Not enough memory for SFSDefrag

[MBry0]

Hi everyone,
I'm having a little problem with sfsdefrag. When i try to defrag (sfsdefrag dh1: addbuffers 3000 showresult) a large partition (17gb), nothing happens. It works perfectly with the 1gb prtition.
When i try it from the sfsdefraggui it says that i need at least 4,5 mb free ram.

My configuration:
Amiga 1200 - blizzard 1220/4, hd 20gb (sfs-idefix), classicwb full. I've only added amitcp4 (no autostart).

At startup i have 1,9mb free chip and 2,4mb free fast.

i tried to exclude the user-startup, passing all the idefix line to the startup sequence. Doing that i have enough free ram (about 5,4mb), but it detects only 4gb of the large partition.

What must i do (even temporarly, only for defragging) to have enough free ram and right hd values? I don't what to exclude from startup sequence (the classicwb full one)

Sorry for my english, i hope you understand the problem anyway

[daxb]

Doing write accesses without running IDE driver software on large HD`s isn`t a good idea. You might lose data.

About memory requirement, have a look into SFSdefrag.txt:

I'm not sure what the memory requirements are, but the
defragmenter will need atleast enough memory to hold the
bitmap of the drive in memory. This is usually about 0.25%
of the total size of the drive you are trying to defragment
plus the memory needed to show the window (depends on the
window size). For a 2 GB drive the total memory
requirements are about 1 MB (+ Buffers)

You could reduce amount of buffers. Better would be to have a memory upgrade. To have max memory available for defrag you can edit your startup-sequence that runs only necessary IDE software and than sfsdefrag. I would recommend using the tool Key - KeyPressed from Aminet right after idefix. So if you press a key while booting it executes your sfsdefrag.

[MBry0]

Well, I think that the easiest (and cheapest) way to have enough free ram is to have a startup-sequence ad hoc for the defrag. I have 2mb chip + 4mb fast, I think that they are enough for the purpose.

I really don't know what can I exclude fron the startup to have the large partition properly recognize and to be able to defrag it. And there is where I need your help.

I've attached my startup-sequence + user-startup. I hope somenone could help me editing them

[thomas]

How can you think you could free 4.5 MB RAM if you have only 4 MB in your computer?

I am quite sure it needs a continuous block of free RAM.

Why did you create such an oversized partition on your undersized machine?

Why do you think you need to defrag?

[MBry0]

Well thomas, I am absolutely ignorant, and i'ts not a secret, but not stupid. I have 2 mb chip + 4 mb fast, i think they should be something like 6 mb total ram.

Originally Posted by thomas

Why did you create such an oversized partition on your undersized machine?

I don't know. I just wanted 2 partition, then I made 1+17gb. I have about 6 gb of file on the large partition (yes, I haven't tried to put them in the 1gb partition)

Originally Posted by thomas

Why do you think you need to defrag?

All files are scattered around the partition. When i run the check and defrag script that I found inside the classicwb (under system/sfs/script), it say that dh1: needs to be defragged.

Ok, i'm going to mess with the startup sequence, until i get enough free ram. Or creating a boot disk with only the necessary. Or maybe I'm going to shrink the large partition, hoping that it will not destroy the data inside. Or simply doing nothing....

Thanks.

[thomas]

2 MB chip ram is in the beginning of the address space, 4 MB fast RAM is somewhere else in the address space. Between is a big hole of nothing. If you need 4.5 MB of continous RAM it fits neither into 2 MB nor into 4 MB.

Changing the size of a partition will render it unreadable which means it *will* destroy the data.

[cosmicfrog]

wow I get to correct thomas
he means contiguous memory

[daxb]

Just in case you want to try the S-S solution. Here is an example using Key (Keypressed) from Aminet:

Key 34 ; for Key "D"
IF WARN
SFSdefrag DH1: 2000 SHOWRESULT
ASK "Continue booting ? (Y/N)"
ENDIF

Add this to somewhere below SetPatch call. At least after IDEfix. Key has to be in path (usually C: ) of course. And you may reduce buffers size.

[UberFreak]

Just take the HDD out & connect it to a PC, use WinUAE to do the defrag, you won't have memory shortage there (and it will be much faster).

[MBry0]

Thanks guys. I'll try the UberFreak option.

Thanks a lot.

[MBry0]

Defragging. Thanks again, guys

[MBry0]

Wow, it's still defragging
dumb question: is there something i can do to speed up the process through winuae settings?