Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    
    Hi Steve,
    
    what you should do is to backup your HD (using something like
    Quarterback and/or DiskSalv) and then re-format it. If you're the
    adventureous type, you might wanna run DiskDoctor before the format.
    
    Things like that usually only happen when a write to the HD was
    brutally interupted by a reset or power failure (assuming your
    low-level formatter re-mapped all bad spots).
    
    As far as the step rate is concerned, I vaguely remember that the
    Micropolis 1325  (RD 53) is a 28ms unit.     
    
    Hope that helps,
    
    <CB>

    Hi Steve,
    	     What controller are you using ??
    

    
    
    Hi steve
    
    The controller I'm using is the OMTI-5520 ...
    
    I got the following from BYTES & PIECES , LYTHAM ,LANCASHIRE ENGLAND.
    
    Spirit HDA-506 + software     175 pounds stg
    OMTI-5520 controller           49 pounds stg
    cables                         25 pounds stg
    
                            TOTAL 249 pounds stg
    
    
    The HDA-506 comes in a nice little enclose that sits on the side
    of the A500 where the expansion bus is .It passes the bus .
    
    The OMTI-5520 controller plugs into the HDA-506 board.
    
    I'm very pleased with the system . I haven't had a chance to put
    it through its paces yet but I did run the PD program DPerf2 which
    came with the software .
    
    It gave the following ...I dont know how this compares to other
    set ups but I'll try the diskperf program that everyone else uses
    and try to fine tune the system soon.
    
    Dperf2
    
    create files 36/s  directory scan 99 entries/sec 
    delete files 61/s  seek/read      87 seek/s
    
    buffer 512  read 41k/s     write 48k/s
      :     :       :           :
    buffer 256k read 344k/s    write 273k/s
    
    
    Anyone know what the buffer value means ... (does it mean I have
    to give the diskdrive a 256K buffer to get the 344k/s read ? surely
    not ....
    
    Just a few comments on the system.
    
    The system worked first time .. no errors or glitches , I couldn't
    belive how smooth it went.
    
    The manual is 10 sheets of paper and gives the BARE minimum needed
    to get the system going.
    
    The software looks good , I was supprised to see such a nice interface
    (pretty screen etc) on the format software for something that will
    probably be used only once.
     
    My system is not autobooting , it needs an additional ROM and different
    PAL on the HDA-506 board for autobooting . This is optional.
    When I saw the system advertised it stated autobooting but when
    I rang Bytes&Pieces they never mentioned that this was optional
    and I never asked , my fault I suppose .I will ring to find out the
    price of this autoboot upgrade but at the moment I'm getting along
    fine without it.
    
    
    
    
    CB
    Thanks for the info on the steprate..
    28ms does seem a lot though in view of the options available in
    the low level formatter.
    
    code 0   3 millisecs or greater
    code 1  10 microsecs 
    code 2  25 microsecs
    code 3  50 microsecs
    code 4 200 microsecs
    code 5  70 microsecs
    
    Steve...

    
    cb
    
    After re-reading the manual I figure maybe the steprate code refers
    to the duration of the step pulse and not the period between pulses.
    Does this sound ok...
    
    What I mean is if the period between step pulses is 28ms is it possible
    maybe the actual duration of the step pulse would be only in the
    MICRO second range ??
    
    Steve
    
     
    

    Hi Steve,
            I've already got the Bytes & Pieces price list and the autoboot
    eeprom and pal are 30 pounds sterling.
    
    Good luck and happy AMI'ing
    
    Where can I get a cheap RD53 or RD32 (even RD54) ??
    
    		Regards 
    		Steve G...
    
    

    
    Re: .4
    
    Yep, that sound's more like it. If the 10 microseconds you specified
    worked for you, don't change 'em.
    
    Regards,
    <CB>

Re: .0

The advice in .1 is very good.  You've probably followed it by now.

I thought I'd explain a little more what the situation is:

If the computer should crash in the middle of writing a file to
disk, AmigaDOS attempts to repair the disk the next time the
computer accesses it.  This process is called "validating the disk."

Specifically, AmigaDOS walks every block on the disk and determines
if the block belongs to any file or if the block is unallocated.
Once AmigaDOS has this information, it writes it out to the disk
and flags the disk as valid.  In effect, AmigaDOS has removed partially
created files from the disk and made sure that valid files will
not be accidentally overwritten.

Validating a floppy takes only minute.  Most people don't even notice
the delay when a floppy validates.

Validating a hard disk with the old file system (because the disk is
so big) can take 20 or 30 minutes.  This can cause the system to seem
to freeze.

Validating a hard disk with the new Fast File System takes less than
five minutes (sometimes only a minute or two!).

That a side, let's look at your specific problem:

>    However I now have a small problem .When I boot I get a requestor
>    saying  ERROR VALIDATING DISK
>            KEY 69578 ALREADY SET
    
A "key" to an AmigaDOS filesystem is a block number.  What this requester
is saying (in a very round about manner) is that it found the same
block belonging to two separate files!  This situation should never
happen: it probably means something very wrong happened in the past
to cause the file system to become confused beyond AmigaDOS's ability
to repair.

Under such circumstances, it is best to backup the disk, reformat it,
and start over.

    
    re.7
    Thanks for the info Randy , I have reformatted the disk and have
    had no problems since .It's possible I did a reset when the system
    was writing to disk so I don't blame the HDA-506 in anyway for the
    problem.
    
    I have run Diskperf instead of Dperf2 that came with the system.
    It gave me the following ..
    
    File create/del       40/s 66/s
    directory scan        100/s
    Buffer   R/W          512   54k/s  67k/s
                          4096  163k/s 163k/s
                          8192  238k/s 201k/s
                          32768 374k/s 262k/s
    
    These figures seem to be pretty good considering the problems some
    people seem to have on usenet with an ST-506 disk.
    
    
    Steve