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Text File | 1996-05-15 | 25.1 KB | 540 lines

SCSIConfig ------------- SCSIConfig allows you to format and partition SCSI-devices, such as hard disks or removable drives, and to make them available to the system. Open SCSIConfig by double-clicking on the appropriate icon. The options for personally configuring your system are explained in detail in the following section. Connecting hard disks already operating on another controller to your Amiga and data-loss are described in a separate section. If you want to use disk drives already being used by the Amiga, you should read this section before experimenting. HDToolBox, which is delivered as part of the Operating System, may be used instead of SCSIConfig. This may be useful especially if SCSIConfig does not correctly recognize partitions on disk drives that were already RDB formatted by an alternate controller. Please refer also to the step-by-step instructions. Since HDToolBox uses the internal IDE controller as default it has to be startet from the shell with the correct devicename in order to make it operate on the SCSI controller. The syntax used is: 1> hdtoolbox DEVICENAME Both SCSIConfig and HDToolbox are programs which format hard disks or other SCSI-devices. Formatting means a complete loss of data, which is why you must proceed carefully with these programs and not experiment unnecessarily. Always check that you have selected the correct SCSI-device, before executing destructive steps such as new-formatting or partitioning. If you want to connect disk drives which are already operating on another controller and which contain data, then for security reasons, we strongly advise backing-up the hard drive BEFORE removing the old system. Each new connection of a hard disk which is already being used, involves a risk (even if it is very small) of data loss due to errors in the installation or commissioning. If it would take too long to back-up the data onto diskettes because of the large amount of data, then ask your dealer whether he can carry out the back-ups (e.g. on a streamer) and new installation for you, or whether you can rent a streamer, at a small charge. We accept no liability for loss of data on hard disks or SCSI devices used prior to being connected to th SCSI Controller. additional information ------------------------- Start SCSIConfig by double-clicking on the SCSIConfig icon and the following main window will be opened: This window contains the two truly "dangerous" buttons which must always be handled with care: "Save Changes" and "LowLevelFormat". This is why they are dealt with right at the start of this section. All alterations which you make to one of the other windows, will only be written to the disk drive with "Save Changes". If you have changed partition data or disk drive data, the old settings will be permanently lost by writing the new values to the disk drive. In many cases changing this data results in the loss of all the data files stored on the partitions concerned or the partitions themselves. The "LowLevelFormat" function physically formats the disk drive. If you execute this command, all the data stored on the disk drive will be lost. Nearly all SCSI disk drives no longer need to be Low-Level formatted by the user, as these drives are already physically formatted by the manufacturer. In general, it is only necessary to physically format new media for removable disk drives. As both the "LowLevelFormat" and "Save Changes" functions can have destructive effects, as described, they are both protected against being activated by mistake with two security steps. You can stop the procedure once it has been started by using CANCEL. If you confirm the procedure by clicking on OK in the second security step, the function will be executed, without fail. Now, back to the description of SCSIConfig. In the upper part of the window there are two lists. The right-hand list displays all the SCSI Controllers installed on your system, while the left-hand list shows all the devices connected to the controller selected. The buttons in the lower portion of the window execute various functions or open further windows. The functions are always executed on the device selected in the upper portion. To select a device, click once on the appropriate device, which will then change color. When you have selected the device, you can then apply the various functions described below, to the device. Please note that not all functions are applicable to all devices. For example, a CD-ROM cannot be reconfigured in ConfigDrive and SCSIConfig displays a message to this effect. Available gadgets are: *** Config Drive The ConfigDrive window, which appears when the ConfigDrive button is activated, is used to inform the system of the drive data. Theoretically you can take all the values here from the datasheet of your hard disk and type them in manually but this is normally not the case. To save you the work and to avoid errors, the "Reload Geometry" button has been provided. Click on this button and the drive data will be read so that the program can investigate a suitable geometry. This procedure is recommended for drives which have never been used on an Amiga before. The values investigated by the program will then be transferred to the appropriate fields. The values produced by SCSIConfig may be different from the figures on the datasheet for the SCSI device. This is normal, as SCSI devices are "intelligent" and the parameters are automatically translated correctly. You therefore need not, and in fact cannot, alter any of the values read in by "Reload Geometry", as you will otherwise alter the format-management within the drive. Do not use Reload Geometry on drives which have already been used on the Amiga, as these are established in the geometry defined in the RDB. If this geometry is altered by Reload Geometry, this will cause a complete loss of data. If you want to use a drive already formatted on the Amiga which cannot be automatically connected, you must use the geometry already determined in the RDB by means of Reload RDB. With Reload RDB you can reload the drive data which is stored in the Rigid Disk Block. This is sensible if you have made changes to the entries and want to cancel them or for connecting hard disks already formatted by the Amiga, whose RDB is not correctly recognised. Finally, this function may be required for older RDB's where the most important details are correct, but not all the information is available for automatic connection of the drive under AMIGA-DOS 3.0. By reading with Reload RDB and rewriting the RDB via Save Changes WITHOUT altering the size settings, this data can be updated to the latest version. This procedure is only to be used when a hard disk which is already RDB formatted is not automatically recognised on SCSI Controller. The Load Device and Delete Device buttons are used to bring in updates to device drivers. When phase 5 publishes a new driver, it will be accompanied by special instructions for using these buttons. Neither of these buttons are used at this moment in time. The two checkboxes "Synchron" and "Reselection" allow you to specify that a hard disk or another SCSI device is to be automatically switched into Synchronous or Reselection mode at system start-up. You can change these settings and store the changes in the main window without losing the existing data. For the meanings and advantages and disadvantages of the operation modes, please read the description of UnitControl. *** Information This button calls up various device data of the selected device. On the right-hand side there is a selection window, where you can select the type of information to be displayed (the so-called ModeSense-Pages). Not all SCSI devices return the same values to a request, so information offered to you here depends on the device. Select an information title and the corresponding parameters will be displayed in the left portion. You cannot alter any data here. The information given is generally only of interest to specialists and is not used in the daily operation of the devices. *** LowLevelFormat This executes the physical formatting of the device selected. As this operation definitely deletes all data stored on the device, including the partition information, two security steps take place before this operation is executed. You can terminate the execution of the Low-Level-Format by activating the CANCEL button. A Low-Level-Format can take an extremely long time, depending on the type, size and speed of the hard disk; formatting times of several hours are by no means unusual. As already explained, it is generally not necessary to Low-Level-Format hard disks; this is mainly required for removable drives or optical disks. Interrupting a LowLevelFormat could damage the data on the drive, so that it is no longer possible to address it. The internal administration data on the drive can be destroyed by interrupting the Low-Level-Format, so the drive no longer reacts to SCSI commands or returns totally nonsensical values. You should, therefore, NEVER interrupt a Low-Level-Format by a system reset or any other method. We also advise you that a Low-level-Format is a totally destructive measure, which will definitely cause a complete loss of data. Apply the Low-Level-Format only to completely new SCSI devices or those which you are sure contain no data. *** Partition Drive Partition Drive informs the system how the logical drive (partitions) should be created on a disk drive. It makes little sense to further divide up small drives or removable media. With larger disks, however, it can definitely be sensible to set up several logical drives. It can, for example, also be advantageous to divide a disk so that one partition only contains data of a particular type, if this data is often written and altered. Furthermore, individual partitions can be operated with different filesystems, which can also be determined in the partition menu. A filesystem represents the communication between the device driver and the operating system. It translates the data-oriented commands of the operating system into the block-oriented commands for the driver. Common filesystems are, for example, the PC-compatible Cross-DOS-Filesystem or special emulator filesystems. For general AMIGA applications it is generally advisable to use FFS (Fast FileSystem). In the left portion of the window you will see the partitions set up on the device selected and in the right portion the filesystems available. Under each of the selection lists there is a button for adding a new entry ("Add Partition" and "Add Filesystem") and one for deleting a selected entry ("Delete Partition" and "Delete Filesystem"). You can process any entry simply by double clicking on it. When first setting up a drive which has previously not been RDB formatted, SCSIConfig automatically produces a partition called "QDH0" which includes the whole drive. If you want to produce several partitions you must alter this partition by reducing the values for End Cyl., Total Cyl. or MBytes. Exit from the partition window by clicking on "OK" and then produce a further partition by activating the "Add Partition" button which automatically takes up all the free space on the hard disk. Naturally, you can also reduce this further to produce another partition and so forth. You can produce any number of partitions in this way. Advice about partitioning: First, note that each partition uses a certain amount of the main memory depending on the choice of the buffer size: too many partitions, especially with large buffers, can therefore clearly reduce the available memory (you can always fit more on FASTLANE if required). Secondly, note that due to hard disk technology, the partitions which use the "lower numbered" tracks on the hard disk (those physically located on the outside of the disk) are, in general, faster. As an example, if a disk with 100,000 cylinders is divided into two partitions then the partition which extends from track 2 to track 50,000 is faster than the partition from tracks 50,001 to 99,999. This difference in speed between the outer and inner tracks of a hard disk can amount to more than 50 %. Common practice is to make the lower partition bootable and a system partition. As this is not absolutely necessary, however, you should decide which data you want fastest access to. For example, it may be sensible to place the system partition with the multimedia program (which is only loaded once), on the inside and the animation data which needs to be read quickly and often, on the outside. *** The Partition Window The upper part of the window contains an input window for the partition data and the lower part contains the data for the other partitions of the selected drive. The input fields available are explained in detail below. *** Name The name with which the partition can be addressed. This is the device name, not the volume name. For comparison: the device name of the floppy disk drive is always "df0:". The volume name depends on the diskette inserted and can be changed with the AMIGA-DOS command "relabel" or via Workbench. The default setting on new drives is "QDH0". As long as this name is not already allocated to another drive there is no reason why it should be changed. Please note that names allocated twice can cause system conflicts and, consequently, loss of data. *** Start Cyl. This value indicates the beginning of the partition to the drive. The lowest tracks (cylinder) of a hard disk (usually two) are required for the RDB so this value can never be zero. *** End Cyl. This value indicates the end of the partition on the drive. *** Total Cyl. This value indicates the total number of tracks in the partition. *** MBytes This value indicates the size of the partition in Megabytes. The four fields above are interdependent. Inputting a value in one of the fields will cause the others to be recalculated automatically. When partitioning, the most sensible method is to change the size of the partitions via the MBytes field. SCSIConfig then automatically calculates the correct track limits for the partitions. *** Identifier The identifier area contains a button and an input field. The button allows you to select the identifier of the filesystem to be used for the partition. If, as is mostly the case, a partition is to be used under AMIGA-DOS, then only the default FFS (Fast FileSystem) should be selected. The predefined identifiers available are OFS, FFS, OFS Int, DCFS, DCFS Int, MSDOS0, MSDOS1 and Custom. All filesystems, excluding Custom, have a defined identifier value, which cannot be modified. If you have connected a new filesystem via the "Add Filesystem" function you can assign it an identifier in the filesystem window. The filesystem concerned will then be automatically started and partitions which have entered this identifier will be operated with the appropriate filesystem. Please also read the information under "Filesystem and the Filesystem Window". *** BlockSize This cycle button allows you to choose a different block size other than 512 Byte for the partition concerned. This setting changes the internal block size of the z3scsi-driver, not the physical block size of the hard disk. An increase in the block size can have speed advantages depending on the hard disk, especially when loading and storing small data files. *** Mask This value indicates which area of the memory of the controller can be directly accessed. As the controller can directly access the complete address area of the processor and a transmission should always be delivered in longword limits, the value pre-set by SCSIConfig of "0xFFFFFFFC" should not be changed as this will cause a significant decrease of the data transfer speed. *** MaxTransfer This value limits the maximum amount of data which can be transmitted. The default value of "0xFFFFFF" should not be changed. If RDB formatted hard disks are to be used that were used by other AMIGA controllers, it is very likely that the Mask value will not be set correctly for optimal Zorro-III operation (in general, it would have been set at "0xFFFFFE"), which causes considerable data loss. In this case, the MASK value for the existing partitions must be changed to the "0xFFFFFFFC" stated above. Check that ONLY the Mask and MaxTransfer values are changed as changes to other partition details can cause data to be lost on the partition. *** Mount If the box is checked then the partition will be automatically connected at system start-up so that the appropriate icon appears on Workbench. *** Boot If the box is checked this marks the partition as bootable. The partition which is booted depends on the priority. The volume which is allocated the highest priority and is available will be booted. *** Priority Input the desired boot priority here. The boot priority is a value between -128 and 127, which determines from which device the system will boot. If more than one bootable device is connected, the system will boot from the device that has the highest boot priority. If the boot priority of a hard drive partition is higher than that of the floppy drive, the system will boot from that hard drive, even if a bootable disk is inserted in the flüoppy drive. *** Reserved Low Blocks *** Reserved High Blocks These fields indicate how many blocks are not used for data at the beginning and end of the partition. These values are "2" and "0" for the standard Amiga filesystem but can be different for other filesystems. Please read the documentation for the filesystem, if necessary. *** Buffers This value determines how many blocks are kept in the memory to accelerate the disk access. On every read and write access, the blocks are temporarily stored in these buffers so that they are available more quickly when reaccessed. The default setting for the buffer is 32, which is definitely sufficient for partitions up to approx. 100 MByte; with larger partitions it may be sensible to increase the buffer sizes accordingly. If a partition validates too often it can be a sign that the buffers are too small. *** Filesystems and the Filesystem window Other filesystems, apart from those available in the computer ROM, can be loaded via the "Add Filesystem" function. Examples are an MS-DOS compatible filesystem or an emulator filesystem. After loading, the filesystem must be allocated an internal identifier; all partitions assigned this identifier will then be operated with this filesystem. The filesystem will be stored with the RDB in SCSIConfig and automatically started from (z3|cyb|2060|1230)scsi.device, if a partition is connected at system start-up which has the corresponding identifier entry. If you have loaded a filesystem via "Add Filesystem", the filesystem-window opens automatically for you to make various assignments, as described below. *** Identifier Here you chose an identifier not used by any other filesystem. The identifier is the system-internal identification of the filesystem. If you load an MS-DOS compatible filesystem, for example, give this filesystem the identifier MSDOS0 and assign the same identifier for a partition which should operate with this filesystem. *** Version/Revision These values are automatically taken from the filesystem. If more than one filesystem is assigned the same identifier then the filesystem with the highest version/revision number will automatically be used. *** Stacksize If required, take the value from the documentation for the filesystem loaded. *** Priority Should always stay at 0 or it will cause problems in the interaction with other filesystems. *** Patchflags The values entered here should not be altered. *** Load FileSystem This opens the data file requester for selecting or loading another filesystem to overwrite the current entry. *** Save FileSystem This allows you to save the filesystem selected in the current entry to a diskette or hard disk. This is sensible if you want to produce a back-up. *** Connecting a Disk Drive Already Used on the Amiga In most cases the system will recognise a disk drive which is already formatted once it is connected, because almost all SCSI-Controllers on the market now support RDB. Should your disk drive not be recognised, although the old controller was RDB-compatible, it could be that it has created the RDB in a different manner than is usual. In this case it is possible to read the old RDB with SCSIConfig and to rewrite it with the "Reload RDB" function in the ConfigDevice-Window. Never use the "Reload Geometry" command with disk drives which have been used previously on the AMIGA, and whose data you want to keep, as the logical definition of the disk drive may not necessarily agree with the actual physical definition. At the end of the description of SCSIConfig you will find step-by-step instructions which must always be followed when connecting both new disk drives and those which have already been used on the Amiga,. *** Connecting a New Drive In order to log-on a drive, the drive data must be stored in the first sectors of the drive. The Amiga uses a standardised format called Rigid Disk Blocks (RDB). A drive is connected by first calling up the drive data and then saving it in RDB. The next step is to divide the disk into partitions. These are logical divisions on a disk, which enable several logical smaller disks to be set up on a physically larger drive. This is generally only sensible for very large drives or for assigning a logical disk drive for a single task. Partitions have the advantage that data errors in one partition, e.g. read/write errors, checksum errors or similar other errors, do not affect data in other partitions. The disadvantage of setting up partitions is that the division is not dynamic (like the directory sizes within a partition). You need to have already considered how much storage space you require before carrying out the partitioning. It is not totally impossible to subsequently change the partition sizes but it does involve a lot of work. Step-by-Step Instructions for Logging-on a Hard Disk A. Connecting a New Drive 1. Start up SCSIConfig 2. Select the new drive 3. Select "Config Drive" 4. Select "Reload Geometry" 5. Conclude with "OK" 6. Proceed to the partition window and set up the partitions required 7. Select "Save Changes" 8. Exit SCSIConfig with "Quit" A system reset will then be executed. The partitions created are not yet usable, however, and must be formatted from Workbench or CLI from AMIGA- DOS. You can use the menu item "Format Disk" from the Workbench "Pictogram" menu, with the option "FastFileSystem" selected (provided the partitions are to be operated under FFS). Whenever possible, do not use the options "International Mode" or "DirectoryCache", as these settings significantly reduce the performance of the hard disk. You can start the AMIGA-DOS format by activating the "Fast" button; this formatting method is reliable and only lasts a few seconds. Further advice about AMIGA-DOS formatting can be found in your AMIGA manual. If a new drive or in particular, a removable medium cannot be partitioned in this way, then it may be necessary to carry out a Low-Level-Format before calling up "Config Drive". B. Connecting a Drive Which is Already RDB Formatted If the drive is automatically recognised on Workbench: Check the partitions available with the "CheckMask" program, and adjust the Mask and MaxTransfer values for Zorro-III operation, if necessary. If the drive is NOT automatically recognised on Workbench: 1. Startup SCSIConfig 2. Select the new drive 3. Select "Config Drive" 4. Select "Reload RDB" 5. Select "Partition" and check in the partition list, whether the previously available partitions are displayed. If the previous partitions are not displayed then quit SCSIConfig now WITHOUT saving the changes. Turn the computer off and remove the AutoSync- Enable Jumper (see Chapter 6, SCSI Configuration) from FASTLANE Z3 or CYBERSTORM SCSI Module. Then start this procedure again. If the partitions are still not displayed after this then we recommend carrying out the procedure with HDToolbox from Commodore (see introduction to SCSIConfig). 6. Conclude with "OK" 7. Select "Save Changes" 8. Exit SCSIConfig with "Quit" The system will then be reset and the partitions will be available for use.