both my external SSDs disappeared

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 15:26

Not sure what is going on, using 3.4.0 beta 1 (and also 3.3.0 final to be sure).
32 and 64bit versions tested

I use 2 SSDs connected by a USB3 cradle as harddrives for my 3.9 setup.

Always running WinUAE as administrator in Windows.
It worked fine for 2 weeks, perfecting my OS setup to get inserted in my real A1200.
It are 60GB drives using PFS AIO and a 3.9 ROM
Using as driver UAE (not IDE)
Read/write always enabled

Drives were NOT added to a real Amiga since I started rebuilding the OS.

Today I fire up WinUAE and no HDDs are seen by the AmigaOS (Early Startup Menu)

Drives are still listed in WinUAE 'CD & Hard drives' menu with correct info (size etc)
Drive leds do react when WinUAE starts, so they are not dead
Drives still listed in Windows Disk Management (tagged as "unallocated").

Removing and re-adding the drives in WinUAE makes no difference.
Changed with a different USB3 cradle: no change
Inserted in different USB2 and 3 port: no change

I do notice the bootpriority column in WinUAE now says n/a, blocksize still 512.

Shared windows directory is still seen as HDD (no change there)

Any ideas what is going on? Why are both drives gone at the same time?
I hope I did not lose 2 weeks of OS building...

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 15:45

and may I add, when lauching HDtoolbox it will list the drives there under the uaehf interface, but clicking on any of them will show popup "This drive is not installed yet" etc...

As the 2nd SSD was simply a mirror backup, I cleaned it with diskpart and I can install/partition it again as expected, but since both drives behave identical, I wonder if this is a PFS AIO bug or a WinUAE bug ??

Seems that I lost all the precious work, and I am getting really irritated that my retro enthusiasm is getting tempered with these kind of unexplained setbacks.

Toni Wilen · 31 August 2016, 16:03

Sorry, not enough information. There is numerous possibilities to get partitioning wrong, UAE or not UAE when drive is "too big".

How did you partition it? What was partition sizes? Did you do everything under 3.9? Attach winuaelog.txt.

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 16:11

Hi Toni

it was partitioned as 1 system parition of 500MB, and 2 identical partitions called MASTER and MIRROR equally the rest, about 29.5GB each

log attached...

I tried to reformat now the 2nd SSD (Asmedia cradle) (which was a backup of the first) but I am stuck again at the size reported as 8.6GB

Code:

opening device '\\?\usbstor#disk&ven_asmedia&prod_as2105&rev_1.37#0123456789abcdef0abf&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}'
device id string: 'Asmedia  AS2105           1.37 FBA0FEDCBA9876543210'
IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO returned size: 60022480896 (0xdf99e6000)
BPS=512 Cyls=7297 TPC=255 SPT=63 MediaType=12
device size 60022480896 (0xdf99e6000) bytes
no MBR partition table detected, checking for RDB
hd accepted (rdb detected at block 0)

The "main" SSD is this one, Toshiba cradle, I have not touched it since:

Code:

opening device '\\?\usbstor#disk&ven_toshiba&prod_external_usb_3.0&rev_0001#2012120120054&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}'
device id string: 'TOSHIBA  External USB 3.0 0001 OCZ-TK91JNY5YY1I5F7C'
IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO returned size: 60022480896 (0xdf99e6000)
BPS=512 Cyls=7297 TPC=255 SPT=63 MediaType=12
device size 60022480896 (0xdf99e6000) bytes
4 MBR partitions found
empty MBR partition table detected, checking for RDB
hd accepted, not empty and not mounted in Windows

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 16:12

and I add it worked wonderful since more than a week, booting fine, copying files, etc
I was just planning to insert it today in my real A1200 and needed to copy over 1 more driver file before that...

Toni Wilen · 31 August 2016, 16:33

Quote:

I tried to reformat now the 2nd SSD (Asmedia cradle) (which was a backup of the first) but I am stuck again at the size reported as 8.6GB

What reports size as 8.6G? OS3.9 should not have any size limits.

Quote:

Code:

opening device '\\?\usbstor#disk&ven_toshiba&prod_external_usb_3.0&rev_0001#2012120120054&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}'
device id string: 'TOSHIBA  External USB 3.0 0001 OCZ-TK91JNY5YY1I5F7C'
IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO returned size: 60022480896 (0xdf99e6000)
BPS=512 Cyls=7297 TPC=255 SPT=63 MediaType=12
device size 60022480896 (0xdf99e6000) bytes
4 MBR partitions found
empty MBR partition table detected, checking for RDB
hd accepted, not empty and not mounted in Windows

No RDB found. Something must have overwritten it if it was originally partitioned.

It may still have all the data but it would be interesting to see what was written on top of RDB.

Thomas probably can help more with utilities to use etc..

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 16:56

forget the 8.6GB remark, I was booting the wrong OS as shared directory HDD, got now the right one in place (ClassicWB 3.9 variant) which shows 55,8G

I will make a hard disk image of the Toshiba drive and then check with a hexviewer what is at the beginning of this image, not sure how an RDB should look tho

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 17:55

here is the beginning of the dumped SSD.
Not sure how to interpret the RDB header but I am sure you will see more in it.

https://goo.gl/photos/4f4zZFsnDyXUDdPRA

Toni Wilen · 31 August 2016, 17:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirkies

here is the beginning of the dumped SSD.
Not sure how to interpret the RDB header but I am sure you will see more in it.

https://goo.gl/photos/4f4zZFsnDyXUDdPRA

It looks like PC boot block. Did you accidentally let Windows to initialize it or something like that?

The rest are normal RDB blocks. Only first 512 bytes have been overwritten.

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 18:03

nope, did not touch it at all in Windows, but drives remained plugged in all the time.

Is there a way to restore it? what app would you suggest to back up the RDB in case this happens again?

Toni Wilen · 31 August 2016, 18:10

At least OS39 hdtoolbox has RDB backup/restore option in menu. I don't know if it is the best option..

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 18:30

Wow Toni, you made my day!

I copied from a newly configured SSD with exact same partition layout the first 512bytes of the RDB and overwrote the first 512 bytes of the 60GB HDF file I made out of the broken SSD.
(Winhex is very good for this!)

Lo and behold, the HDF now is recognized and boots. It only pops up 1 error saying "Insert volume MASTER" which seems to be gone, but that is ok, as the "Volume1" label name pointing to partition MASTER works just fine (?!)
**EDIT: found out why: as new SSD has same names, the partition names were renamed in WinUAE to MASTER_0 etc, so need to add _0 suffix**

So now I can copy off all the files and recover all my hard configuring work

And I made a backup of the RDB of the new SSD, lesson learnt

Thanks again Toni!

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 18:45

and I took the opportunity to now use PDS3 instead of PFS3 for all partitions, and increase the buffers to 300 each (got 63MB of RAM anyway to waste

thomas · 31 August 2016, 19:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirkies

**EDIT: found out why: as new SSD has same names, the partition names were renamed in WinUAE to MASTER_0 etc, so need to add _0 suffix**

You should use different names for partitions and volumes. Use dh0, dh1 etc. for partitions and System, Master, Mirror as volume names. Then the more meaningful names will never disappear.

dirkies · 31 August 2016, 19:47

yes I was planning that Thomas but initially recreated the exact same partition table with names for the sake of recovering the RDB. They have been renamed to the "usual" names since.

31 August 2016, 15:26	#1
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	both my external SSDs disappeared Not sure what is going on, using 3.4.0 beta 1 (and also 3.3.0 final to be sure). 32 and 64bit versions tested I use 2 SSDs connected by a USB3 cradle as harddrives for my 3.9 setup. Always running WinUAE as administrator in Windows. It worked fine for 2 weeks, perfecting my OS setup to get inserted in my real A1200. It are 60GB drives using PFS AIO and a 3.9 ROM Using as driver UAE (not IDE) Read/write always enabled Drives were NOT added to a real Amiga since I started rebuilding the OS. Today I fire up WinUAE and no HDDs are seen by the AmigaOS (Early Startup Menu) Drives are still listed in WinUAE 'CD & Hard drives' menu with correct info (size etc) Drive leds do react when WinUAE starts, so they are not dead Drives still listed in Windows Disk Management (tagged as "unallocated"). Removing and re-adding the drives in WinUAE makes no difference. Changed with a different USB3 cradle: no change Inserted in different USB2 and 3 port: no change I do notice the bootpriority column in WinUAE now says n/a, blocksize still 512. Shared windows directory is still seen as HDD (no change there) Any ideas what is going on? Why are both drives gone at the same time? I hope I did not lose 2 weeks of OS building...

31 August 2016, 18:30	#12
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	Wow Toni, you made my day! I copied from a newly configured SSD with exact same partition layout the first 512bytes of the RDB and overwrote the first 512 bytes of the 60GB HDF file I made out of the broken SSD. (Winhex is very good for this!) Lo and behold, the HDF now is recognized and boots. It only pops up 1 error saying "Insert volume MASTER" which seems to be gone, but that is ok, as the "Volume1" label name pointing to partition MASTER works just fine (?!) EDIT: found out why: as new SSD has same names, the partition names were renamed in WinUAE to MASTER_0 etc, so need to add _0 suffix So now I can copy off all the files and recover all my hard configuring work And I made a backup of the RDB of the new SSD, lesson learnt Thanks again Toni! Last edited by dirkies; 31 August 2016 at 18:38.

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31 August 2016, 15:45	#2
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	and may I add, when lauching HDtoolbox it will list the drives there under the uaehf interface, but clicking on any of them will show popup "This drive is not installed yet" etc... As the 2nd SSD was simply a mirror backup, I cleaned it with diskpart and I can install/partition it again as expected, but since both drives behave identical, I wonder if this is a PFS AIO bug or a WinUAE bug ?? Seems that I lost all the precious work, and I am getting really irritated that my retro enthusiasm is getting tempered with these kind of unexplained setbacks.

31 August 2016, 16:03	#3
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,524	Sorry, not enough information. There is numerous possibilities to get partitioning wrong, UAE or not UAE when drive is "too big". How did you partition it? What was partition sizes? Did you do everything under 3.9? Attach winuaelog.txt.

31 August 2016, 16:12	#5
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	and I add it worked wonderful since more than a week, booting fine, copying files, etc I was just planning to insert it today in my real A1200 and needed to copy over 1 more driver file before that...

31 August 2016, 16:56	#7
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	forget the 8.6GB remark, I was booting the wrong OS as shared directory HDD, got now the right one in place (ClassicWB 3.9 variant) which shows 55,8G I will make a hard disk image of the Toshiba drive and then check with a hexviewer what is at the beginning of this image, not sure how an RDB should look tho

31 August 2016, 17:55	#8
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	here is the beginning of the dumped SSD. Not sure how to interpret the RDB header but I am sure you will see more in it. https://goo.gl/photos/4f4zZFsnDyXUDdPRA

31 August 2016, 18:03	#10
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	nope, did not touch it at all in Windows, but drives remained plugged in all the time. Is there a way to restore it? what app would you suggest to back up the RDB in case this happens again?

31 August 2016, 18:10	#11
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,524	At least OS39 hdtoolbox has RDB backup/restore option in menu. I don't know if it is the best option..

31 August 2016, 18:45	#13
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	and I took the opportunity to now use PDS3 instead of PFS3 for all partitions, and increase the buffers to 300 each (got 63MB of RAM anyway to waste

31 August 2016, 19:47	#15
dirkies Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Belgium Age: 51 Posts: 1,296	yes I was planning that Thomas but initially recreated the exact same partition table with names for the sake of recovering the RDB. They have been renamed to the "usual" names since.

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