HDD 'recognition' Problem on A1200/WHD Installer

Hi everyone. I'm new here, so apologies in advance for breaking any codes of etiquette!
I have fitted a 10GB laptop HDD to my 1200 and formatted it into 60MB for System and a series of 1.8GB partitions.
The install worked fine, and I put files onto the partitions but then the machine kept 'losing' the partitions by displaying NOT A DOS DISK in device IDHx at random times, sometimes after reboots, other times whilst installing software. I just 'humph-ed' and carried on re-formatting the partitions as and when they went corrupt.
Anyway, finally the Amiga lost the 60GB System partition, so I now know that 1.8GB wasn't just too large for the OS to handle. Do you think it's my HDD at fault?
The second question is, I have an A600 2.05 that works fine with a 2007 release of WHDload, but I have tried to install the latest version onto this (troublesome) A1200 setup, but SYS:C pops up asking me for 'Installer' which WB3.0 evidently does not have. I have tried to get a 3rd party Installer from Aminet, but the ones I tried either just crash the system or report that the install cannot proceed due to the software being 'old version' etc or some other Scandanavian-esque translation.
Thanks for any advice.
Paul.

[Magno Boots]

Paul,

Welcome to EAB

I cannot comment on whether your harddrive is corrupt but I believe you have to have a certain file system to accompany a large drive like yours (others will no doubt confirm).

Anyways, the installer you're in need of can be obtained here..

http://kgwhd.whdownload.com/files.php

Good luck and don't give up!

[Bloodwych]

Yes, you're running into the infamous 4GB barrier that plagues Workbench 3.0/1.

All Partitions have to be within the 4GB barrier without extra patches, or it gets itself into a right mess.

Read this thread for more info:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=32256

Thanks for these handy replies, guys.
After doing some further thread-searching, I'm still a bit fuzzy on the 4GB limit....does it mean I will still have problem if I use my 10GB HDD and ignore the final 6GB? i.e will the Amiga still not be happy with the 'prescence' of this space on the platter even though it's not partitioned/formatted. I only say this because the small 60MB System partition eventually vanished into the ether along with the 1.8GB partitions. Am I best off just ebaying a <4GB HDD?

[Bloodwych]

For trouble free operation with Workbench 3.0/3.1, users are advised to stay within the 4GB barrier (even if their hard drive is much larger) and use partitions no bigger than 2GB if you're running the standard FFS.

That's the line that gives it away. If you only partition up to 4GB and ignore the remainder, it should work fine. There is a lot of info in that thread I posted to take in, but it does give info about work-arounds.

If you want to use more, you have to patch the controller and use a replacement file system.

[rkauer]

I suggest you to use a bit larger system partition. Something like 120~180Mb is more than enough for Workbench 3.0/3.1/3.5/3.9.

Then create a Work: partition for applications (300Mb at top), and the surplus for games (a bit less than 2Gb) and another for music and Workbench games (the leftover).

[thomas]

@PaulSharp76:

Get FFSTD64 from Aminet. It will allow to use 7.8 GB of the drive (all you can see). Even all in one partition.

Thanks to everyone for the help and info...the old girl's up and running now.

[cosmicfrog]

Yay another happy ending