HD installation problems

[Retrofan]

Hi:
I've just prepared a 40Gb Fujitsu HD that I had spare from an old laptop. I've cleaned it, deleted any partition, run WinUAE 3.0.0 as administrator and selected it as UAE HD. Then I've made three partitions using HDToolbox from the 3.1 Install disk (SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=uaehf.device) and PFS3AIO from Aminet as File System (aio-handler-custom)

To connect the HD I've used a USB bridge adaptor. The installation was perfect and I can install this HD anytime on WinUAE and it boots and runs ok.

In the amiga it doesn't boot, no partition is shown and using HDToolbox I would have to use define new.

I have a Fast Ata MKII installed in my A1200 and also an ACA1231/42, nothing else added.

Any help is very appreciated.

[Toni Wilen]

If drive is properly detected by Amiga hdtoolbox (Does it detect it as 4G or much smaller drive?), perhaps fastata uses first disk block for its own specia purposes and first block that appears as block 0 is actually physical block 1 or later block.

[Retrofan]

On the real Amiga using the install 3.1 floppy HDTools it shows:

Size -128 Meg
Cylinders 16383
Heads 16
Blocks/Track 63
Blocks/Cylinder 1008
Park head where 16383

On WinUAE it shows:

Size 1288 Meg
Cylinders 19380
Heads 1
Blocks/Track 4032
Blocks/Cylinder 4032
Park head where 4095

I've changed the PFS3AIO to use the normal AIO handler and also pressed both boards of the Fast ATA (so not sure now if it can be a hardware problem). I've rebooted and it showed the insert disk screen, I've installed the Install floppy in the Amiga (no partition shown yet) and now, after starting "checking scsi.device" it showed the partitions. The values keep being the same I've written above.

Taking out the floppy and making a reset A-A-Ctrl it started booting, but froze later.

If I switch the amiga off and on again it will show the insert disk screen and will show the partitions only after checking for the scsi.device when using "define new".

[Toni Wilen]

You probably get better "matching" geometry if you use IDE emulation.

It still sounds like some kind of fastata compatibility problem. (Does it support custom filesystem properly? I have noticed many controllers have weird bugs and/or only works with fastfilesystem!)

[Retrofan]

I will try then with SFS and IDE, thanks.

[Toni Wilen]

Try also other way, create single partition on real Amiga (no need to even format it), then check what WinUAE says about it in the log when mounted as UAE.

[Retrofan]

I've created on the miggy a single partition, rebooted, I didn't format and I've attached the HD to the laptop as UAE. Booting with just the hd.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

I will try then with SFS and IDE, thanks.

You cannot use more than 4GB with SFS + IDE (see "IDE drivers and file systems" section of http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=61666)

[Toni Wilen]

Log at least confirms block 0 being real block 0 so there is no weird translation going on.

I still think it must be fastata driver bug/feature. (Prepare to dump the boot rom in the future, should be possible using software only, it surely needs to be emulated to confirm the problem )

[Retrofan]

As IDE it isn't detected and I can't change the drive type. I will use UAE and I will use SFS patching later the scsi.device

Edit:

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I still think it must be fastata driver bug/feature. (Prepare to dump the boot rom in the future, should be possible using software only, it surely needs to be emulated to confirm the problem )

Toni you know they are active. I don't know if I would have the same problem with the Fast ATA MIV that I also have in another miggy, but I think they could give you that boot rom if it's to improve whatever.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

As IDE it isn't detected and I can't change the drive type. I will use UAE and I will use SFS patching later the scsi.device

According to your log you probably have A4000 hardware config but A1200 KS. It is not going to work. (EDIT: Chipset Extra should say A1200, not A4000 or Generic if you want working IDE)

Toni you know they are active. I don't know if I would have the same problem with the Fast ATA MIV that I also have in another miggy

Testing it with MKIV would quickly confirm it.

[Retrofan]

I've installed SFS and a couple of scsi.devices but it wasn't working very well.

But on WinUAE I've installed the FastATA drivers and now it boots ok, although not always and also hanged once. I think I must have some problem with the Fast ATA itself.

EDIT: Forget about this HD and this thread. With this A1200/ACA1231-42 I want a reliable/original/simple system. I've taked off the hd and also the Fast ATA and I've connected an 8Gb (enough for all) Kingspec Disk-on-module that I wasn't using just because it doesn't fit (vertical) with the FastATA, and it has booted 100% faster (just like on WinUAE with JIT) than what I had with the FastATA and the Fujitsu HD (slooow). It has an outdated AKReal, but I will update it. And... it hasn't ACATune enabled yet... .