Is there a way to speed up internal SD access?

[AmigaNoob]

I've updated my 1200 with an aca1233n, to AmigaOS 3.1.4 and ROMS.

I'm trying to use a 256GB SD card (Bought cheaper than a 128GB). I've managed to install the OS, and get the aca to bootup with the 3.1.4 by copying the internal ROMs.

On boot up though, it takes quite a while before I see the desktop.

Is there a way to speed this up without buying yet more hardware? Or am I going to have to splash out on a FastATA?

[MartinW]

I can't comment on the 3.14 boot up times because I don't have it but I do have a FastATA on the shelf doing nothing and cannot recommend buying it for a desktop cased A1200.

I'm sure I'll get contradicted by loads of people but my experience was that when "fitted" into my 1200 (and I use the term fitted reservedly) it ran so hot you could smell it and also the "fit" in the ROM sockets was terrible. I had to force it so much that I seriously thought I was going to physically break the 1200 motherboard and even then it didn't slot in properly and only stayed there because of the cable ties you had to use.

Another bit of kit I bought and don't use that sits on the shelf.

IMO the FastATA should only be considered if you have transferred your 1200 into a tower case.

[Daedalus]

Welcome along! A couple of things can slow down the boot process. Before the drive is actually read, several seconds are spent initialising and checking the hardware. Then, if you have anything that needs to be installed as resident (e.g. the new Intuition library, or if the new ROM image needs to be leaded each time), the machine needs to reset and go through the initialisation process a second time. You can tell this is happening by the screen sync resetting and the power light going dim for a second before turning bright again.

Aside from that, the A1200 IDE interface is rather slow, but still should be reasonable for a standard OS install. Check the drive speed with SysInfo or similar. A speed of around 2MB/s or slightly higher is about right - if you're getting much lower than that, it could be an issue with the card being exceptionally slow.

Another way to speed things up is to increase the number of buffers allocated for the partitions. You can do this manually from the Shell with the Addbuffers command, or make the change permanent by changing the value in the partitions' settings in HDToolbox. A value of 100-150 is probably a decent amount if you have the RAM to spare - the number represents the maximum number of disk blocks to hold in RAM as a cache.

Also, the filesystem can be improved. Both SFS and PFS are faster than the standard FFS, though there are also compromises with both. If you want to stick with FFS, increasing the block size can have a dramatic effect on the speed of certain operations. The default of 512 or 1024 bytes can be increased all the way up to 32KB, which is less efficient at storing lots of small files, but speeds up access considerably, and with 256GB you're not going to worry about a few extra MB of space used up. Bear in mind however that changing the filesystem or blocksize of a partition will require a reboot and reformat of the partition.

[AmigaNoob]

Originally Posted by MartinW

I can't comment on the 3.14 boot...

Thanks for letting me know. I'll keep that in mind.

Did you use one of the riser things, that you can get to go with it? It's angled, and lifts the PCB away from the motherboard.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Welcome along! A couple of things can slow down the boot process...

That's some really interesting info as well. I'll try my best and see if I can change those settings. I never was a pro with the Amiga back in the day, but I got by. Thanks

[MartinW]

Originally Posted by AmigaNoob

Did you use one of the riser things, that you can get to go with it? It's angled, and lifts the PCB away from the motherboard

No I didn't. I was a bit in the mindset of yourself in so much as "do I really need to buy MORE hardware just to plug this in??" and partly of the opinion that it was already running so hot that it smelt like burning without raising it up even closer to the case so it had even less room to breathe. I fitted a fan at one point but that just annoyed me. I eventually gave up and just took it out, whilst it was indeed faster loading icons and stuff on the desktop it still wasn't modern-like loading times and stuff.

Maybe when the new keyboard eventually arrives sometime next year I'll give it another go but I personally don't think it's worth just under £100 unless you particularly want to squeeze every ounce out of the 1200.

Anyway, hopefully you can solve it at a software level. There is another thread here somewhere with someone complaining of the exact same thing and I believe the suggestion was related to the block size of the file system which I think Daedalus has already mentioned.

[indigolemon]

I have a FastATA in a drawer too - and I have a towered Amiga 1200! Theres just not enough space for it to co-habit with a Mediator and Indivision in there

Even when I did have it going, it was a world of HDD errors and random reboots I could do without. Back to the standard IDE, but using IDEFix to get the small speed boost it provides when it patches scsi.device!

[MartinW]

Originally Posted by indigolemon

but using IDEFix to get the small speed boost it provides when it patches scsi.device!

Oh, now that's interesting. I never really considered this. I always (likely incorrectly!) assumed IDEFix was just related to large HD support.

So I would think that if 3.14 is being slow to boot then get that fixed first, but maybe there's mileage in further software tweaks afterwards?

[trixster]

An Idefix-Express board is a good tried and tested option, if you can find one. Gives about 3.7mb/s with an 060

[AmigaNoob]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Welcome along! A couple of things can slow down the boot process. ...

I'd like to thank you. I upped the buffer and the block size to what you mentioned, and now, it boots very fast. Before I was waiting minutes, now it's seconds.

Which I can more than live with!

I'll have a play about now, and get SFS installed.

[daxb]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

The default of 512 or 1024 bytes can be increased all the way up to 32KB, which is less efficient at storing lots of small files, but speeds up access considerably,

I've read (in SFS FAQ) that with FFS and 32KB compared to 16KB you get no benefit, only a disadvantage of wasted disk space. However, I would say that 4KB is a good default starting point. At least for SYS:. If you have large partitions with big size files, 8KB or 16KB block size might give a benefit.

[indigolemon]

Originally Posted by trixster

An Idefix-Express board is a good tried and tested option, if you can find one. Gives about 3.7mb/s with an 060

This is definitely what I'd like, but I'm still looking, been about 18 months now

[AmigaNoob]

I've got SFS installed now. I seem to have access to the whole SD over three partitions. (Which fine with me, because I'd like to split things up anyways.

It still boots up very quickly, with using the 150 and 16K settings.

Now it's just a job of getting a load of files across worth using.

Thanks again everyone!

[Daedalus]

Interesting about the 16KB/32KB thing - back in the day I went with 16KB and noticed a massive difference on my FFS partitions and so just stuck with that over the years, so I never benchmarked it against other block sizes.

Just a point to note: The blocksize thing is only an advantage for FFS, and I believe the documentation for both SFS and PFS specify using a 512 byte blocksize. Just double-check before you spend hours copying everything over

[AmigaNoob]

I guess I'm installing the OS again LOL

It does mention max speed with 512. That's what I get for not RTFM correctly. At least it's only the OS3.1.4 to do all over again.

It took me a while to figure out how to actually get SFS installed. (I've followed guides on what the correct 0x settings are etc. (Well at least I hope they're correct)

Thanks again

Edit: After trying to drop down to 512B, it seems the 3rd partition doesn't like it, and takes forever with no ending in sight to format. Changing it back to 16KB, and seems to format quickly.

[Sir_Lucas]

Use the MapROM function to map your Kickstart to Fast Ram on your ACA1233 card. It speeds the system a lot and disk operations as well. Generally, you should always maprom your Kickstart wherever you can as it speeds the system.

[trixster]

Originally Posted by indigolemon

This is definitely what I'd like, but I'm still looking, been about 18 months now

Yes, they are rare. I’ll have a look to see if I have a spare

[AmigaNoob]

Originally Posted by Sir_Lucas

Use the MapROM function to map your Kickstart to Fast Ram on your ACA1233 card. It speeds the system a lot and disk operations as well. Generally, you should always maprom your Kickstart wherever you can as it speeds the system.

Yeah, I'd done that before starting all this. The buffer etc still needs to be changed to help speed things up.

[indigolemon]

Originally Posted by trixster

Yes, they are rare. I’ll have a look to see if I have a spare

Wow, thanks man! I wasn't hinting That would be amazing though

[mark_k]

Some general tips:
- Make sure your SD card is genuine. Fake ones, apart from having an actual size much smaller than printed on the card thus losing your data, are usually really slow. You can use a tool like h2testw to do that.
- Use a card with A1 or A2 speed rating. Small/random writes should be significantly faster on A1/A2 cards.
- Make sure your partitions are well-aligned. E.g. for FFS with 32KB block size, make sure the partition starts on a 32KB boundary.
- Try using a write-back disk caching program.

[AmigaNoob]

Originally Posted by mark_k

Some general tips:
- Make sure your SD card is genuine. Fake ones, apart from having an actual size much smaller than printed on the card thus losing your data, are usually really slow. You can use a tool like h2testw to do that.
- Use a card with A1 or A2 speed rating. Small/random writes should be significantly faster on A1/A2 cards.
- Make sure your partitions are well-aligned. E.g. for FFS with 32KB block size, make sure the partition starts on a 32KB boundary.
- Try using a write-back disk caching program.

The SD card is fine. Sandisk bought directly from Amazon. (Not a 3rd party)
It's a 256GB card, it's more than fast enough. SanDisk Extreme 256GB SDXC Memory Card up to 90 MB/s, Class 10, U3, V30

I have to come to conclusion that maybe there's something up with the whole SD to IDE conversion when trying to go past the 127GB limits.

I'm not saying I understand all the ins and outs, but after thinking I'd formatted everything fine. I copied a fair few files across. The whole thing crashed in the middle of the night, and meant I had to format yet again, even though I set SFS up. I've tried PFS3 as well. But I'm getting no further forward.

Either that I'm going to have to learn how to set things up using a PC first using WinUAE.