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[doctorq]

Hi,

I just got my new 160 GB Seagate Barracuda drive this weekend and today I have tried to install it so I can complete my low noise system.

Sadly some problems have occured :-(

I need to partition the new drive, but with HDToolBox from OS3.9 I'm not able to go all the way to the 160 GB that I would like to use, and the problem is the same with HDInstTools from Aminet.

I would like my drive set up like the following

Workbench 250 MB
Programs 5 GB
Internet 5 GB
Music 30 GB
PC 2 GB
Mac 2 GB
Archive 40 GB
Games 76 GB

I would like to use SFS as my filesystem but I am not fully aware of which version is the newest. Can anyone help me out here?

The fysical connection is done with an Acard SCSI --> IDE bridge, so the new drive is seated as a SCSI drive. Neither HDToolBox nor HDInstTools have any problems finding my drive, but can't calculate the size correctly (HDToolBox seems to think that the drive is only 7.8 GB). Should I just calculate the values and type them in myself, or is there a better partitioning program out there?

[Thomas]

Should I just calculate the values and type them in myself, or is there a better partitioning program out there?

Yes. First you should update to Boingbag 2 and retry automatic calculation. If it still fails, get the correct values from the manufacturer and enter them manually.

Note that only the total number of blocks has to be correct. The values for heads, tracks and cylinders can be choosen randomly. Make one cylinder be about one megabyte.

Also note that you must not mix HDToolbox and HDInsttools. The two programs are somehow incompatible. Using HDInsttools to change partitions created with HDToolbox or vice versa might lead to data loss. Once you decided which one to use (I suggest to use HDToolbox as it is the official tool), use it forever.

Last but not least be prepared that a drive labelled as 160 GB will actually have only 149 GB. This is because the manufacturers call 160,000,000,000 bytes 160 GB while 160 "real" GB are 171,798,691,840 bytes.

Bye,
Thomas

[StevenJGore]

I would like to use SFS as my filesystem but I am not fully aware of which version is the newest.

1.214 is the latest version of SFS which can be downloaded here.

Don't know anything about your other questions though! :-)

[doctorq]

Last but not least be prepared that a drive labelled as 160 GB will actually have only 149 GB. This is because the manufacturers call 160,000,000,000 bytes 160 GB while 160 "real" GB are 171,798,691,840 bytes.

Thanks for the warning, but in fact I know this already :-) I just wrote 160 GB instead of the 149,8 GB as reported by HDToolBox. Strange thing is, that when I click on "Define new drive" it says that the drive only contains 7.8 GB :-(

I have OS3.9 + Boingbag 1 + Boingbag 2 installed, so everything should be okay. I guess I just have to calculate everything myself so I have to dig out my calculator :-)

[Thomas]

Are you sure you use the latest version of HDToolbox ? It should look like this:


And I think it should report the correct size of the HDD, depending on the value for "Total number of blocks". Of course, if the values are read incorrectly, the size is wrong either.

Bye,
Thomas

[doctorq]

The problem is that I can't find any information regarding number of blocks. I can find the number of cylinders, heads and sectors, but not the number of blocks.

If I put the values into HDToolBox, then I only get the 7.2 GB as reported when I click "Read information from drive". Is there any way I can calculate the value myself?

The version of HDToolBox I'm using is version 45.2 and it should be from OS3.9 Boingbag 2 but maybe I'm mistaken on this one.

The harddrive I have bought as replacement for my 9.1 GB SCSI hdd is like the one shown here.

[doctorq]

Problem solved; I apparantly didn't have Boingbag 2 installed. I just installed Boingbag 2 and now HDToolBox can find the correct size of the harddrive, and the partitioning has been done.

Thanks to everyone who has helped, espacially Thomas. Now I can use the time on filling my harddrive up with software, but I guess it will be difficult.

[Thomas]

doctorq wrote:
The problem is that I can't find any information regarding number of blocks. I can find the number of cylinders, heads and sectors, but not the number of blocks.

Well, you should take your sunglasses off when browsing the internet.

On the page you pointed to is a link to the "specification page". In the middle of the specification section there is a line reading "SECTORS PER DRIVE" which tells you the drive has 312,581,808 blocks. Multiplied with 512 bytes per block it has 160,041,885,696 bytes. Looks like the right value.

"Sectors" and "blocks" usually are used in the same meaning. Actually one of them should refer to logical blocks and the other to physical blocks. But nobody consequently uses it this way.

Bye,
Thomas

[doctorq]

On the page you pointed to is a link to the "specification page". In the middle of the specification section there is a line reading "SECTORS PER DRIVE" which tells you the drive has 312,581,808 blocks. Multiplied with 512 bytes per block it has 160,041,885,696 bytes. Looks like the right value.

"Sectors" and "blocks" usually are used in the same meaning. Actually one of them should refer to logical blocks and the other to physical blocks. But nobody consequently uses it this way.

I looked at this site, but when you don't know what to look for, then it's rather difficult. I didn't know that sectors and blocks are two words for the same, and I don't know the math exactly...

But thanks for clearing evrything up for me. I already have the drive running and no problems at this point.

[jonssonj]

Hello!

Where can I find the BoingBag #2 for OS39?


/Jörgen

[Thomas]

and I don't know the math exactly

Well, it's quite simple:

Each HDD consists of several disks with two surfaces each. This is just like several floppy disks lying on a stack.

So a HDD with 8 disks has 16 surfaces. Each surface is accessed by one read/write head. So the number of surfaces equals the number of heads.

Now each surface is divided into tracks. Tracks are concentric circles on the disk. Each track in turn is divided into an equal number of sectors.

The collection of the same track on each surface forms a cylinder, so the number of heads is the number of tracks per cylinder.

Now the mathematics:

sectors per track * tracks per cylinder = sectors per cylinder (easy, isn't it ?)

sectors per track * tracks per cylinder * cylinders per drive = sectors per drive.

bytes per sector * sectors per track * tracks per cylinder * cylinders per drive = bytes per drive.

The same with other words:

bytes per block * sectors * heads * cylinders = capacity.

Well, actually a sector should refer to the physical unit as used above, while a block should refer to the logical unit used by the file system to allocate space. A block consists of one or several sectors.

But even in the official AmigaDOS documentation the terms sector and block are totally mixed up, so you have to understand the context in order to know which one is meant.

Bye,
Thomas

[doctorq]

@Thomas
Thanks for clearing that up. The drive is running now, but it seems like it has to be replaced because of some weird noises from the drive :-(

@jonssonj
You can find the boingbags for OS3.9 here.

[doctorq]

Hmm, finally got my new drive home, but now it's only being reported as 128 GB disk Guess I will have to live with it.

[doctorq]

Just to get everything straight before I start installing a lot of software on this disk...

I have found the following data of my drive

Default cylinders = 16383
Default sectors per track = 63
Default read/write heads = 16

All I need now to install the drive is to get confirmed that in order to install the drive that blocks per cylinder is calculated by deviding number of blocks (312,581,808) with number of cylinders (16383). This gives me an uneven number...what should I put in then?

[Framiga]

Hi doctorq

have you tryed, as suggested by Thomas, to type manually the "real" values? (the one on the HD homepage specifications)

Ciao