I was getting Off Topic in the X-1000 - It has arrived! thread so I've started my own thread.

My post on 7-May-2012:
Quote:

@X1000 Owners Put aside my hard drive crash mentioned above, are we going to have the same strange quirks on the X1000 that we have to put up with on the XE ? _________________ Moxee AmigaOne XE G4

Reply from abalaban on 7-May-2012:
Quote:

@Moxee Which strange quirks are you speaking about? Can you describe them? Are they repeatible or completely random? Also remember that as a First Contact owner your are running a version of the AmigaOS 4 for A1X1000 that is still not completely finalized (which explains why some of the X1000 features are not yet supported in the this First Contact edition). This set aside as a beta tester I didn't experience any "strange quirk" at all since I've received my system. You might get more support on the Hyperion forums for any problem you might have.

I don't have an X1000 yet. I was asking that question to find out if the X1000 owners will have to put up with the same strange quirks on the X1000 that we have to put up with on the XE ?

My latest XE G4 problem is that my back-up drive died and it caused my XE not to boot. After I pulled the back-up drive out the XE booted up fine. So I replaced the bad back-up drive with a new drive, installed it and made 3 partitions. One SFS0 partition and 2 JXF4 partitions. The 1st SFS0 partition formatted fine, but the other 2 partitions will not format no matter what file system I use for them. The format progress window opens and just sits there without any action. I left it sit for 20 minutes one time.

I am using 4.1 Update 4 on an original unfixed XE G4 machine.

Anyone got an idea what I am not doing or doing wrong?

Last edited by Moxee on 23-May-2012 at 11:12 PM.
Last edited by Moxee on 15-May-2012 at 11:33 PM.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@Moxee

Not sure but you are quick formating them?

_________________
I'm an antique. Don't light my fuse

@Moxee

Hi,

Exactly same thing here with a brand new 250 GB HD (my machine is a micro-A1 though). A week ago, I tried to format it both with OS4.1 upd 1 and OS4.0 final boot CDs (as my main drive would not boot due to read errors), and both as a secondary and primary IDE (single or master), without success.
With SFS, the progress window stays empty (and sometimes the system freezes). With FFS, quick format seems to make it but the partition is unusable. So since then I've fallen back to formatting again my WB partition on my (slowly dying) HD.

@Moxee

I hope not, but maybe a bad sector.

Try formatting the whole drive as one sfs2 partition first.
Might be worth a try.

What size drive is it?

@Moxee

A few things to check...

You are using the right cables (flat 80 wire) if the harddrive is IDE

You are using quick format (NEVER use anything else on a harddrive)

You have the right block size set for JXFS which should be 512 and at least 2000 buffers for any partition over about 100gb.

if you did a normal format, 20 minutes is nothing, it'll take weeks to foamat a 250gb drive...

I suspect the problem is an incorrect blocksize TBH....

_________________
OS4 Rocks
X1000 beta tester, Sam440 Flex (733)

Visit the Official OS4 Support Site for more help.

It may be that your sole purpose is to serve as a warning to others.

@Mechanic

That will not do anything, bad sectors are automatically marked and disabled as the drive is used, all a format does is write an empty root dir and reserve space for content tables, everytime you write anything to a modern drive the blocks used are formatted before being written to.

_________________
OS4 Rocks
X1000 beta tester, Sam440 Flex (733)

Visit the Official OS4 Support Site for more help.

It may be that your sole purpose is to serve as a warning to others.

@Moxee

Maybe is The max . partition size you're trying or blocksize?

FFS2: 2TB to 128TB (blocksize: 512 to 32768 bytes)
SFS: 128GB (blocksize: 512 bytes)
SFS2: 1TB (blocksize: 512 bytes)
JXFS: 256TB (blocksize: 512 bytes)

@Antique

Quote:

Not sure but you are quick formating them?

Yes, I used Quick Format on each format attempt. Even the 1st one which worked.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@centaurz

Quote:

Exactly same thing here with a brand new 250 GB HD (my machine is a micro-A1 though). A week ago, I tried to format it both with OS4.1 upd 1 and OS4.0 final boot CDs (as my main drive would not boot due to read errors), and both as a secondary and primary IDE (single or master), without success.

Oh, you are worse off than I am. At least mine was the back-up drive. My boot drive is only one year newer than the back-up was so I suppose it is not long for this world either.

Quote:

With SFS, the progress window stays empty (and sometimes the system freezes).

Yes, my progress window stays empty also. The cursor moves about, but it cannot open anything.

Quote:

With FFS, quick format seems to make it but the partition is unusable. So since then I've fallen back to formatting again my WB partition on my (slowly dying) HD.

I have not tried FFS, but I have all the others to no avail.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@Mechanic

Quote:

I hope not, but maybe a bad sector. Try formatting the whole drive as one sfs2 partition first. Might be worth a try.

I'll give that a try. If that works, do you think I'll be able to make work what I want?

Quote:

What size drive is it?

It is a Western Digital Caviar Blue 320 GB PATA drive.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@Moxee

What have you set the sector, blocksizes etc... to on the disks RDB (could you supply the details) as it sounds like to me you may well have the RDB values set up incorrectly especially if like you said the 1st SFSO partition formatted fine...

Like Severin said NEVER do anything other than a "Quick Format" on an HD or you'll be as well heading off on a round the world trip by foot if you attempt to do so...

I have never had any problems formatting 500GB or 1TB drive using OS3.x or OS 4.0 but if you don't have the correct values set up in the first place then you could end up with the type of problems your describing here...

Of course it could be a faulty drive but it's best to try everything first before coming to that conclusion...

_________________

@Severin

Quote:

A few things to check... You are using the right cables (flat 80 wire) if the harddrive is IDE

Yes, I am using the onboard IDE and the original ribbon cables.

Quote:

You are using quick format (NEVER use anything else on a harddrive)

Yes, I am using Quick Format.

Quote:

You have the right block size set for JXFS which should be 512 and at least 2000 buffers for any partition over about 100gb.

Yes, I used:
- JXF4, Block Size 512, Partition Size 36 GB
- JXF4, Block Size 512, Partition Size 6 GB
The default Buffer on each is 600 IIRC. Should I increase it?

Quote:

if you did a normal format, 20 minutes is nothing, it'll take weeks to format a 250gb drive...

I have a 320 GB and I used Quick Format. Could the program be faulty and trying to do the long format instead?

Quote:

I suspect the problem is an incorrect blocksize TBH....

I used 512 for them.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@Severin

Quote:

Severin wrote: @Mechanic That will not do anything, bad sectors are automatically marked and disabled as the drive is used, all a format does is write an empty root dir and reserve space for content tables, everytime you write anything to a modern drive the blocks used are formatted before being written to.

This is what I was thinking. OK, I won't try that suggestion. Thanks.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@Moxee

Just a quick thought...

There is a simple way to test your drive, if someone with a similar sized drive emails you an RDB backup file from a drive they use that is fully partitioned and works then you can simply write this to your drives RDB and it will at least allow you to make sure the drive is working...

You just need a tiny program like this one from Aminet to read & write an HD's RDB...

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/ReadRDB

_________________

@jabirulo

Quote:

Maybe is The max . partition size you're trying or blocksize? FFS2: 2TB to 128TB (blocksize: 512 to 32768 bytes) SFS: 128GB (blocksize: 512 bytes) SFS2: 1TB (blocksize: 512 bytes) JXFS: 256TB (blocksize: 512 bytes)

I didn't know what the maximum partition size was, but yes I am well below those limits. The SFS0 partition which worked is 1 GB. The 2 JXF4 partitions which won't format are 36 GB and 6 GB. All are Block Size 512.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@Franko

Quote:

What have you set the sector, blocksizes etc... to on the disks RDB (could you supply the details) as it sounds like to me you may well have the RDB values set up incorrectly especially if like you said the 1st SFSO partition formatted fine...

Oh, this will take some time to transfer it from one machine to another for posting.

Wait one...

Is this the information you requested:

PHYSICAL DATA
Cylinders: 13023801
Sectors: 16
Heads: 3
Interleave: 1
Park Cylinder: 3023801
Write Precomp.: 0
Reduced write curr.: 0
Drive steprate: 0

LOGICAL SIZE
Blocks per cylinder: 48
Total cylinders: 13023801
Total sectors: 625142448
Block size: 512
Total disk size: 298.0911 GB (305245 MB)

I see the AmigaOne Boot Code (SLB) is installed on this drive too.

Last edited by Moxee on 10-May-2012 at 12:03 AM.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@Moxee

Quote:

Moxee wrote: @Franko Is this the information you requested:

Yup... need a wee bit of time to check everything looks ok...

EDIT: those figures seem fine, I just wanted to check that there were no silly numbers in there for some reason that would make the drive look smaller than it actually is, but those check out... suggest you try what I described below first to try and progress here...

in the meantime here's a suggestion that should help figure out if the drive is actual working properly...

From the sizes you are using (1GB for the first partition) then this wouldn't even cause problems on unexpended classic machine as you are well within the first 4Gb's let alone cause problems on the machine you are trying it on...

I've never used JXF4 (only use FFS & SFS) but if your SFS partition is working fine then to find out if it's the JXF4 that's causing the problems a simple process of elimination should prove this...

As you obviously have no data on the drive that you're bothered about losing then I would suggest you simply try to install & format the drive using only SFS partitions...

This way if it works successfully then you will know that the problem lies with the JXF4 file system and that there is nothing wrong with the actual HD itself...

It's usually just a simple process of elimination to solve things like this, especially over the internet and not in person but it's always best to carry out checks like this as it save a lot of headaches in the long run...

Last edited by Franko on 10-May-2012 at 12:17 AM.

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@Franko

Quote:

I have never had any problems formatting 500GB or 1TB drive using OS3.x or OS 4.0 but if you don't have the correct values set up in the first place then you could end up with the type of problems your describing here... Of course it could be a faulty drive but it's best to try everything first before coming to that conclusion...

I've never had this type of problem before either. I am beginning to believe that I've got a faulty drive. If I can't get it working by 10 a.m. tomorrow I will return it for another. Trouble is they only had two PATA drives in the whole store and I'll bet the other one is gone by now.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

@Moxee

Give the above suggestion a try first (partitioning and formatting the drive using only SFS) as you have nothing to lose and this should prove whether the drive is faulty or the problem is with the other file system your trying...

Last edited by Franko on 10-May-2012 at 12:20 AM.

_________________

@Franko

Quote:

As you obviously have no data on the drive that you're bothered about losing then I would suggest you simply try to install & format the drive using only SFS partitions...

Yes, I tried that yesterday to no avail.

I wonder if I should remove all information and start over with a fresh HD install.

_________________
Moxee
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne XE G4
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.