20GB IDE + A2000 + Buddha = Size issues

[rave]

Hi Guys n Gals,

Ive tried REALLY hard to not have to make a post, I have trauled the forums and taken on many pieces of advice, all good but unfortunately not successfull.

Heres the thing:
I have just bought a buddha card (lovely bit of kit)
I have a 20GB seagate IDE hardisk to go with it
It is installed in a plain A2000 with a 3.1 40.063 ROM.
I am using workbench 3.1.
I am aware of the limitations of the amiga file system reading drives over 4GB in size, and partitions over 2GB.
First off I couldnt get TD64 to patch my fastfilesystem, so eventually I gave up, and on another piece of advice I used SFS instead.
I am also using on advice HDinst tool from aminet, instead of the workbench one as it is supposed to pick up the drive correctly and be generally better.
First I booted from floppy and used HDtools to create a small 1GB partition for WB, after it was installed I copied SFS to my L folder, I then used HDinst tools to update the filesystem and use SFS instead of FFS_44_1.
I then created 9 partitions DH1 - DH10.
After updating and partitioning I rebooted and all the drives appeared on my desktop, when I go to format any of them I get "not a dos disk" and they dont format reporting in the titlebar to be 100% full.
Now I think I have tried it every which way, its 22:32 now and ive been on this since 9:00!!!
Ive reinstalled, repartitioned and updated so many times now my fingers hurt!!!!
I there any chance someone could please give me some help on this?
I need 4 year old instructions!!!

Many thanks in advance.

Kai

[TheCorfiot]

Hello Rave,

I'm no expert on TD64 but check out these links they explain a lot of the problems with work arounds included.

http://www.youngmonkey.ca/nose/artic...aInMotion.html
http://www.siliconsonic.de/t/bin/howto/etd64.htm

Also enter 4GB limit in the Search thread Box, you've got a lot of reading to do... But be patient, you will solve it with help from all the guys...

[alexh]

SFS is 68020+ so I guess you have an accelerator?

If you have a plain vanilla A2000 as you say, you cannot use SFS (at least not the latest versions)

[TheCorfiot]

Hi Kai,

Can I ask where you picked up the Buddha from?
Is it brand new

Have you made any progress on your HD yet mate

[rave]

Thanks for the links Bas, I already tried the one from buddhas site, thats where I gave up trying to install TD64, it just kept saying unable to find file, not patched, and I followed the readme to the letter!
As for the other one, its very useful and suggests a few things to try, but it doesnt have an exact how to NSD, TD64, BigDisk, so many! aaaaaaahhhh!!
I really need it laid out like im a 4 year old lol

@ alexh, yeah I do have a sandard A2000, I read when I was on the guy who wrote SFS site that its only the very latest version that is for OS4, the previous vers 1.27 I think works on M68000.

http://strohmayer.org/sfs/

I suppose the other option is just to use a smaller HDD, below 4GB, but that kinda defeats the object!!!
Any help appreciated

[edit] Hi Bas, I got the buddha from amigakit, its a fab bit of kit! Not made any progress with the drive yet just tried something and it wiped it out!)

[TheCorfiot]

Aha Found it on AmigaKit.... Looks good, Must get one when I repair the A1500. save messing about with SCSI controllers.

I use a 6.4GB IDE HD on my A1200. and went through a similar experience as yourself tearing my hair out to get the whole 6.4GB to be recognised reliably.

In the end I felt 4GB was ample for my needs and created 4 1GB Partitions, RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DRIVE (3.99 GB to be exact). It has worked flawlessly with std FFS, although not the fastest filesystem it's been reliable. and to this day I have yet to fill 2GB!!!!!.

Since updating to OS3.5 After I fitted an accelerator, I then added an extra partition to use the space, as 3.5 has updated scsi-device...etc. and it's still blank unused.

Get the system up and running so you have a "Working system" and then use a spare HD when you have time to tinker and suss out how to get it all working.. that's my advice. 4GB can take a while to fill.

If you plan to WHDload games on the HD get some Fastram.. Using IDE of course you can connect the drive to WINUAE and prepare and transfer all from there.

You can use WINUAE to mess about with a large real HD until you get it all working too. Save upsetting your miggy all the time.

Good luck and let us know

[alexh]

Originally Posted by rave

I read when I was on the guy who wrote SFS site that its only the very latest version that is for OS4, the previous vers 1.27 I think works on M68000. http://strohmayer.org/sfs/

Ok, when SFS says m68k it really meant 68020+ or at least it did for a very very long time. Maybe he's taken out the 68020 dependancies.

[rave]

Ok after much trawling of many assorted forums, and getting various pieces of advice, I have these conclusions and still need some help:

Does anyone know how I can make a boot floppy disk that loads IDEFIX, NSDPatch and finally HDInstTools, so I can then partition my HDD and use SFS to have a drive over 4GB???
I have IDEFix, SFS, latest installer, TD64 and NSDPatch.
I would be looking to get IDEFIX to patch the SCSI device, then run the NSDPatch, then get SFS loaded into the RDB and used to format the partitions.

Partition the 20GB hard disk as:

0.5GB (SYSTEM: DH0:) AmigaOFS
1.6GB (WORK: DH1:) Amiga OFS
1.6GB (DH2:) Amiga OFS
16GB (DH3:) SmartFileSystem

After the NSDPatch I need according to the docs to:

1. Place a copy of the file `NSDPatch.cfg\' into `DEVS:\'.

2. Copy NSDPatch into `SYS:C\'.

3. Place these lines into your `SYS:S/Startup-Sequence\' immediately
after `SetPatch\' is called:

IF EXISTS C:NSDPatch
C:NSDPatch
ENDIF

It is very important that these lines are added immediately after
`SetPatch\'. That is why NSDPatch must be placed into
`SYS:S/Startup-Sequence\' and not in `User-Startup\'.

And all of this before partition/install apparently.
Just need some advice to put it all together so I can get my drive going.

If I get it sussed i will try to write a thorough tutorial.

[thomas]

You don't need NSDPatch and IDEfix. SFS and Buddha understand each other out of the box.

And you don't want to use OFS on a HDD. Always use FFS. Why don't you use SFS for all partitions ?

[rave]

Hi thomas,

I was not aware you could use SFS for all partitions!
Also how would you suggest that I do this install, and be able to use the whole 20gb of the drive?
Any help greatly appreciated

[thomas]

There is nothing special to consider. Just install the HDD as you would do with a smaller one.

- run HDToolbox
- select your HDD
- Change Drive Type
- Define New
- Read Configuration
- check that cylinders/heads/sectors are approximately correct. Note that 16383/16/63 are not the right values. If you are unsure, you can go on with the values suggested by HDToolbox and use FixHDDSize afterwards.
- return to the main menu
- Partition Drive
- enable Advanced Options
- Add/Update
- delete FFS from the list
- add SFS. Make sure that you change CFS\0 into SFS\0 (i.e. change 43465300 into 53465300)
- return to the partition list
- create partitions as you like. Even one big one should be possible, although I wouldn't recommend that.
Don't forget to check the Bootable box for at least one partition.

[dlfrsilver]

SFS to use HDD way way bigger than 20 giga bytes. the limit is 4 terabytes
if i'm not wrong.

Yes partition and use SFS on each of them, you'll see how good it is

[rave]

Danke Thomas, I will try your advice when I get some more time to have a play
Im looking forward to it all just working!
I appreciate all the help everyone has given.

[thomas]

I forgot that you have to "Change..." each partition from "Standard File System" to "SFS\0".

[Dropcheck]

Hi Rave,

I have both the Buddha Catweasel ZII S-class and the single IDE cards. I cannot seem to get any drives to be recognized on them with the workbench HDTools, but I can get the program to recognize the device with ToolTypes set to "SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=buddha_atapi.device" It will scan the ports to find any drives and never finds any. I've tried several CF cards and adapters, a 2.5 drive and a 3.5 drive.

When I tried to use the HDinst from aminet with ToolTypes set to "Device=buddha_atapi.device" I am not even finding the device. To be fair I am booting from a WB 3.1 Install disk with the HDinst program on a disk in my secondary drive.

Is there anything special in your tooltypes?

FYI:

Amiga 2000 Plain Vanilla rev 6.2 KS 3.1 and WB 3.1

Thanks,

[thomas]

with ToolTypes set to "SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=buddha_atapi.device"

ATAPI is for CD/DVD drives only. You should leave the default (scsi.device) or remove the tooltype completely.

[rave]

Hi Dropcheck,

Im not doing anything special, I just put the card in, and it detected it, and the drive in HDTools and HDinstTools.
Although having said that, it wouldn't pick up a 2.5 drive I bought off eGay, but after much fretting and wiggling of cables it's now working.
The only thing I can suggest is to try another cable, the shorter the better.
Or pre-format the drive in an A6/1200 and then fit it to see if it makes a difference.