A1200 HDD problem

During the extraction of whdload.lha to dh1: my amiga crashed and it rebooted. When the WB was loaded the following error was displayed:
DH1 has a read error on disk block [blocknr]. When i view dh1 props it says 100% which isn't the case. Furthermore i can not copy anything from or to the disk. Some error about the disk validator is displayed.
How can i solve this problem preferably without formatting or repartitioning the drive ?

[musojon74]

Welcome to EAB!

what file system is the dh1:? if it's ffs you could maybe use disksalv to fix - using option validate (I think, can someone confirm this?)

THanks!

Thanx for the welcome.

As far as i know it is FFS. Where can i find disksalv ?

[meega]

http://aminet.net/search?query=disksalv

Thanx for the help. Downloaded some progs. Gonna burn them and fix my dear, dear A1200.

[musojon74]

Good luck

[thomas]

Amiga A1200, 060/66mhz, 6gb HDD

You cannot use harddrives bigger than 4GB without special software. Which special software do you use ?

If you don't use any special software, the partition which crosses the 4GB boundary of the HDD will become invalidated again and again. Additionally the data on the other partitions might silently become corrupted. It might even happen that you loose all data on your HDD at once (the Amiga will no longer boot from the HDD).

[essence25]

Originally Posted by thomas

You cannot use harddrives bigger than 4GB without special software. Which special software do you use ?

If you don't use any special software, the partition which crosses the 4GB boundary of the HDD will become invalidated again and again. Additionally the data on the other partitions might silently become corrupted. It might even happen that you loose all data on your HDD at once (the Amiga will no longer boot from the HDD).

So If I were to take an 8GB HD, and install it in a A4000 KS3.0 and partition it as 4 x 2gb partitions it would cause problems later?

Then what would be best way to use the 8gb drive (I have tons of xbox 8gb slim drives that I modded and kept.)

Install the 8gb and only parition it up to 4gb and leave the rest unpartitioned?

Or what other way can I use the whole 8gb?

If I'm wrong please correct me.

Thanks

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by essence25

So If I were to take an 8GB HD, and install it in a A4000 KS3.0 and partition it as 4 x 2gb partitions it would cause problems later?

Yes. Only using ROM 3.1 and OS3.5/3.9 or upgrading the "scsi.device" and patching the FFS to 45.xx (doable even with ROM 3.0) you will be free of worries.

Then what would be best way to use the 8gb drive (I have tons of xbox 8gb slim drives that I modded and kept.)

Install the 8gb and only partition it up to 4gb and leave the rest unpartitioned?

If you not want to patch the file system, yes, the better is using just a little bit less than 4Gb.

Or what other way can I use the whole 8gb?

If I'm wrong please correct me.

Thanks

See first answer.

[_ThEcRoW]

Even in the case of an 8gb drive, you can't use it with 4 partitions of 2gb each one?. I always tought taht problems appeared when the partition reached more than 4 gb on an ffs partition. Are you saying that problems come from physically passing the 4gb barrier on the disk?.
Please explain a bit more the concept, as i want to know better the ffs filesystem partitioning.
Thanks in advance!!!

[alphonsus]

The addressing system for the amiga was written using 32bit addresses for the entire disk, not just a given partition. This gives a total of 4Gb for the disk. Trying to write to an address larger than this results in the leading 1 being dropped off the address, sending you back to the start of the disk and overwriting the data there. The address is actually stored as a signed (i.e. +/-) number in the range -2Gb/+2Gb, hence the partition size limit.

Tryinng to write anything to the part of an 8Gb disk above 4Gb will result in overwriting some part of the first 4Gb, trying to fill the latter half of the 8Gb disk will overwrite the whole contents of the first 4Gb.

[musojon74]

you got me! I was only using the 4gig, since it was not worth the hassle of a new filesystem for 2 extra gig! Must change sig though, that drive crashed!

Originally Posted by thomas

You cannot use harddrives bigger than 4GB without special software. Which special software do you use ?

If you don't use any special software, the partition which crosses the 4GB boundary of the HDD will become invalidated again and again. Additionally the data on the other partitions might silently become corrupted. It might even happen that you loose all data on your HDD at once (the Amiga will no longer boot from the HDD).

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by essence25

So If I were to take an 8GB HD, and install it in a A4000 KS3.0 and partition it as 4 x 2gb partitions it would cause problems later?

Most certainly

Originally Posted by essence25

Then what would be best way to use the 8gb drive (I have tons of xbox 8gb slim drives that I modded and kept.)

These programs will allow you to use 8 gig without a problem:

NSDPatch
Smart File System

NSDPatch enables the use of 8 gig from a drive, and Smart File System is required for partitions larger than 2 gig. Smart File System is also a whole lot better than Fast File System, so if you use it, you'll benefit from various improvements as well.

Originally Posted by essence25

Install the 8gb and only parition it up to 4gb and leave the rest unpartitioned?

Yes, that will work just fine. As far as I know, the drive's size is irelevant. The os will simply only see the first 4 gig.

Originally Posted by essence25

Or what other way can I use the whole 8gb?

You can use IdeFix97 in combination with Smart File System. IdeFix isn't free, and the Aminet version is a demo (fully functional, but it has a nag requester). For using 8 gig hds, you should just use NSDPatch (free). IdeFix does, however, allow disks of any size, though.

[thomas]

These programs will allow you to use 8 gig without a problem

Actually it's only 7.8 GB, not 8.

NSDPatch

NSDPatch is crap. It limits the boot partition to below 4GB and it makes the system unreliable. For example if you boot from floppy disk you cannot access the partitions above 4GB.

I think it does not even work for the boot HDD unless you somehow make it resident and reboot.

For using 7.8 GB you should use FFSTD64 or the old version of SFS or PFS3ds.

All these file systems allow unlimited access to the first 7.8 GB. You can even make a 7.8 GB boot partition.

[rkauer]

@Thomas: there was a version of SFS able to run in plain 68000 CPU?

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by thomas

Actually it's only 7.8 GB, not 8.

What an odd number

Originally Posted by thomas

NSDPatch is crap. It limits the boot partition to below 4GB and it makes the system unreliable.

Is it unstable? Because if it's not, I don't think it's crap at all. If it is, then you're quite right. Software like this, should be as solid as a rock.

Originally Posted by thomas

For example if you boot from floppy disk you cannot access the partitions above 4GB.

But only because the patch isn't loaded. Just don't use the partitions above the 4 gig limit. As someone who hates floppies, I never actually use them

Originally Posted by thomas

I think it does not even work for the boot HDD unless you somehow make it resident and reboot.

You're right. The boot partition does have to be in the first 4 gigs.

Originally Posted by thomas

All these file systems allow unlimited access to the first 7.8 GB. You can even make a 7.8 GB boot partition.

Yes, but why would you even want a 7.8 gig boot partition in the first place?

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Thorham

What an odd number

16 * 63 * 16383 * 512 Bytes = 8,455,200,768 Bytes = 7.87 GiB.

Is it unstable?

No, it isn't. It's just what you said, it does not work if it is not explicitely run.

And it's patch, a hack. Hacks are bad by definition.

Why should I use a patch to get less functionality than I can get without it ?

Yes, but why would you even want a 7.8 gig boot partition in the first place?

There are people who don't like multiple partitions. (I am not one of them.)

And there are other people who try to change existing partitions into boot partitions and then wonder why they don't work.

Or who try to create a new boot partition at the end of the HDD in order to test a new operating system or something like that.