It's THAT thread again, namely: yet another hard drive in A1200 issue

[Shoonay]

I'm either doing something terribly wrong, or... there's a problem with the software/hardware

But, from the start...

I've did everything there's is to be done, mentioned in that thread, and there were troubles with both: partitions not being seen in the wb and showing wrong size.

I've got the following:
[SHD0:] [System:] [256MB]
[SHD1:] [Backup:] [3243MB]
... those two to keep the 4gb limit/compatibility issue...
[SHD2:] [Work:] [9GB]
[SHD3:] [Data:] [9GB]
[SHD4:] [Stuff:] [9GB]
[SHD5:] [Demos:] [9GB]
[SHD6:] [Games:] [9GB]
[SHD7:] [Temp:] [3739MB]

To see the others than the firs two partitions, i had to run format from the system drawer and it showed all drives
The good thing is it's atleast keeping all the data there is

So i thought it's a problem with my kick3.0...

After getting a Blizz 030/50 i've kicked the 3.1 kick... and the partitions are not seen ... unless running format again

SO, i've installed os3.9... WHAT??? - NO PARTITIONS!?!?!?!?

I had to install IdeFIX again (like in the previous mentioned cases) and here they are, showed right after boot...
... but i don't want to use a pirated os3.9... i don't want to use any 3.9 - well, not YET maybe, but no - i want me good old os3.1

Plaese, could someone point me, what am/could i be doing wrong?



--- EDIT ---
BTW: All the above partitions are SFS...



PS: Sorry for the chaos in this post, if anyone sane enough to read it, can't understand something, i'll be more then happy to explain

[Charlie]

Hi Shoonay:
It's a bugger getting big drives to work with AOS even when it looks fine.
Usually it comes down to luck & after hours of getting pi**ed off - the light will dawn...

Things to think about:
My system is Amithlon so regard hardware advice from me a dodgy, but hopefully OS stuff will be reliable.

Hardware:
1) I believe not all drives live happily together on the A1200 IDE bus. So it may well be useful to post what you've got ( and where ) in case that's your problem.
2) I also believe that OS 3.0 can have a lot of trouble recognising drives that spin up slowly on cold boot - does it work any better after a warm-reset?
There are 'fixes' for this...
3) Partitions don't like talking to unfamiliar rom versions which is why you kept having to re-run HDToolBox to find them again. This is related to the convenient lie about OS3.9 only working with real 3.1 roms.

Me:
For clarification I assume your two small partitions ( Sys: & Back: ) are on a small drive attached to IDE 0:0 & the others on a big drive connected to IDE 0:1 - am I correct?
( This does mean you have no-where to connect the cd-rom for 3.9 without buying a port-splitter or Mr B's hack: Two such drives are the safest option in my opinion )


Suggestion:
In the meantime try getting it all to work with OS3.0 and just the small drive connected then verifying that the replacement scsi.device is genuinely the one your amiga is using...
( Yes you do need something like SFS instead of oldFFS along with an updated scsi.device to access large drives/partitions )

Thoughts:
Scsi.device in rom won't understand more than 4gig ( in max 2gig partitions ). You can't aviod this molesting your big drive prior to loading in a replacement unless you boot from floppy or have a small boot drive on IDE 0:0 to protect it from the AOS rom.

.
.
.
.
If you really must use one large drive on IDE 0:0 ( not good!!! ) try a small boot partition as you have done then... NOTHING!... leave the rest of the drive alone!
Get it working with SFS in your RDB as your partition type. Make sure that the partition is NOT FFS.
Add the lines to get the updated scsi.device loaded - verify that it is being used in preference to the rom version.
Now when you use HDToolBox you should find your drive is recognised for its full size not the 4gig the rom version of scsi.device thinks it is.
DO NOT let HDToolBox auto-allocate any partitions at this stage!!! Manuly add new partitions as SFS starting well past the first 4gig of the drive so you end up with:
ALL partitions are SFS:
Small boot partition - BLOODY BIG EMPTY SPACE - 4GIG point - THEN the rest of the partitions as you wish.

There I've said it.
Anybody trying this don't blame me when it all goes wrong!

No it's not my fault.

Use seperate physical drives on IDE 0:0 & 0:1 Make sure the drive on IDE 0:0 will have no trouble with the rom version scsi.device & FFS & use this for your Sys: partition.
You have been warned.

As usual I can't do short posts. I hope this helps. Let me know with more specifics of your physical & software setup if you have further trouble.

Regards.

[Charlie]

Hmmm. Replying to my own posts...

Of cause with a bit more work there is a much more elegant way of doing this, side-stepping all this trouble and gaining a few benefits:

Get one of those nice flash-rom thingies & build your own kickrom.
You can then replace all the outdated stuff ( and add more useful bits ) so you will have no further worries. You'll also boot faster.

I've done the equivalent thing with my Amithlon rom-file updating all sorts of stuff with faster/updated vesions.
Now if I could work out how to get Amithlon to accept a larger rom I'd add lots of new stuff too - like my USB stack.

Best of luck.

[Shoonay]

Right now, i'm in the state of total lazyness, no free time for me Amy dearest & way too much work... at work (even today ), and the testing of all the above will take me... a month... ... or 6... lol


Many thanks for all the helping tips, and have a Happy New Year! - for all the others too