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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

2266.0. "Am I headed for trouble?" by LILAC::DEARBORN (Trouvez Mieux) Thu Feb 23 1989 14:34

    I have a Pacific Peripherals Overdrive.  It is partitioned into
    two equal partitions, named DH0: and DH1:.  BOTH partitions are
    formatted using FFS (they both have the appropriate mountlists for
    FFS).
    
    Am I in trouble?  I remember reading that the primary partition
    on the disk (DH0:) must be formatted with the old AmigaDOS.  So
    far the disk seems to work fine.  Am I headed for disaster?
    
    Randy
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
2266.1I HAVEN'T HAD A PROBLEMDAIRY::ROYThu Feb 23 1989 16:045
    I have a Miniscribe 80Meg hooked to my 2000 and it is partioned
    DH0 and DH1 and I formatted it using FFS on both drives and I see
    no problem.  I am more the problem, I wiped out DH1 twice, hopefully
    it won't happen again.
2266.2Slow File System not requiredTLE::RMEYERSRandy MeyersThu Feb 23 1989 17:3036
Re: .0

>    Am I in trouble?  I remember reading that the primary partition
>    on the disk (DH0:) must be formatted with the old AmigaDOS.

No, you are safe.  I also have a Pacific Peripherals Overdrive with
ST157N formatted as two equal partitions, both using the Fast File
System.

There is a lot of confusion about this "the first partition must use
the slow file system" business.

If you can the Commodore 2090 or 2090A controller, you must use the
slow file system on the first partition.  In fact, you don't get a
choice: they use the expansion drawer and BindDrivers to mount the
first partition as opposed the Mountlist and the Mount command.  Their
software currently is written to put the old file system on the first
partition, and you don't get any say in the matter.  Updates to their
software (particularly when 1.4 comes out) will probably change this.

If you wish to boot of the hard drive, the first partition must use
the old file system.  The old file system is the only one in ROM, and
there is a chicken and egg problem in booting off a Fast File System
partition.  However, Commodore has recently defined a way of solving
this problem:  they have come up with a standard for storing a File
System driver on the drive so that it can be read into memory at boot
time.  However, this feature was only recently worked out, and only
one controller on the market makes use of this technique: the Microbiotics
HardFrame (the newest controller on the market).

So, the only things that can prevent you from using the Fast File System
on the first partition are:

	You have a Commodore controller

	You boot off the drive and you don't have a Microbiotics HardFrame
2266.3a way around 2090 problem?CIMNET::KYZIVATPaul KyzivatThu Feb 23 1989 21:277
I also have an Overdrive with two FFS partitions, no problem.

Re the 2090 and its restriction to the old fs on the first partition:
couldn't you just blow away the entry in the expansion drawer and
explicitly mount both partitions?

	Paul
2266.4ELWOOD::PETERSFri Feb 24 1989 14:367
    
    
    	The GVP controller allows you to boot into a FFS partition.
    It's only a A2090 restriction.
    
    		Steve
2266.5TLE::RMEYERSRandy MeyersFri Feb 24 1989 18:3423
Re: .3

>Re the 2090 and its restriction to the old fs on the first partition:
>couldn't you just blow away the entry in the expansion drawer and
>explicitly mount both partitions?

Hey, that might work.  Anyone want to try it?

Re: .4

"GVP allows you to boot into a Fast File System partition"

I hadn't heard that, but I'm not too surprised.  Since the technique
to do so has been blessed by Commodore, there isn't too great a
barrier to this.  About all I know of the technique is that it
requires cylinder zero to be reserved and that it stores the
File System driver somewhere on the disk (following the partition
information on cylinder zero?).

I expect that everyone will be allowing this Real Soon Now.  Ironically,
Commodore might be the last to support this since they traditionally
are very, very conservative with releasing upgrades (stuff spends
eternity in there "quality control department").