International Mode and Directory Cache

Does anyone know whether or not selecting "international mode" and "directory cache" will effect the performance, compatibility and reliability of a system when formatting a 20Gb HD for os 3.9?

Ok it was a strange sentence but I couldn't explain any other way.

[Bloodwych]

Directory cache does help speed up read access and opening of drawers, icons and file requesters and I always enable it.

Trashcan and international mode I never bother with. The latter corrects a case-sensitivity problem associated with international characters.

Recently however I ditched the default file system and went on to using SFS (Smart File System). It's a lot better and I've not had a single problem with it.

Read about it here

You'll need to know how to write the filesystem to the RDB (Rigid Disk Block) on your HD (using HDtoolbox or RDprep for instance), but once setup this file system is a fantastic performance booster.

[Bloodwych]

If you want I'll upload an SFS package with all the required files.

The package includes the latest version of SFS from here

I had SFS installed on my 20GB HD but after reinstallation of os 3.9, it is displayed as an uninitialized 7GB drive. I used HDtoolbox to reinstall it as a 20GB SFS drive and I succeeded but when I "read configuration" from drive, it just reads 7GB. If the reason of these problems are improperly installed SFS, then I'd be happy to try your version too. I had downloaded mine from aminet a while ago. Thanks.

[Bloodwych]

Read the help file

Below is a section on large HD's. Mines only 1.3GB so I can't help

To use a drive which is larger than 4 GB (4096 MB) you'll
need to have a filesystem which supports such drives and
you'll need a device which can handle these drives.

Getting a filesystem which supports drives larger than 4 GB
is easy. Smart Filesystem can handle such drives correctly.
There is also a patch or upgrade freely available for
FastFilesystem. This will upgrade your version to V43 or
V44.

Now you need to make sure that your device also supports
drives larger than 4 GB. If your device supports any of the
following, then it should be able to handle such drives:

- Your device is a New Style Device (NSD) which supports
64-bit addressing.

- Your device is TD64 compatible.

- Your device supports SCSI direct access. Even devices
for IDE harddisks can support this.

Of course you'll need to make sure that your device and the
filesystem your using speak the same language. If you've
got a device which supports SCSI direct, but doesn't support
NSD or TD64 then you won't be able to use this device for
drives larger than 4 GB with a filesystem which doesn't
support SCSI direct but only supports NSD or TD64.

Therefore I've included two lists so you can see which
protocols some Devices and Filesystems support. The list
aren't complete. I'll need your help to extend the lists,
so if you have got more information send me an e-mail.


DEVICES Ver. NSD(64) TD64 SCSIdirect
-----------------------------------------------------------
scsi.device (A1200/A4000) 43.21 yes no yes
cybscsi.device (Cyberstorm) 8.1 no yes yes
HardFrame.device (Microbotics) 1.5 ? no yes
statram.device (Ram Disk) ? ? no no
ramdrive.device (Ram Disk) ? ? no no
scsidev.device (GVP Series I) ? ? ? no
hddisk.device (CBM A2090) ? ? ? no


FILESYSTEMS Ver. NSD(64) TD64 SCSIdirect
-----------------------------------------------------------
FastFilesystem 43.18 yes no ?
FastFilesystem 44.5 no yes yes
Smart Filesystem 0.71+ yes yes yes(*)

(*) Use the SCSI direct version.


It's a very good idea to add some checks to your
startup-sequence to see if your using the correct version of
your device and filesystem. If for any reason you're using
the wrong versions then you could easily end up destroying
your data. That's why I have added these lines to my
User-startup:

Version DH1: VERSION=44 >NIL:
IF WARN
ECHO "Warning! V44 FastFilesystem is not loaded!"
Version DH1:
ENDIF

Version scsi.device VERSION=43 >NIL:
IF WARN
ECHO "Warning! V43 scsi.device is not loaded!"
Version scsi.device
ENDIF

You'll might need to modify these checks a bit for your own
setup.

Finally, don't use tools like ReOrg, DiskSalv, DynamiCache,
PowerCache, AmiBackTools, QuarterbackTools and similair
tools on partitions which are located after the 4 GB border.
They don't support drives larger than 4 GB and will destroy
data on other partitions if you use them!

Always be absolutely sure your tool supports drives larger
than 4 GB before using them! If you've got a tool and it
reports errors or acts strangely when working with one of
your partitions after the 4 GB border (for example, DiskSalv
doesn't recognize that a disk after the 4 GB border is FFS)
then that tool probably doesn't support drives larger than 4
GB.

Also be careful with the standard Format command! Always
use the QUICK option for drives larger than 4 GB, otherwise
format may format information in the wrong area of your
disk!

See @{"What is SCSI direct" Link scsidirect} for more information on
SCSI direct and how it could be useful for drives larger
than 4 GB.

@endnode


@node scsidirect "What is SCSI direct?"

In the archive there were 2 versions of Smart Filesystem
available, a normal version and a SCSI direct version.

The normal version talks to your device in a way which all
devices support (with device I mean for example
'scsi.device', 'omniscsi.device' or 'cybscsi.device' not the
drive itself). The normal version will automatically detect
New Style Devices (NSD) and TD64 devices which support
drives larger than 4 GB. If neither is detected then it
will use the standard way of communicating with your device
which means you are limited to harddisks of 2 GB or 4 GB in
size (depending on what your device supports).

SCSI direct is just another way of communicating with your
device. Even some IDE devices support the SCSI direct
protocol, which they translate automatically to normal IDE
commands. For example, the standard scsi.device which comes
with A1200's and A4000's with IDE on board understand SCSI
direct.

The advantage of the SCSI direct protocol is that it can
work with harddisks larger than 4 GB as well. So if your
device isn't NSD or TD64 compatible then you still have the
option of using SCSI direct to use disks larger than 4 GB.

SCSI direct doesn't give you a performance boost. It is
just as fast as the normal version of SFS. The only
difference is in the way SFS communicates with your device,
and you'll only need it if you've got a drive larger than 4
GB and your device doesn't support NSD or TD64.

See @{"notes for drives larger than 4 GB" Link largedrives} for more
information on large drives.

Originally posted by Burseg
Does anyone know whether or not selecting "international mode" and "directory cache" will effect the performance, compatibility and reliability of a system when formatting a 20Gb HD for os 3.9?

Ok it was a strange sentence but I couldn't explain any other way.

Don't use Directory Cache on Harddrives.

[RetroMan]

Originally posted by Burseg
I had SFS installed on my 20GB HD but after reinstallation of os 3.9, it is displayed as an uninitialized 7GB drive. I used HDtoolbox to reinstall it as a 20GB SFS drive and I succeeded but when I "read configuration" from drive, it just reads 7GB. If the reason of these problems are improperly installed SFS, then I'd be happy to try your version too. I had downloaded mine from aminet a while ago. Thanks.

The problem I guess is that you have to use a start-partition <8GB, preferably <4GB, that should solve it