PFS on CF card?

BuckoA51 · 12 June 2011, 19:33

Having finally acquired a SX32 (assuming the Ebay seller ships it to me, and please, do not ask what I paid or tell me you only paid 20 euro for yours

) I was wondering about using a CF card for a hard drive. Back when I was using a real Amiga I loved PFS and I see the full version has recently been released onto Aminet. Has anyone tried PFS on ther CF card? As I remember it was better than FFS and also allowed larger drives? Just curious to hear any experiences.

mfilos · 12 June 2011, 19:53

Yep I use PFS3 on an 4GB CF mounted on my A600 030 and on an 8GB CF mounted on my A1200D PPC.
They work like a charm but I must say they seem a tiny bit slower (just in RAW numbers) than SFS. Still a mature and awesome filesystem to go with

Jope · 12 June 2011, 20:19

I have six Amigas here with CF cards that have PFS3 installed. No complaints.

alexh · 12 June 2011, 20:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckoA51

I was wondering about using a CF card for a hard drive [on SX32].

I have an SX32 MK1 and it works with CF cards with an IDE->CF adapter. But it is picky about which ones it would use. I used a 1GB SanDisk

http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/Pa...page19915.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckoA51

Has anyone tried PFS on ther CF card? As I remember it was better than FFS and also allowed larger drives?

The newer FFS supports larger hard drives.

I've no idea what IDE driver the SX32 uses so I have no idea what limitation it has. I don't think it uses CBM's scsi.device?? I think it has it's own ROM.

BuckoA51 · 12 June 2011, 20:33

oh, new FFS? Is that what SFS is?

alexh · 12 June 2011, 22:36

SFS is SFS. The new FFS comes with AmigaOS3.9 BB2 and has since been patched to v45.16

http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/FFS4516p

BuckoA51 · 14 June 2011, 11:06

Quote:

SFS is SFS

Vague answer is vague, it's some kind of Amiga filing system distinct from PFS and FFS?

Jope · 14 June 2011, 12:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckoA51

Vague answer is vague, it's some kind of Amiga filing system distinct from PFS and FFS?

Indeed it is.

alexh · 14 June 2011, 15:17

Wasn't that vague cos you understood it.

rare_j · 14 June 2011, 17:14

The other day I used WinUAE to set up a compactflash card with PFS3 connected via a USB card reader.
The whole thing was pretty painless and I could then format it and install workbench etc before plugging it into the real amiga.
So yes I would recommend it. I would also recommend Sandisk cards, (Sandisk I think can be trusted to implement the ATA interface properly) of 4GB or under. And it looks like you should employ a buffered interface as well, they are very cheap, only 20 quid or so from amigakit i beleive.
I wouldn't use the direct scsi version of PFS3 on an SX32 as you dont know if it will work with that interface, I would stick to the regular version and stay at 4GB or under.
Check these forums for the maxtranfer settings you should employ for a compact flash drive, and it should be quite straightofrward really.

BuckoA51 · 15 June 2011, 17:48

To set up a compact flash card on WinUAE, do I need Windows XP? Since the option to attach a hard drive seems to be greyed out on Windows 7.

alexh · 15 June 2011, 17:50

You need to run WinUAE as Administrator to get hardware access under Win7

BuckoA51 · 15 June 2011, 19:19

Can someone point me to a tutorial for prepping the card in UAE? I have now got the card attached to UAE by explicitly running UAE as administrator, but I can't get HDToolbox or the PFS HD prep tool to see the card as a hard drive, thanks in advance and sorry to be a pain

alexh · 15 June 2011, 21:48

Dunno what you're doing wrong. It just works here.

Run as administrator.

Setup a valid configuration.
Switch to Settings->Hardware->Hard Drives
Click Add Hard Drive
Select CF card reader from Hard Drive pulldown list.
Select IDE for IDE emulation (do you need this?)
Tick Read/Write
Click add Hard drive
Insert Installation disk image
Boot from installation disk image and load HDToolbox select it from menu

BuckoA51 · 16 June 2011, 10:47

Maybe its the Workbench I am using? I have Amikit with Workbench 3.5 installed at the moment, in HDToolBox I see uae.device, uaehf.device and uaescsi.device, but can't get to the CF card under any of them. I selected it to be IDE0 in the hard drive settings and ticked read/write.

Jope · 16 June 2011, 11:10

Drag hdtoolbox to ram disk, open ram disk, click on hdtoolbox once, right-amiga I, change scsi.device to uaehf.device, press return, save, start hdtoolbox?

BuckoA51 · 16 June 2011, 11:19

No that made no difference.

Jope · 16 June 2011, 11:25

If you select it as IDE0, it should be visible under scsi.device.

Toni Wilen · 16 June 2011, 19:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckoA51

Maybe its the Workbench I am using? I have Amikit with Workbench 3.5 installed at the moment, in HDToolBox I see uae.device, uaehf.device and uaescsi.device, but can't get to the CF card under any of them. I selected it to be IDE0 in the hard drive settings and ticked read/write.

Make sure Chipset extra setting in Chipset panel matches your ROM version (A1200 vs A4000)

Note that 2.3.2 IDE emulation may hang when writing. (stupid bug)

BuckoA51 · 17 June 2011, 10:51

That could be the problem my rom says A500/A2000. I'll look around for an A1200 ROM.

12 June 2011, 19:33	#1
BuckoA51 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 156	PFS on CF card? Having finally acquired a SX32 (assuming the Ebay seller ships it to me, and please, do not ask what I paid or tell me you only paid 20 euro for yours ) I was wondering about using a CF card for a hard drive. Back when I was using a real Amiga I loved PFS and I see the full version has recently been released onto Aminet. Has anyone tried PFS on ther CF card? As I remember it was better than FFS and also allowed larger drives? Just curious to hear any experiences.

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12 June 2011, 19:53	#2
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	Yep I use PFS3 on an 4GB CF mounted on my A600 030 and on an 8GB CF mounted on my A1200D PPC. They work like a charm but I must say they seem a tiny bit slower (just in RAW numbers) than SFS. Still a mature and awesome filesystem to go with

12 June 2011, 20:19	#3
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	I have six Amigas here with CF cards that have PFS3 installed. No complaints.

12 June 2011, 20:33	#5
BuckoA51 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 156	oh, new FFS? Is that what SFS is?

12 June 2011, 22:36	#6
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	SFS is SFS. The new FFS comes with AmigaOS3.9 BB2 and has since been patched to v45.16 http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/FFS4516p

14 June 2011, 15:17	#9
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	Wasn't that vague cos you understood it.

14 June 2011, 17:14	#10
rare_j Zone Friend Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: London Posts: 1,176	The other day I used WinUAE to set up a compactflash card with PFS3 connected via a USB card reader. The whole thing was pretty painless and I could then format it and install workbench etc before plugging it into the real amiga. So yes I would recommend it. I would also recommend Sandisk cards, (Sandisk I think can be trusted to implement the ATA interface properly) of 4GB or under. And it looks like you should employ a buffered interface as well, they are very cheap, only 20 quid or so from amigakit i beleive. I wouldn't use the direct scsi version of PFS3 on an SX32 as you dont know if it will work with that interface, I would stick to the regular version and stay at 4GB or under. Check these forums for the maxtranfer settings you should employ for a compact flash drive, and it should be quite straightofrward really.

15 June 2011, 17:48	#11
BuckoA51 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 156	To set up a compact flash card on WinUAE, do I need Windows XP? Since the option to attach a hard drive seems to be greyed out on Windows 7.

15 June 2011, 17:50	#12
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	You need to run WinUAE as Administrator to get hardware access under Win7

15 June 2011, 19:19	#13
BuckoA51 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 156	Can someone point me to a tutorial for prepping the card in UAE? I have now got the card attached to UAE by explicitly running UAE as administrator, but I can't get HDToolbox or the PFS HD prep tool to see the card as a hard drive, thanks in advance and sorry to be a pain

15 June 2011, 21:48	#14
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,337	Dunno what you're doing wrong. It just works here. Run as administrator. Setup a valid configuration. Switch to Settings->Hardware->Hard Drives Click Add Hard Drive Select CF card reader from Hard Drive pulldown list. Select IDE for IDE emulation (do you need this?) Tick Read/Write Click add Hard drive Insert Installation disk image Boot from installation disk image and load HDToolbox select it from menu

16 June 2011, 10:47	#15
BuckoA51 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 156	Maybe its the Workbench I am using? I have Amikit with Workbench 3.5 installed at the moment, in HDToolBox I see uae.device, uaehf.device and uaescsi.device, but can't get to the CF card under any of them. I selected it to be IDE0 in the hard drive settings and ticked read/write.

16 June 2011, 11:10	#16
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	Drag hdtoolbox to ram disk, open ram disk, click on hdtoolbox once, right-amiga I, change scsi.device to uaehf.device, press return, save, start hdtoolbox?

16 June 2011, 11:19	#17
BuckoA51 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 156	No that made no difference.

16 June 2011, 11:25	#18
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	If you select it as IDE0, it should be visible under scsi.device.

17 June 2011, 10:51	#20
BuckoA51 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 156	That could be the problem my rom says A500/A2000. I'll look around for an A1200 ROM.

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