AmigaActive (84/1947)

From:Craig_Daines
Date:1 Apr 2001 at 21:54:58
Subject:Re: Flyer Gold / >4.3Gb HD's / OS3.9 (reply)

--- In amigactive@y..., "Steven Holmes" <sholmes_1999@y...> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Just wondered - I've been tearing my hear out at the way the
software that comes with the Flyer Gold deals with the over 4.3Gb HD
problem...
> I've had so many problems, not least a continually disappearing DH3:
partition (the 29Mb that the drive is over the limit, not deadly, but
annoying all the same).
>
> Before I upgraded to the Flyer I got over the problem with OS3.5.
> I never had a single problem with that and wondered, if I changed
the initial boot pref program to 'No Split', could I re-instate the
OS3.5 (OS3.9 now actually) workaround, or does the Flyer 'fix' have to
be used?
> I've had so many problems since fitting the Flyer. I sometimes
wonder why I bothered, but I'll persevere...
>
> Hope someone knows the answer! :-)
>

I'm using a PowerFlyer Z-IV. The FastATA software offers two ways of
preparing your hard disk:-

Using 'Split' fools the Amiga into treating a drive as seperate disks.
Example: a 20 gigabyte drives get treated as 5 seperate drives. These
five seperate can then be partitioned into 2 gigabyte segments. This
various problems, most notably, with regard to FFS recovery software.

Using 'NoSplit' allows you to partition the drive as you like. It
should be noted previous versions of FFS prior to OS 3 could not be
used on disks >4GB (writing to partitions above the 4 gig range would
corrupt partitions in the lower 4 gig barrier). This is because
locations on a drive were addressed using 32 bit arithmetic. The
largest storable number in 32 bits is a binary 4 billion (4
gigabytes).

If your hard disk has been prepped using 'NoSplit' from the FastATA
Prefs software, to safely break the 4 gigabyte barrier, you should use
the new FFS which OS 3.9 provides (you will need to install it into
your HD's RDB and update all partitions to the new FFS).

I now use the DIRECTSCSI version of PFS 3 on my 20.4GB drive
(partitioned manually with 'NoSplit' from the FastATAPrefs software
with a PowerFlyer Z-IV)... PFS offers a 500% increassefold in
performance over FFS and is faster, safer and more efficient than FFS.
Coupled with the PowerFlyer the two work very well together. Not many
companies are now stocking PFS 3, athough you can order it from Tim at
Ramjam Consultants for £28.

Hope that helps,

Craig Daines
Technical Edior For 'The Crypt' Disk Magazine
http://www.thecrypt.uklinux.net

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