nishan@uop.edu (Nishan Sandhar) (09/26/90)
I plan to purchase a Maxtor hard disk. I have several questions to ask before I make the purchase.... Is there a limit on the maximum space I can I have attached to the Amiga 2000.... 200Meg, 700Meg, etc. Can anyone tell me if Maxtor drives are reliable, and any specs they could send me would be appreciated..... Please e-mail to nishan@uop.edu ----------- -- ------------------------ --- Nishan Sandhar --- --- nishan@uop.edu --- ------------------------
jms@romana.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) (10/02/90)
In article <26ffb75d.3681@uop.uop.edu> nishan@uop.edu (Nishan Sandhar) writes: > Is there a limit on the maximum space I can I have attached to the Amiga? With the Fast File System, it is supposed to handle disks up to 2.147 gigabytes. (I don't know if FFS allows numbers greater than 2^31 bytes.) -- Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: jms@tardis.tymnet.com or jms@gemini.tymnet.com BT Tymnet Tech Services | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jms PO Box 49019, MS-C41 | BIX: smithjoe | 12 PDP-10s still running! "POPJ P," San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | humorous dislaimer: "My Amiga 3000 speaks for me."
steveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Steve Beats) (10/02/90)
In article <1261@romana.Tymnet.COM> jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes: >In article <26ffb75d.3681@uop.uop.edu> nishan@uop.edu (Nishan Sandhar) writes: >> Is there a limit on the maximum space I can I have attached to the Amiga? >With the Fast File System, it is supposed to handle disks up to 2.147 gigabytes. It`s worth mentioning that this limit is per-partition, not a total limit. You could conceivably hook up 56 disks each with a capacity of 2 Gigabytes to each SCSI controller card in the system. You`d have to use the 2.0 FS to reduce the need for bitmap memory (1.3 FFS and OFS use mongo amounts of RAM for the in memory copies of the bitmaps). Let`s just say that the Amiga can cope with more hard disk space than anyone is ever going to need.....and see which year I`m proven wrong :-) Steve
peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (10/03/90)
In article <14805@cbmvax.commodore.com> steveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Steve Beats) writes: > It`s worth mentioning that this limit is per-partition, not a total limit. > You could conceivably hook up 56 disks each with a capacity of 2 Gigabytes > to each SCSI controller card in the system. More than that, no? You can have much larger disks, I would assume, if you partition them. How many partitions can you have on a disk? (I would guess that it would at least be limited by the screen resolution in the disk setup program). > Let`s just say that the Amiga can cope with more hard disk space than > anyone is ever going to need.....and see which year I`m proven wrong :-) Just wait until someone needs a single file over 2G. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.
jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) (10/04/90)
In article <6696@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >In article <14805@cbmvax.commodore.com> steveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Steve Beats) writes: >> It`s worth mentioning that this limit is per-partition, not a total limit. >> You could conceivably hook up 56 disks each with a capacity of 2 Gigabytes >> to each SCSI controller card in the system. > >More than that, no? You can have much larger disks, I would assume, if you >partition them. How many partitions can you have on a disk? (I would guess >that it would at least be limited by the screen resolution in the disk setup >program). Well, exec devices (at least one compatible with current usage) are limited to 4 gig, due to byte offsets instead of in blocks. As for partitions, HDToolBox can handle more than can be seen (use left and right cursors, and the numeric gadgets for size. It may not be easy, but it can be done. Minimum allocations is currently 2 cylinders; it could be one but HDToolbox doesn't allow that currently. Also it's limited to 2 cylinders of RigidDiskBlock at this time. However, anyone can write a RigidDiskBlock editor. -- Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering. {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com BIX: rjesup Common phrase heard at Amiga Devcon '89: "It's in there!"
billsey@agora.uucp (Bill Seymour) (10/04/90)
In article <6696@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes: :In article <14805@cbmvax.commodore.com> steveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Steve Beats) writes: :: It`s worth mentioning that this limit is per-partition, not a total limit. :: You could conceivably hook up 56 disks each with a capacity of 2 Gigabytes :: to each SCSI controller card in the system. : :More than that, no? You can have much larger disks, I would assume, if you :partition them. How many partitions can you have on a disk? (I would guess :that it would at least be limited by the screen resolution in the disk setup :program). Wouldn't there be some sort of limit to the largest logical block number accessed through SCSI? According to my Maxtor XT-3000S manual (The only thing I have handy right now...) a SEEK command only allows logical block numbers up to 24 bits long, and a SEEK EXTENDED only allows logical block numbers up to 32 bits long. That means in SCSI I implementations, you're limited to about 4G blocks, or 2T byte drives. Of course, with a 2T drive, you could have 1K partitions of 2G each... The problem here is that typically, a 2T drive only uses LUN 0, and doren't support higher LUNs. That means you're limited to 7K, 2G partitions. :-( Boy! It's a good thing partition BAM storage is in fast ram! :-) :: Let`s just say that the Amiga can cope with more hard disk space than :: anyone is ever going to need.....and see which year I`m proven wrong :-) : :Just wait until someone needs a single file over 2G. Hopefully, by then we'll be able to extend the file system beyond 2 gig... Maybe go to 64bit block designators? :-- :Peter da Silva. `-_-' :<peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>. -- -Bill Seymour billsey@agora ***** American People/Link Amiga Zone Hardware Specialist NES*BILL ***** Bejed, Inc. NES, Inc. Northwest Amiga Group At Home Sometimes (503) 281-8153 (503) 246-9311 (503) 656-7393 BBS (503) 640-0842
jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) (10/04/90)
In article <14805@cbmvax.commodore.com> steveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Steve Beats) writes: >>The Fast File System is supposed to handle disks up to 2.147 gigabytes. >It`s worth mentioning that this limit is per-partition, not a total limit. >You could hook up 56 disks each with a capacity of 2 Gigabytes each. There was one question I had the last time this topic came up that I missed the answer to. Is the limit 2 gigabytes per disk or 2 gigabytes per partition? That is, if the total capacity of a disk drive is more than 2G, can AmigaDOS use the full capacity (assuming that it is divided into several partitions each less than 2G). I ask this because before the RDB standard was defined, I was told that AmigaDOS reads a particular block of a particular partition by converting the request to a byte offset from the beginning of the disk. Any blocks past the 2G (or 4G) limit were not accessable. How is it implemented now? -- Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: jms@tardis.tymnet.com or jms@gemini.tymnet.com BT Tymnet Tech Services | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jms PO Box 49019, MS-C41 | BIX: smithjoe | 12 PDP-10s still running! "POPJ P," San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | humorous dislaimer: "My Amiga 3000 speaks for me."
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) (10/05/90)
In article <14805@cbmvax.commodore.com> steveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Steve Beats) writes: > Let's just say that the Amiga can cope with more hard disk space than > anyone is ever going to need.....and see which year I`m proven wrong :-) A 2gig limit on the size of a partition means a 2gig limit on the size of any one file. Sure, you might think that that is big, but at 300DPI a 24bit scanner would only have to scan about 4000 square feet to fill a file that big. 4000 square feet is pretty large. You could make a map of your office's floor plan at a scale of 1 inch = 1 inch. Imagine your entire office complex scanned at 300DPI and in beautiful 24-bit color! -Tom -- tlimonce@drew.edu Tom Limoncelli "Freedom and justice tlimonce@drew.uucp +1 201 408 5389 are opposites" tlimonce@drew.Bitnet limonce@pilot.njin.net -me
xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) (10/05/90)
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) writes: > steveb@cbmvax.commodore.com (Steve Beats) writes: > >> Let's just say that the Amiga can cope with more hard disk space than >> anyone is ever going to need.....and see which year I`m proven wrong :-) > >A 2gig limit on the size of a partition means a 2gig limit on the size >of any one file. Sure, you might think that that is big, but at >300DPI a 24bit scanner would only have to scan about 4000 square feet >to fill a file that big. > >4000 square feet is pretty large. You could make a map of your >office's floor plan at a scale of 1 inch = 1 inch. Imagine your >entire office complex scanned at 300DPI and in beautiful 24-bit color! Well, that's still a small file space consumer. If you do a wind tunnel or other data grid simulation at 1000 units resolution per edge of the volume, you've only got two bytes per element for data storage. In a typical simulation, you've more like a hundred. Having to manage that as fifty files could be a bit nasty. Similarly if you are trying to do a screen microtoming of a cube on a 1024 x 1024 display, your data storage requirements get big pretty fast. Add a fourth, time dimension to allow animation, and nothing less than a terabyte device comes even close. It was true when I posted it four years ago: the need of the computer user for speed and storage space is unbounded. Give me more, I'll use it; hold quantities constant, things will start to pinch. In the particular case of spinning storage, it is high time for 64 bit addresses; might as well be ready, and we have enough room now to store and process them, so why not build it into OSs before the crunch? Kent, the man from xanth. <xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>
jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) (10/08/90)
In article <1990Oct4.012859.8522@agora.uucp> billsey@agora.uucp (Bill Seymour) writes: > Wouldn't there be some sort of limit to the largest logical block >number accessed through SCSI? According to my Maxtor XT-3000S manual (The >only thing I have handy right now...) a SEEK command only allows logical >block numbers up to 24 bits long, and a SEEK EXTENDED only allows logical >block numbers up to 32 bits long. That means in SCSI I implementations, >you're limited to about 4G blocks, or 2T byte drives. Of course, with a >2T drive, you could have 1K partitions of 2G each... The problem here is >that typically, a 2T drive only uses LUN 0, and doren't support higher >LUNs. That means you're limited to 7K, 2G partitions. :-( Ah, but you're assuming 512 byte blocks. SCSI blocksize can be anything, and the 2.0 FS can handle power-of-two blocksizes up to some limit, like 32KB. BTW, Seek isn't important, only Read Extended and Write Extended (minor nit). Like I said, the real problem is the current FS accesses the driver by byte offset, not block. This limits usable disk space to 4gig until we need to revise the driver and/or FS. > Boy! It's a good thing partition BAM storage is in fast ram! :-) With 2.0 FS, it isn't (or you'd need VM just to hold them... :-) :-) -- Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering. {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com BIX: rjesup Common phrase heard at Amiga Devcon '89: "It's in there!"