Check4GB difference between SFS and PFS-020ds

[Turran]

Greetings.

A query that has driven me quite mad for some time now.. I'll start from the beginning.

I got 2 amiga 1200s lately which I put 40-60 gig HDs in. For a start, I made a little 1.5GB boot disk and the rest DH1. Format with SFS and all is good in WinUAE. Also good on both amigas with IDEFix and I've been enjoying them for a week or two.

Then I read about PFS3 and figured I try that. Feels a lot faster in WinAUE when copying stuff so I plan to switch to that.

I take an exactly the same HD (have spares) and set it up with exactly the same parameters, only this time, I use PFS-020ds since I read that direct-scsi works good in 1200. Format with pfsformat drive dh0: name System quick
Do the same for DH1:

I use the correct mask and similar and they do show up with their correct name (No "Custom File System").
Made this guide I go by and use the PDS/03 for my PFS3-020ds file in L:
PFS\03 = 0x50465303
PDS\03 = 0x50445303
SFS = 0x53465300
Mask = 0x7ffffffe (There are 6 f’s)
MaxTransfer = 0x1fe00
Blocksize = 512

No problemo to boot from or similar. However...

I can not get Check4GB to approve of the DH1 partition though. Depending on how I configure WinUAE (3.0, 3.1 roms / Chipset Extra Generic or A1200 / Disk set to UAE or IDE0) it just comes up with different results. Sometimes its * N, usually * N T.

I put it in the real A1200 and it says just *

So I play around with this for about a week. Trying different patched scsi.devices or IDEFix etc. No change.

So for fun I take the same HD and just change the partitions to SFS again. Check4GB now says OK!

So, I should give up and go for SFS? Ignore the error?

I tried ignoring the error but when I try to copy my 4-5 GB of data to DH1: it always craps out and give me random errors. Gurus or most often a PFS/3 error message. So I guess you should trust what Check4GB tells you if its not OK ("DO NOT USE IT").

Any ideas what I've missed here?

Thanks in advance!

[Turran]

Here is a picture that shows the disk first as PDS/3 and then just changed to SFS (not even formatted yet)

http://www.grandis.nu/images/Craplinks/amigastrange.jpg

[Jope]

Use the non ds version of pfs3, make sure you have a TD64 compatible patched scsi.device loaded (idefix for example since you have it) and try again.

Pfs3ds only supports disks up to 8GB on the A1200's internal IDE with the standard 3.1 scsi.device..

[thomas]

SCSI test in Check4GB 1.4 is faulty. Please try version 1.5: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online...s/check4gb.lha

[Jope]

Thomas, can you remind me whether idefix supports more than 8GB using directscsi? IIRC it does both NSD and TD64.

[thomas]

Certainly it does. Direct-SCSI a.k.a. HD_SCSICMD is part of the API, same league as NSD and TD64. If the driver accepts HD_SCSICMD then it can access the same range as with NSD or TD64.

The limit is now on the hardware side, i.e. LBA 28 resp. 128 GiB.

The 7.8 GB limit is on the hardware side, too, caused by using CHS instead of LBA.

The 4 GB limit is on the API side. CMD_READ and CMD_WRITE have a 4GB limit, HD_SCSICMD hasn't. That's why HD_SCSICMD can be used to bypass the 4 GB limit.

[Jope]

Thanks for the clarification!

[Turran]

Thank you. I'll try this when I get back from work. As a clarification, if I use Chipset A1200 and IDE0 for the disk in WinUAE, it should work the same way as in a real amiga, right? In other words, I'd need IDEFix in WinUAE as well then.

[thomas]

Yes, that's right. Be sure to have an A1200 ROM, too, otherwise IDE0 won't be found.

[Turran]

Appriciate it.

[Turran]

This looks a lot better in WinUAE now. Going to move it to the A1200 to test also.

It only looks good with using PFS3-020ds version of PFS and IdeFIX though. Then Check4GB 1.5 says OK.
If I move to PFS3-020 ("Use the non ds version of pfs3") and IdeFIX, I get a * N S on the drive.

[thomas]

Which version of IDEfix do you use? IDEfix should support TD64 as well as NSD and Direct-SCSI. Does the partition show up on Workbench? Does PFSDoctor access the partition if you select TD64?

[Turran]

"Which version of IDEfix do you use?"
The one that comes with classicWB. 3.5 it seems.

"Does the partition show up on Workbench?"
Yes. Looks good everywhere. Have not tried to ignore Check4GB and copy lots of things to it though.

"Does PFSDoctor access the partition if you select TD64?"
I'll get back to you on that one. Currently copying things to it using PFS3-020ds again as that is now OK with Check4GB. I'll test PFS3-020 again when finished =)

Appriciate the help.

Edit: scsi.device version reports as 119.16 with IDEFix.

[Turran]

Ok. Just got a yellow guru followed by a red guru while copying using direct-scsi. Trying PFS3-020 again then.

Error: 8100 0008 Task 0046FCC0 if that is of interest.

[Turran]

Ok. Partitioned again. PFSDoctor sees both the Volume and Device. Selecting Check on it (DH1, the large one that Check4GB says * D S on) and selecting TD64 works fine. Its currently checking bitmaps..

Edit: DOCTOR ERROR: Out of memory
Guess I need more memory to PFSDoctor repair a 35GB harddisk =)

Edit2: Everything fine with PFSDoctor in TD64 mode when I tossed more memory on it. Even though Check4GB says * D S

[thomas]

TD64 check was faulty, too. It expected an error other then IOERR_NOCMD but IDEfix returns OK (no error).

I've uploaded a new version.

[Turran]

Ah, I have the developer online. I'm honored =) Now it looks good with version 1.6. Very much appreciated.