HDD problems

[Harrison]

I've just installed the 40GB 2.5" IDE drive in my A1200. I have it connected via a buffered IDE interface.

The drive boots into Workbench 3.1 (classicWB) perfectly well. However it is only showing the boot partition. The other 4 partitions on the HD are not being shown.

I thought this was because IDEFix hadn't been installed, so I installed it and then restarted the system, but still only the first partition is appearing and I cannot see or access the others.

What else do I need to do to get them to appear?

When I installed IDEFix'97 I just quickly ran through the default installation, but then skipped the CD part (as I've not added the CD drive yet).

Does anyone know?

How can I test to see if IDEFix is running?

[woody.cool]

AmigaOS doesn't see anything higher than 4GB usually (iirc), might be better to choose a different file system than OFS or FFS etc.

iirc, you can check if IDEfix is running or not by trying to run C:IDEfix from an AmigaDOS shell window, you'll be told if it's already running.

[Bloodwych]

Also how big is your boot partition?

[woody.cool]

Best size boot partition is less than 2GB (in my opinion) but usually have my boot partition around 200MB-500MB (ish)

[Bloodwych]

Best size boot partition is less than 2GB (in my opinion) but usually have my boot partition around 200MB-500MB (ish)

I agree. I wrote as much as I know on the subject here after getting bombarded with the same questions:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=32256

However, I'm only of limited help as I use less than 4GB on my real A1200.

[Tiago]

I installed idefix yesterday, but my hd is 3.5, i did it to setup the cd-rom. Works fine.
I remember that he asked me if i would like to turn on the setting for hds higher then 4gb, but he only advice to do it if they were really bigger then 4gb.

If your version of idefix didnt ask you for this i can send you my version (if it is differente)

[Harrison]

All of the drive partitions are using the SFS filesystem. The first boot partition is 2GB, so that isn't a problem. IDEFix'97 is running.

Now the strange bit. I just booted up the A1200 again to see if I could work out anything else. It still only showed the first partition when I booted it, so I loaded HDToolkit to have a look, and it showed me all of the partitions on the drive. So I quit it. I then decided to move all of the monitor devices over the storage to devs before rebooting so I could use a higher screenmode.

On rebooting all of the drives appeared! :hmmm: Could me just opening HDToolKit, looking at the partitions, and then closing it somehow got the extra partitions to appear after rebooting? And they are all reporting their correct size. :)

Now to install the CD drive.

[woody.cool]

Another thing to check, is that the other partitions are set to AutoMount in HDToolbox or equivalent.

[Buleste]

3.1 even with IDEFix can be a little tempremental about anything over the first 4GB not matter what the file system and i found that SFS at first can be a bit picky expecially when it comes to formatting. However usually at about the point when you've just torn out the last bit of hair and done something that shouldn't really have anything to do with it thats when it usually works. The only thing i can say is any partition after the first 4GB that is >4GB will have issues at first but once working should be fine.

[Harrison]

It now seems that the extra partitions are not appearing on a cold boot, but appear after resetting and warm booting. Any ideas?

I've now installed the CD drive and that is working and automounting perfectly. Worked first time of trying. :)

[Buleste]

That shows that IDEFix is working. Because the standard 3.1 ROMS has no ability to detect HDD over 4GB it will only detect the first 4gb of your HDD. If your first partition is 2GB and the second is > than 2GB it will not detect your second partition and all subsequent partitions. However when you do a soft reboot IDEFix has already patched your system to accept >4GB HDD which is why it is recognising the other partitions. Try getting ffstd64.lha (http://aminet.net/disk/misc/ffstd64.lha) Even though you don't use FFS it might help but i doubt it. 3.1 just wasn't built for large HDD's.

I would now like to hand you over to our friend Bloodwych in a thread on EAB. Here. (http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=32256)

[Harrison]

But I thought that IDEFix patches scsi.device during startup via the startup sequence?

I know it remains resident in memory on reboot (because I edited the startup-sequence to make it do this) and this is what I'm guessing is the reason why the extra partitions appear, but I thought as it was patching it to start immediately that it would see them on first boot?

[Buleste]

You'd have to double check with the IDEFix documentation on that one but giving that you aren't having any joy i'd say either you've not quite got IDEFix set up to do this or it doesn't. TBH I've only ever used HDD >4GB with either 3.5 or 3.9 and even then it's not always easy.

What entry do you have in startup-sequence?

[Harrison]

I think if anything, it might be something in the startup-sequence that needs to be altered.

At the moment I've got:


;BEGIN IDEFIX
If Exists C:IDEfix
; C:IDEfix
LoadIDE START Quiet
EndIf
;End IDEfix

[Buleste]

First off is the semi colon before c:IDEfix on line 3 that means you're not actually starting idefix at the moment. Try that and see if that works.

[Harrison]

According to the text comment above that line it tells me to replace C:IDEfix with LoadIDEfix Quiet. That is the reason I commented out the C:IDEfix line. I've also tried it with and without it commented and it seems to make no different.

[Buleste]

The if statement is there to see if idefix exists then if it does it then goes C:idefix etc. but if it doesn't exist then it skips the lines until endif. you need to remove the semi colon. The loadide is a different command.

Try putting a semi colon before the LoadIDE command and see if that works (i dont appear to use tha command at all in any of my startup).

I've just been looking at the installation file and for IDEFix to work you must add "C:IDEFix" or "LoadIDE reset" to your startup-sequence. It appears that if you use LoadIDE it has to do a soft reboot before it works so in theory if you just use C:IDEFix it should work. If not just add reset to the LoadIDE command.

[Harrison]

Great, cheers for that info. I've tried just C:IDEfix on its own and that didn't work until I did a soft reset, and LoadIDE START Quiet was the same, but I've not tried LoadIDE reset. I will give that last one a try and see what happens.

[Buleste]

LoadIDE reset will work fine as it's just doing a soft reset early in the startup. Hopefully it shouldn't put it into a loop of start/reset etc.

[Harrison]

OK, here are my findings trying out each of the different commands, trying each in the startup-sequence to see what they would do. And with each I did a cold boot, followed by a reset/warm reboot.

"C:IDEfix"
Cold boot: only first partition appears + CD drive works.
Soft reboot: still only first partition appears + CD drive works.

"LoadIDE START Quiet"
Cold Boot: only first partition appears + CD drive works.
Soft reboot: All partitions now appear + CD drive works.

"LoadIDE reset"
Cold Boot: The Amiga starts to boot for about a second, then the screen flashes and does a reset (presumably it has loaded IDEFix and then resets), however it then shows a message saying IDEFix is already loaded and then an error screen saying intuition is trying to reset the screenmode. However all of the HD partitions are present and the CD drive works.
Soft reboot: Everything loads as it should. All partitions are present and CD works.

"LoadIDE reset Quiet"
Initial attempt: Amiga did quick load and reset to make IDEfix resident. But then the system halted on a black screen. A soft reset then loaded everything properly.
A second attempt did the following:
Cold Boot: Seems to work! All partitions and CD Drive work. :)
Soft Reboot: Everything loads as it should. All partitions and CD work.

So it looks like "LoadIDE reset Quiet" is the one to use. However it seemed to not work the first time I tried, but has since. Time will tell if it continues to work or not. Fingers crossed it does.

Now everything is working I can get on with customising the case to fit everything inside (at the moment the CD drive is sitting to the left of the A1200 with the ribbon cable going into the side of the case).

[Bloodwych]

Glad you are getting things to work. Just out of interest - where is that IDEfix line in the startup-sequence?

It should be the very first thing executed I would have thought - although I'm sure the manual says exactly where to place it. I know the Amiga boots too fast for some hard drives to handle, which is why initial boots fail and soft resets work.

Once everything is running, I want pictures.

Big, loverly pictures. :D

[Harrison]

Don't worry. I will be taking some piccies for you all to see. I have one already showing the system running a WHDLoad installed demo and will post that in a moment in my original A1200 project thread.

The IDEFix lines are at the very beginning of the Startup-sequence and were added by the IDEFix installer.

I already have IDEFix also installed on my A4000 (so I can use a CD-RW on the same channel as the HD) and that installed and worked perfectly first time. However that setup is only currently using a 1.3GB 3.5" HD and a CD drive so I didn't bump into the 4GB> issue. However my next plan is to replace that HD with a spare 60GB HD I have. Then I will see what happens and if the A4000 presents similar issues.

[Buleste]

Were the IDEFix lines before setpatch? Can you try something for me? Disable all the IDEFix lines in the startup sequence and when booted (only showing the first partition) go into shell and Type C:IDEFix. If i'm right your other partitions should appear which means the IDEFix lines in the startup-sequence were too early.

[Harrison]

Yes they were/are before setpatch.

I just tested it for you. I commented out the IDEFix lines from the start of the startup-sequence and then did a cold boot. As expected only the first partition appeared and the CD drive wasn't working. But in addition the screenmode didn't start correctly and it instead used a 4 colour low res screen. I then typed C:IDEFix from the shell, but the additional partitions didn't appear and the CD drive continued to not work. A warm reset at this point didn't sort it out and the same happened. Restoring the IDEFix lines in the startup-sequence made everything work again.

BTW, without IDEFix running I noticed a huge difference in HD load time. Workbench took much longer to load, and folders/drawers took a lot longer to open and draw all of the icons. That really showed what a difference a buffered interface and IDEFix makes!

[Buleste]

The IDEFix commands should be after setpatch which is probably why they weren't working properly.

[Harrison]

I didn't put them before setpatch, the IDEFix installer did that. And it states in the manual that it must be the first thing in the startup sequence.

It is still at the very beginning and seems to be working with the reset command.

[Tiago]

I didn't put them before setpatch, the IDEFix installer did that. And it states in the manual that it must be the first thing in the startup sequence.

It is still at the very beginning and seems to be working with the reset command.

Is your ide the one you put ontop of gayle chip?
Did you connect the reset cable to the ide interface?

my ide doesnt have that, i have this one:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=532&osCsid=38bdcf46802ba30b4a14508be10da9b8

But i would like to have the reset working... i know the ctrl+a+a works fine,but seems that it something missing in the tower...i look at the reset button an fills like i should have the reset working ....

This should do the same:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=588&osCsid=38bdcf46802ba30b4a14508be10da9b8

[Harrison]

I'm using the same buffered IDE interface as you.

Only the more expensive buffered IDE interfaces which are meant to speed up data transfer by 5x also connect to some of the Amiga's custom chips. Amigakit has one for £37.99 that includes the Gayle chip reset header.

I have no knowledge of the Gayle Chip Adapter, but from the description it sounds like it is exactly what you are looking for to add a reset switch to your tower.

[Bloodwych]

How's this project going?

Any pics on the way?

[Harrison]

Everything is setup and working as I wanted. I now just need to customise the case and mount the CD drive properly inside. I will be taking some pictures this week, and hopefully finishing the project too.

But it won't be fully completed as I do have some future plans. Fitting of some rear audio phono connectors for the CD out, a Catweasel MKII controller and laptop floppy drive, and maybe some other additions as time goes on. I would love an internal flicker fixer but that new one on Amigakit is just too expansive for me at the moment.