CF card formatting for OS installation - scsi.device issue?

[Fenris]

Hey there, I'm trying to set up a CF card via WinUAE, to be used later on on an A600 with Kickstart 3.1.
The CF card is 8GB, so I guess I'll be able to use 4GB, but this is not the issue.


I've created two partitions, one for the "System" and the second larger one for everything else, first partition is formatted.
Can't manage to format the second larger partition tho (Format failed, object too large).


I did some research and I've seen this may be caused by the scsi.device version.
Now, should I just set it there as in the screenshot or is there anything else to do?
I've tried named as you see, but still didn't manage to format that partition.


If I change the scsi.device name, should I redelete everything from the CF card with "Diskpart" and start all over?



Any help is much appreciated

[thomas]

I've never seen this error. Did you use quick format? You should. There is no reason to fully format a harddrive of any kind.

[Fenris]

Well, I get this error only with Quick format, with full format it just gets stuck.

[thomas]

Please list the values you used for Cylinders, Heads and Sectors per Track on the Change Drive Type page.

And also list some details about your WinUAE config.

[Fenris]

CPU 68040 - fastest possible, FPU - CPU Internal, Kickstart same as on the A600 3.1 - 40.63, Chipset Full ECS - Chipset Extra A600.

I'm using pfs3aio.
And when I add the Hard Drive here I'm not sure if I should go for "uaehf.device" or "IDE (auto)".

I'll post the other details, I'll have to do it all over, as I cleaned up the CF card again.

[Fenris]

And that's the partition I was referring to.
Now I'm trying by setting uae (uaehf.device) both on Winuae and in the scsi.device name in HDtools...let's see.
I'm not sure if that would work then on a real machine, assuming that I won't get the same error now of course.

P.S. and with that (uaehf.device set on WinUae, no way)

[thomas]

I meant Change Drive Type in HDToolbox like shown below.

You should change the values so that the number of cylinders does not overflow.

[Fenris]

Yes, I've changed the Drive type, that was the outcome after Read configuration, as in the screenshot.

[Fenris]

Those are the HDD settings in WinUae, and the HDtoolBox settings.
Plus the error message I'm getting when I try to format DH1, large partition...

Could it ever be the 8GB CF card instead of a 4GB one? Although the partition size would not change (as it is seen by the OS so to say)...

[Fenris]

Damn! Formatted!
I had a better look at your screenshot, the second partition was larger than 4000MB something.
And more than that cannot be recognized by the OS I think, so I have resized the partition to roughly 4GB and it works.

So now the question might be how I would manage to use the full 8GB CF card with Kickstart 3.1?

Sorry about the mess, I'm learning as I'm testing stuff!

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Fenris

that was the outcome after Read configuration

Yes, but these values are only suggestions and they are not good as you are seeing negative cylinder numbers for the partitions.

If you use

7695 Cylinders
16 Heads
128 Sectors per track
2048 Sectors per cylinder

then one cylinder is one megabyte and you can size partitions easily using cylinder numbers. And it also aligns partitions properly for flash memory storage.

With your current value of 252 sectors per cylinder the end cyl of the last partition must not be higher than 33287.

With 2048 sectors per cylinder it's 4095.

OS 3.1 does not have any checks for overflows, so if you create partitions with higher cylinder numbers, they will corrupt other partitions.

If you use pfs3aio instead of FastFileSystem, you should be able to use the entire CF card. It's also much faster than FFS.

[vulture]

@Fenris

I suggest you use NSDPatch and Doobrey's scsi.device. That's the best combo I've used in terms of speed and compatibility, while any size up to 128GB (maybe more?) is supported.

[Jope]

Naah, with an 8GB card it's directscsi all the way. No need to reboot to update the scsi.device.

[Fenris]

Thanks guys for the suggestions, I'll give it another try later today, if I manage I'll check the patch that Vulture mentioned.

Would be great to use the CF card fully yp to 8GB.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Fenris

I'll check the patch that Vulture mentioned.

That's bad advice. NSDPatch is stupid software, it is not needed in any case. And as Jope mentioned a new scsi.device is not needed for a 8GB card. It brings only hassle.

You need a new file system anyway. Go with PFS and you are done.

[vulture]

How is nsdpatch stupid software? Always worked flawlessly here. Is there something wrong with it?

And as for the scsi.device , well, Doobrey's version gives me 2.3MB/s compared to 1.8MB/s and it's super stable , not bad I believe.

I think that by using a proper scsi.device (like Doobrey's) and a good fs (ie SFS 1.84) nsdpatch isn't needed at all tho.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by vulture

How is nsdpatch stupid software?

Because it does not do anything useful.

Always worked flawlessly here.

Certainly, because it does not do anything.

Is there something wrong with it?

No, it's just not needed.

And as for the scsi.device , well, Doobrey's version gives me 2.3MB/s compared to 1.8MB/s and it's super stable , not bad I believe.

Nice. Is this on a 68000-equipped A600?

I think that by using a proper scsi.device (like Doobrey's)

That thing cannot be called "proper". It works perfectly for some people (like you obviously), but causes all kinds of trouble for other people.

and a good fs (ie SFS 1.84) nsdpatch isn't needed at all tho.

NSDPatch is not needed in any case. It does not help with anything.

SFS can be considered obsolete since PFS is available for free.

[Retro1234]

Going Off-Topic

I assume you can use a large FAT32 partition? If so what are the advantages of using an Amiga only filesystem?

[vulture]

@thomas

Well, I used nsdpatch to access my big partition after the first 4gb on my 32gb CF and it did so reliably, so, it does something. Maybe there were better ways to do it, but nonetheless. My system is a 68030 A1200.

As for PFS....had all kinds of problems in the past, but I know it has been improved since. But the fear of losing my files again still remains. Never had such trouble with SFS and so, it's a habit I guess.

@Retro1234

Well, for one, I believe FAT32 doesn't support amiga file attributes, does it? Also, there's trouble with the filenames case of some sort....?

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by thomas

Yes, but these values are only suggestions and they are not good as you are seeing negative cylinder numbers for the partitions.

If you use

7695 Cylinders
16 Heads
128 Sectors per track
2048 Sectors per cylinder

then one cylinder is one megabyte and you can size partitions easily using cylinder numbers. And it also aligns partitions properly for flash memory storage.

With your current value of 252 sectors per cylinder the end cyl of the last partition must not be higher than 33287.

With 2048 sectors per cylinder it's 4095.

OS 3.1 does not have any checks for overflows, so if you create partitions with higher cylinder numbers, they will corrupt other partitions.

If you use pfs3aio instead of FastFileSystem, you should be able to use the entire CF card. It's also much faster than FFS.

By the way, I gave it another try, and I can see the full 8GB of the CF card, in two 4GB partitions tho.

Do I understand correctly ayway that the single partition cannot be larger than 4GB?