Amiga questions you've always been too embarrassed to ask

[malko]

Idem : .HDF

[Viceroy]

No difference in loading speed or anything?
What you are saying is VHD are flexible and a HDF could fill up?

[Viceroy]

Well looks as though 3 votes for HDF, cheers ;-)

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Well, the text in the picture IS upside-down, so go figure.

The text is correct, that's how text is printed on all disks. The picture is just fine!

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by Akira

The text is correct, that's how text is printed on all disks. The picture is just fine!

I know, see my previous posts about it.

Originally Posted by Viceroy

No difference in loading speed or anything?
What you are saying is VHD are flexible and a HDF could fill up?

HDF and VHD both use the RDB mode, which will require setting up of partitions in HDToolBox, but then you can use FFS, which is faster than a basic HDF with no RDB mode.

Both HDF and VHD can fill up, but with an HDF, the file size is always the size of the HDD you specify, so a file can be 20Mb in size and all of that space in the HDF will be empty at first, and you just fill it up with files. Think of the data space in the file as being like the platters of a real HDD, and as the platters are written to, the bytes in the file are written to.

VHD files start off small when formatted (but QUICK Format, not Full format, otherwise it will grow to the full size specified immediately), but as files are written to it, it will grow in size, and as I said, deleting files from it will not reduce the size. I've heard of tools that can reduce the size of a VHD in Windows/Linux after files are deleted, but I don't know about such tools for Amiga.

In the end it's up to you, and I would try both, but just see how you get on.

[Viceroy]

Thanks for that Foebane.
One last question on Harddrives on Winuae:
I know there is a limit of 4gb or roundabouts for a Harddrive is this just for HDF's & VHD?
What if for example I had a Harddrive as a directory on Winuae with say 6 gig of my music modules in, would Winaue recognise the whole drive or just 4 gig of it?

[Daedalus]

You're fine with that. The 4GB limit comes from certain device drivers and certain filesystems. If you don't use them, you don't have the limit (even with HDFs and VHDs). WinUAE 's folder access doesn't use any of the device drivers or filesystems with the problem, so you're safe to access more or less any size.

[Viceroy]

Brilliant, thanks Daedalus ;-)
If I deceided to use a prepared 8GB HDF that I downloaded it from here and put all my music on, what indication would you get to know if it was working correct or not?

[Daedalus]

You should be able to use HDDReport to check the drive and tell you whether it's safe for >4GB use or not. I'd imagine it is, but no harm to check and make sure anyway.

[Viceroy]

I'll try that, many thanks ;-)

[methodman]

Why do I keep meeting the Guru? I get an error message that says Z3 invalid map bank RTG Ram start at 40000000 to size 0000000 and after I press premenu it kicks me out and sends me to meet the Guru. What is my next step?

[daxb]

Originally Posted by methodman

What is my next step?

Open a new thread somewhere in the software section about your problem with much more detailed information to get help.

[wiz12]

Silly question but if installing a CD-Rom drive onto a buffered interface like an idefix or 4xEide'99 does it matter if the drive is set to master or slave?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by wiz12

Silly question but if installing a CD-Rom drive onto a buffered interface like an idefix or 4xEide'99 does it matter if the drive is set to master or slave?

If you have two devices connected to the same cable then obviously one should be master and the other slave. Some devices only work as single devices when set to master, and some even have a special 'single' jumper position that you need to use in a single configuration. In general with IDE, the device at the end of the cable should be master, and the device in the middle is slave. The master will terminate the bus which is why there should always be a master present at the end of the cable (so although it might seem to work in many situations, it is bad practice to leave the master connected to the middle of the cable).

[ransom1122]

Right at the start of The Persian Gulf Inferno/The North Sea Inferno What does the soldier scream on the intro?

Ya Ba Gear?

[DaveTaylor]

What does "NIL" mean in startup-sequences?


Example:

Assign >NIL: ENV: RAM:ENV
Assign >NIL: T: RAM:T
EndCLI >NIL:

[ptyerman]

In its simplest term, NIL stops any output appearing on screen so you don't have a scrolling screen full of messages.
Someone else can probably explain it better.

[ajk]

">" will redirect the output of a program to the desired destination, could be a printer for example, or ">RAM:output.txt" if you want to save to a file.

"NIL:" is a null device which will accept input but not do anything with it.

So if you are not interested in the output of some command and don't wish to see it, you send it to the void.

[DaveTaylor]

I understand. Thank you. That means its not necessary at all costs to use NIL, because its not essential for the startup sequence to be functional. Its only to keep the output clean.

[daxb]

Yes, but in some cases output can cause "Can't close screen/intuition" error message when try to load WB.