barracuda 160 GB disk.

As I already had a 9.1 GB SCSI drive in my system, I didn't have to install anything from disk, so it was less time consuming :-)

The method you suggest (setting up your system, copy it to a SFS partition, reformat SYS with SFS, and copy the system files back) should work just fine.

I had trouble reading the correct info of my disk (blocks, heads, etc.), but the installation of SFS went fine.

I downloaded the same archive of SFS as you (v1.214), but a friend told me the other day that this archive isn't working correctly, but I haven't got that confirmed yet.

But this is what you need to do :

First, create a boot partition of the size you want. I always make my SYS partition 250 MB, even though it's a bit overkill. Install OS3.9 + Boingbag 1 + Boingbag 2. I don't install anything else than the OS, but you obviously need to install some software for the Elbox controller.

UnARC the SFS archive, and copy the file SmartFileSystem in the drawer l in the archive, to l on your SYS partition.

Start HDToolBox, click on your drive, click on "Partition Drive", click on "Add/Update", click on "Add New File System...", select SmartFileSystem, change the "Identifier" to 0x53465300, click on "OK, click on "New Partition", click on "Change", select SFS\00, click "OK", click "Save" and finally click "Exit" and let the program reset your computer.

Workbench should now load, and the new partition should come up. Select it, and choose "Quick format". The partition should be present after a short period of time.

Now just copy the files from SYS to the new partition, open HDToolBox, change the filesystem of the boot partition, and format the partition, and copy the system files back.

You should now have a working system, if not, send me an email (doctorq@tiscali.dk), I may be able to help you out.

SFS is able to handle partitions larger than 4 GB. First of all, the documentation says around 2 TB, and I have a working 76 GB partition.

[Framiga]

Hi NightShade737

not . . .with the last HDToolbox 45.6 (BB2) SFS is showed as CFS/00

Use ALWAYS those BB2 HDToolbox.

Ciao

PS- when you change a FS, use the "Update Filesystem" option.

[doctorq]

@Framiga

I use HDToolBox from BB2 together with SFS v1.214 and the file system is reported as being SFS\00 on my Amiga.

[Framiga]

Hi

not on mine :-)

I've PFS3 also on others partitions.

Ciao

[Thomas]

SFS is showed as CFS/00

.  PFS will be shown as CFS either if your don't change it. The DosType is user-choosable and must be unique amongst file systems. HDToolbox always suggests CFS ("Custom File System") for new file systems. *You* have to enter the correct code for it because you are the only one who knows the correct code.

Bye,
Thomas