HDF geometry settings

Hi, i am trying to create 2 hardfiles to backup my 1200 CF partitions. Have a few questions (problems!?) about creating the HDF's

When i create my HDF's in winuae , they automatically gain the following settings.

DH0 250mb HDF - surfaces 1 sectors 32
DH1 1000mb HDF - surfaces 1 sectors 32

Im then booting off a WB floppy and formatting - full format, internatonal ffs.
This all works fine i can save the config- install workbench etc.

The bit that confuses me is :
If i add either hardfile to another winuae config, they autodetect with different surface value (4) and sector value (63).

The same version of winuae (2.3.3) is being used for all testing. I have read some threads on here about similar things happening when using old HDFs on newer WinUAEs, but was surprised this happens all on the same pc/version.

I am only having these issues with HDF's i create myself. For instance i can add pre-built hdf's to any profile (such as ClassicWB hdf's) and they always detect correctly.

I guess my concerns are:
A: Am i doing something wrong in creating the HDF's?
B: What are the best values to use when creating the HDF's initially? (1,32 or 4, 63)

Would appreciate if anyone could give me some advice. Im a long time user of Amiga so familiar with prepping hard disks etc. Quite new to winUAE though!

[thomas]

1. use RDB mode, then you don't need to care about geometry because it is stored inside the HDF. You can even store both partitions in one HDF

2. if you copy files you should use VHD instead of HDF. Saves you a lot of disk space on your Windows HDD because the virtual HDD becomes only as big as the files stored in it.

Originally Posted by thomas

1. use RDB mode, then you don't need to care about geometry because it is stored inside the HDF. You can even store both partitions in one HDF

2. if you copy files you should use VHD instead of HDF. Saves you a lot of disk space on your Windows HDD because the virtual HDD becomes only as big as the files stored in it.

Thanks for the information!

1. I havent tried RDB mode before. In rdb would i just leave the surface/sectors/blocks etc in winuae as 0, and let hdtoolbox create settings? anything else need setting manually eg maxtransfer value?

2. i am aware of VHD and hd folders but would prefer HDF because my storage partition (1000mb) is a fixed size with lots of tiny files - eg. whdload files and amiexpress configs. Much quicker and tidier moving one big file for backing up to cd or usb stick. The size is about right so fixed size is fine.

I was just curious which is safest/best of the winuae hdf settings to create with (surface 1 sectors 32) or (surface 4 sectors 63)-- and if it was normal behaviour for Winuae to not recognise the existing HDF geometry when adding the HDF to a new config.

[thomas]

1. I havent tried RDB mode before. In rdb would i just leave the surface/sectors/blocks etc in winuae as 0, and let hdtoolbox create settings? anything else need setting manually eg maxtransfer value?

Yes. RDB mode emulates a real HDD. Geometry is determined by HDToolbox and MaxTransfer etc. needs to be set to suit the controller. For UAE controller you can leave it as default.

2. i am aware of VHD and hd folders but would prefer HDF because my storage partition (1000mb) is a fixed size with lots of tiny files - eg. whdload files and amiexpress configs. Much quicker and tidier moving one big file for backing up to cd or usb stick. The size is about right so fixed size is fine.

VHD is like HDF, just much smaller file. You can make 20 GB VHD which takes only 2KB on your HDD (because it contains no files). Just tick the "dynamic HDF" checkbox in WinUAE when creating the HDF. It's one file per harddrive, just like HDF.

I was just curious which is safest/best of the winuae hdf settings to create with (surface 1 sectors 32) or (surface 4 sectors 63)

The bigger values are more compatible with older AmigaOS versions.

-- and if it was normal behaviour for Winuae to not recognise the existing HDF geometry when adding the HDF to a new config.

A HDF is just a plain file. It is not possible to detemine its geometry. It's your task to remember the geometry the file was created with and enter it correctly when adding the HDF to another config.

That's why RDB mode is preferable: it stores the geometry in the file.

Wonderful! thank you Thomas... all making sense now