PFS3 - Do you upgrade?

[IvanEBC]

Hello.


I feel this should be asked in the "i was too embarrassed to ask a simple question" section.... so here goes.


My A4000 was originally setup using PFS3 and the aio-handler has a file version 18.5 that resides in devs:



I've seen new versions pop up from time to time on Aminet and discussed here. Is it worthwhile to grab these and simply replace the file in devs with this new one for some sort of new features and speed etc? Or is this only a thing you use when installing and setting up a drive for the first time with HDToolBox?


Thanks.

[Mrz]

nope I do not upgraded, I use pfs3 original version 18.5 (direct scsi version)
I tried once to upgrade to pfs3aio and not worked fine on my A1200
personally I do not recommend because the last comercial version is very stable and fast

[Toni Wilen]

If you have >5G partition(s): you really should upgrade because official version has data corrupting bug that happens very rarely (mainly when copying lots of small files quickly) but when it happens ("Wrong Index Block ID" is the usual error), files may get lost and it can't be fixed without reformat.

("it didn't work" does not work. EDIT: just to make this useful: there is nothing known that would prevent it to work in basic A1200, usual reason is some crappy scsi.device upgrade which isn't even needed if drive size is less than about 8G)

[esel]

Can i just Upgrade pfs3 or should i Reformat the hd after Upgrade ?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by esel

Can i just Upgrade pfs3 or should i Reformat the hd after Upgrade ?

Reformat is not needed. (Except if pfsdoctor reports errors = above data corruption has already happened)

[esel]

thx !

[IvanEBC]

Sorry Toni, i wish this was clearer, a filesystem is something you need to be exact on, don't want to lose anything.

I extract the "new" pfs3aio and copy it to devs: - but i need to rename it first because the "old" one already on my system is called pfs3_aio-handler -> then i copy the new one over the top of the old one.

If i do that, reboot, the system will pick it up and happily use the new version?

[esel]

The filesSystem is lockated in L: Not Devs:.
You Must use hdtoolbox to Update the filesystem.

[IvanEBC]

Originally Posted by esel

The filesSystem is lockated in L: Not Devs:.
You Must use hdtoolbox to Update the filesystem.

Sometimes you guys appear to be deliberately vague


There's no "pfs3" file in the L drive, only the handler in Devs... that's ok, i loaded up HDtoolbox, selected scsi device.
Selected my CF card and seelcted partition drive (OS3.9)
There, i could see the current filesystem was listed as PFS3/03 or something like that.


This isn't something i can just play with until i get it right as i don't want to have to redo my 120gb cf card again .... can i get more detail or point me to somewhere that might explain this upgrade process?

[IvanEBC]

OK, i've decided to help myself to get some help and take this as far as i can ... i get some odd readings so i don't quite know if i stuffed something initially? I also used pfsdoctor that said i have no errors (YAY!)

I put the NEW pfs3aio into L: there's currently no psf3 files in L

I load up HDToolBox
I select scsi.device 43.35
I select my 120gb CF card and select partition drive.

All 3 partitions (4/100/15) show on that main screen as Custom File system PFS/03
If i select change - it shows PFS/03 and some settings, max transfer etc, everything looks in place, and i have been using this for at least 18 months and no issues, but not wanting to tempt fate with a rare bug, i want to upgrade, but here it gets weird

If i select Add/Update which according to above, is what i would want to do, this is what i see

Identifier Version Size FileSystemName
0x444F5303 45.9 26304 L:FastFileSystem [International (FFS)]
0x50465303 18.0 69388 Emergency-Disk:L/pfs3_aio-handler [Custom File System]

So multiple things here, why is FFS still listed? Is this normal and since all three partitions are listed under the "change" tab as being on PFS/03, is it safe to delete?

Second entry that almost seems correct except its pointing to some odd device called emergency disk, i did select it and clicked Update and it asks for the emergency-disk to be inserted. I know i can select L and select the new pfs3aio file but this doesn't feel right as how can the current pfs3 be in use when its looking for it in a location that doesn't exist (and i even pointed out earlier that my handler file resides in devs: not l: for whatever reason.

Basically? can i kill the FFS one and safely update the PFS by selected the new 19.2 version without destroying everything?

[crazyc]

I am also very interested in a simple upgrade guide, so watching this thread closely.
Good luck with your efforts.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by IvanEBC

So multiple things here, why is FFS still listed? Is this normal and since all three partitions are listed under the "change" tab as being on PFS/03, is it safe to delete?

Hdtoolbox (at least later versions) automatically add FFS to RDB. It can be deleted if you want but it makes no difference if you don't have any FFS partitions. Leave it to be safe, it will be for example used (if it is newer than ROM built-in version) if you use some image mounter program to mount FFS formatted partitions or disk images.

Second entry that almost seems correct except its pointing to some odd device called emergency disk, i did select it and clicked Update and it asks for the emergency-disk to be inserted. I know i can select L and select the new pfs3aio file but this doesn't feel right as how can the current pfs3 be in use when its looking for it in a location that doesn't exist (and i even pointed out earlier that my handler file resides in devs: not l: for whatever reason.

It also does not matter, it is only path where pfs3 was originally installed.

can i kill the FFS one and safely update the PFS by selected the new 19.2 version without destroying everything?

Yes. But I'd still would recommend to take 1:1 image of the card if you have PC with large harddrive(s). There is never reason not to take backups.

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

There is never reason not to take backups.

Yes there is. Laziness

[IvanEBC]

Thank you... yeah i selected add/update, selected the old pfs3 and choose update - chose the new pfs3aio i copied to the L: dir earlier, and when i did the first partition, the rest just updated as well.

Saved, rebooted, everything seems fine.

I assume to can delete the old pfs3_aio-handler that resides in my devs directory .. oddly.

Thanks for verifying ...

[IvanEBC]

One more small thing. I like to read "history" files to see what's been fixed.

I was using 18.5, and now i'm using 19.2, but the file on Aminet says v3.1 and previous versions going back from there.
What version lines up with 18.5 so i can have a read (and make programmers feel good that laymen DO read the read mes.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by IvanEBC

I assume to can delete the old pfs3_aio-handler that resides in my devs directory .. oddly.

Yes. After it has been installed to RDB, filesystem file can be deleted. It is not used anymore.

Originally Posted by IvanEBC

One more small thing. I like to read "history" files to see what's been fixed.

I was using 18.5, and now i'm using 19.2, but the file on Aminet says v3.1 and previous versions going back from there.
What version lines up with 18.5 so i can have a read (and make programmers feel good that laymen DO read the read mes.

Originally when PFS3 become open source, original author, me and few others did some fixes and tweaks and these changes probably are only "documented" here: https://sourceforge.net/p/pfs-amiga/code/171/log/?path=
Also I think open source version was not final 18.5 because some changes were lost.

Above updates are not technically part of pfs3aio. I only commited obvious bug fixes back to official tree.

[simulant]

Hi can anyone please help me out. My Amiga is driving me crazy!!!

I have a SanDisk 64GB CF card and I just keep getting errors when I try to copy lots of WHDload games in Directory Opus...

I've already installed the SetPatch update for DOPUS and followed this thread and successfully upgraded to the latest PFS3 AIO and removed the old handler one.

Here are some screenshots in WinUAE:









The last one is my inability to also run PFS Doctor to try to fix the drive, it just gives me out of memory errors! Can anyone please help? Thanks very much

[-Acid-]

I'd say the geomentry is incorrect. Did you partition the card in WinUAE or on a real Amiga? (i'd recommend doing it in a real Amiga everytime) also make sure you have an updated scsi.device patched in before you setup the card in HDToolBox.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by simulant

I have a SanDisk 64GB CF card and I just keep getting errors when I try to copy lots of WHDload games in Directory Opus...

What did you update? New card? Same card but partitioned/formatted? Same card but pfs3 only updated?

It looks like bad scsi.device/large disk support problem.

EDIT: It is also possible that you are really running out of RAM.

[simulant]

Hi thanks for the replies - when I originally set up the compact flash a few weeks back I followed these guides exactly in order:

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So it was a mix of setting up in WinUAE and on the real amiga too.

For pfs3 disk doctor if I am running out of ram, is there a way to get it working with winuae instead? what type of memory should I add?

Also if Compact Flash cards give trouble like this does anyone know if standard PC hard drives or SSD drives work any better or more reliably? (Using an IDE to SATA adapter.)

Thanks again for any help.