A1200 + accelerator board: problem of HD invalidation

[Omolungo]

Hi to all,
I've a problem of frequent invalidation of HD in my A1200 desktop.
Sometimes my system partition go to "not be a dos unit" or there are checksum errors.
So I have to reformat and reinstall the OS.
I tried to change HD thinking it was broken, but the same problem represented with the new one.
So I thought about a set up problem between A1200 and my accelerator board (I take it few time ago), a missing set up that cause problem of max transfert file with HD and cause these problems of invalidation.
But I don't know what I have to do.

This is my configuration, if it can help you:

A1200 desktop by Amiga Technologies
Apollo 1220 Turbo
Kickstart 3.1
Classic Workbench Full

Thanks

[Bloodwych]

How large is the hard drive?

[Skylight]

How big is this HD?
And how big is ur System partition?
Did u use HDToolbox from WB 3.1?
What values did u use for "Mask" and "MaxTransfer"?


Ciao, Rick ...

[Omolungo]

My HD is 12 GB larger, but HD tool box see only 8 GB.
I have 2 partition, one for system (ClassicWB) of 2 GB and one of 4 GB where I stored all my Whdload games and demos.

I use default values for max transfert, for mask I don't know.
Are these values option of HDToolbox?

PS: I'm pretty newbie for these technicism, thanks for your help

[Skylight]

So ur second partition does exceed the 4GB (32bit) boundary .. this is of course a big problem.

What filesystem do u use and what version of scsi.device? Old version from Kick 3.1?
Then don't exceed the 4GB boundary or the pointer will wrap around when writing in areas above the 4GB boundary and then u will overwrite ur system partition or even the RDB.


Ciao, Rick ...

[Skylight]

btw .. the 4GB boundary counts for the whole HD and not just for each partition.

If u wanna use the areas above the 4GB boundary u need the latest scsi.device (for Kick 3.1), NSDpatch and the SFS filesystem.

And "Mask" + "MaxTransfer" are of course options in HDToolBox (for each partition).

P.S.: NSDpatch is not mandatory for this task .. i just used it on my machines with large hard drives back then ..

And i would suggest to use a system partition of max. 2GB with Fastfilesystem and every other partition with SFS filesystem.


Ciao, Rick ...

[TCD]

Bloodwych gathered some interesting stuff about >4GB HDs here : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=32256

[Omolungo]

So if I want to use the old filesystem of 3.1 I must remain under 4 GB for the whole HD, right?

But if I want to use only HDtoolbox without any patch, can I use a 500MB for system partition and about 3.3GB partition for my storage files?
Or a single partition can't be bigger than 2GB?

And on HDtoolbox how have I to set "mask" and "maxtransfert"?

[thomas]

So if I want to use the old filesystem of 3.1 I must remain under 4 GB for the whole HD, right?

Yes, that's right.

But there is a simple patch for "the old filesystem" which allows you to keep the partitions as they are: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/ffstd64

Or a single partition can't be bigger than 2GB?

A partition bigger than 2GB is ok, but may give problems if a program tries to calculate the free space in bytes and results in a negative value. But you should have experienced this already with your 4GB partition.

And on HDtoolbox how have I to set "mask" and "maxtransfert"?

Go to "partition drive", enable "advanced options" and click on "change". Use Mask = 0x7fffffff and MaxTransfer = 0x1fe00. Press enter in each text field you change, otherwise the value will not be taken.

[Omolungo]

Originally Posted by thomas

Yes, that's right.

But there is a simple patch for "the old filesystem" which allows you to keep the partitions as they are: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/ffstd64

Yes, but I would have always a total of 6GB space occuped...

Originally Posted by thomas

A partition bigger than 2GB is ok, but may give problems if a program tries to calculate the free space in bytes and results in a negative value. But you should have experienced this already with your 4GB partition.

Yes, I don't know how many times I formatted the HD after checksum errors occurred but always I had a total space partitioned bigger the 4 GB

Originally Posted by thomas

Go to "partition drive", enable "advanced options" and click on "change". Use Mask = 0x7fffffff and MaxTransfer = 0x1fe00. Press enter in each text field you change, otherwise the value will not be taken.

So I have to delete all the partitions, open hdtoolbox and create 2 partition of at least 2 GB of capacity, then for every partition enable the advanced option and set the option you said.
Ok, if this is the best "lite" solution I'll do so.
I'll have to do all the transfert file work, but I hope it will be the last time

I would prefer to have all my whdload files in a single partition but if having a partition bigger then 2 GB can cause other problems of invalidation I prefer to separate demos and games whdload files

[thomas]

If you install FFSTD64 you can keep everything as you have it now. FFSTD64 allows you to use everything HDToolbox can see (7.8 GiB). If you additionally install a patch for scsi.device you could even use all 12 GB of the HDD.

To change mask and maxtransfer you don't need to delete the existing partitions, you can change them without data loss.

Only if you don't want to use FFSTD64, then you have to stay below 4GB with all partitions altogether.

Using partitions bigger than 2GB is safe, too. If you didn't have problems yet, you don't need to reduce the partition size. You just need to keep in mind that if an error appears that there is not enough space left although there is more than 2GB free, then the cause is the partition size. You can easily work around it by filling the partition until less than 2GB is free.

[Omolungo]

Originally Posted by thomas

If you install FFSTD64 you can keep everything as you have it now. FFSTD64 allows you to use everything HDToolbox can see (7.8 GiB). If you additionally install a patch for scsi.device you could even use all 12 GB of the HDD.

That's a good think, I hadn't understood before
Yes because at the moment I have the 2GB partition of system not validated, so I have to format it and to reinstall ClassicWB. But this is the minor thing

The second partition of 4GB is still validated, and in that partition I have transferred all the my whdload files (more than 2GB), so I have not to do all the work again

Is FFSTD64 difficult to install? Now I go to download it and to read the readme file.

Thank for the hint, you save me

[Omolungo]

Just two question: I read the readme file of FFSTD64.

How can I see the version of my fastfilesystem?

Where I have to put the unzipped file before writing the installation command? I've to use shell to install FFSTD64, right? (Remeber I'm a newbie)

[Omolungo]

Originally Posted by thomas

Using partitions bigger than 2GB is safe, too. If you didn't have problems yet, you don't need to reduce the partition size. You just need to keep in mind that if an error appears that there is not enough space left although there is more than 2GB free, then the cause is the partition size. You can easily work around it by filling the partition until less than 2GB is free.

So if my 4GB partition is more than 50% full I should not have problems, right?

[thomas]

The second partition of 4GB is still validated, and in that partition I have transferred all the my whdload files (more than 2GB), so I have not to do all the work again

You probably will have to do this again, because the 4GB partition is the culprit which is partly wrapped around to the beginning of the HDD and the 2GB partition is only the victim.

See this diagram:

(click on the image to see the whole page)

Is FFSTD64 difficult to install? Now I go to download it and to read the readme file.

Three steps:

- find the old FastFileSystem file. If it's not in the L directory of your boot partition, it is in the L directory of the Install3.1 disk.
- patch it with the patch files from FFSTD64
- use HDToolbox / Partition Drive / Advanced Options / Add/Update to replace the old FFS by the new one. Make sure that the Identifier is the same as the identifier of the partitions. I.e. if your partitions are FFS INTL (0x444f5303) make sure that the new FFS gets 0x444f5303, too.

How can I see the version of my fastfilesystem?

open a shell window and enter

version dh0:

replace dh0 by the name of the partition to check. If it says version 39 or 40, then it's the old FFS if it says version 44, then it has been updated by FFSTD64.

You can use this program to check if everything went ok: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/check4gb

Where I have to put the unzipped file before writing the installation command?

Anywhere you want. A good place is Ram Disk. The only file which needs to be kept is the resulting FastFileSystem version 44. Everything else can be deleted. Copy the new FastFileSystem into the L directory of your boot partition.

So if my 4GB partition is more than 50% full I should not have problems, right?

Yes, that's right.

[Omolungo]

Too late!

I got my 4GB partition invalidated.

So the only solution is to restart everything, and this time I will create 2 partition of less than 2 GB: in this case I have to set mask and maxtransfert as you said or it doesn' t care?

Thanks a lot for your help

[thomas]

in this case I have to set mask and maxtransfert as you said

You should always set the values like this for IDE drives.