[comp.sys.atari.st.tech] Megafile 44 slowing down...

dick@ahds.UUCP (Dick Heijne CCS/TS) (03/26/91)

I have this problem with my Megafile 44 removable harddisk:
After installing and formatting I partioned a scheme of 20.5/10.5/0.5/10.5
Allthough the manual said the smallest partitionsize should be 1 Mb I tried
making one of 0.5 Mb, and the system accepted this. I did this to install
a small Minix kernel on it. Only the first partition is used for TOS/GEM,
all others are reserved for Minix.

In the Minix corner (drives D, E and F) everything works fine, due to it's
own drivers and (fast) filesystem,
but under TOS I have a severe problem of VVVEEERRRRYYYY slow performance when
I want to ADD a file on the partition and it's still decreasing....

For example, when I copy a file from a flop or from some directory into a
particular folder on the TOS (drive C) partition, the harddisk moves (it
sounds and the orange BUSY light flashes once briefly), and than the orange
BUSY led starts blinking with a frequency of approx. 1 blink/sec for about
(now) 19 times, after which the disk rattles again and stores the file in
the appropriate place.

I noticed that the amount of blinks increases in time: it depends on the
number of files (or something) on the disk.

So far the most annoying problem.
Another problem is that when I copy a folder to another folder on drive C
the first folder underneath the new folder is linked to the root-folder in
some way. Attempts on deletion result in a system reboot. The only way to
remove that wierd folder seems to be the creation of an orinary file next
to the wierd folder, than removing the file, after which the folder can
be removed as well. I have no idea if this problem has any connection with 
the former one.

So far, I didn't buy another disk for experimenting.

Maybe it has something to do with my (unusual?) partitioning.
Anybody outhere has any suggestions on this ??????

Thanks in advance,
Dick.

klute@tommy.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Rainer Klute) (03/27/91)

In article <1495@ahds.UUCP>, dick@ahds.UUCP (Dick Heijne CCS/TS) writes:
|> ... under TOS I have a severe problem of VVVEEERRRRYYYY slow performance
|> when
|> I want to ADD a file on the partition and it's still decreasing....
|> 
|> For example, when I copy a file from a flop or from some directory into
|> a
|> particular folder on the TOS (drive C) partition, the harddisk moves
|> (it
|> sounds and the orange BUSY light flashes once briefly), and than the
|> orange
|> BUSY led starts blinking with a frequency of approx. 1 blink/sec for
|> about
|> (now) 19 times, after which the disk rattles again and stores the file
|> in
|> the appropriate place.

You aren't using TOS 1.4, are you? Get it and your problem will vanish.

-- 
  Dipl.-Inform. Rainer Klute      klute@irb.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
  Univ. Dortmund, IRB             klute@unido.uucp, klute@unido.bitnet
  Postfach 500500         |)|/    Tel.: +49 231 755-4663
D-4600 Dortmund 50        |\|\    Fax : +49 231 755-2386

warwick@cs.uq.oz.au (Warwick Allison) (03/28/91)

In <3127@laura.UUCP> klute@tommy.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Rainer Klute) writes:

>In article <1495@ahds.UUCP>, dick@ahds.UUCP (Dick Heijne CCS/TS) writes:
>|> ... under TOS I have a severe problem of VVVEEERRRRYYYY slow performance
>|> when
>|> I want to ADD a file on the partition and it's still decreasing....
>|> 

>You aren't using TOS 1.4, are you? Get it and your problem will vanish.

Or, try out TURBODOS (it is on atari.archive).

A word of warning though:  I used TURBODOS for 2 years, and I experienced
occasional problems with files, and eventually had corrupted files.  This
may have just been a bad sector in an unfortunate place, who knows, but
now I've got TOS 1.4, so I'll never know.

If you try it, you'll like it - it speeds things up HEAPS.

Warwick.
--
  _--_|\   	warwick@cs.uq.oz.au
 /      *  <--	Computer Science Department,
 \_.--._/ 	University of Queensland,
       v    	AUSTRALIA.

csbrod@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod) (03/28/91)

warwick@cs.uq.oz.au (Warwick Allison) sugessted to get TURBODOS
instead of TOS 1.4.

Don't! TURBODOS is full of fatal bugs that will very likely corrupt your
data. Moreover, it's incompatible with several disk utilities (especially
cache programs and programs that try to force a media change via a
officially approved way).

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2,			Things. Take. Time.
D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, West Germany		(Piet Hein)
csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de
Claus Brod@wue.maus.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Roger.Sheppard@bbs.actrix.gen.nz (03/29/91)

Distribution:world 

In article <484@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au> warwick@cs.uq.oz.au writes:
> In <3127@laura.UUCP> klute@tommy.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Rainer Klute) writes:
> 
> >In article <1495@ahds.UUCP>, dick@ahds.UUCP (Dick Heijne CCS/TS) writes:
> >|> ... under TOS I have a severe problem of VVVEEERRRRYYYY slow performance
> >|> when
> >|> I want to ADD a file on the partition and it's still decreasing....
> >|> 
> 
> >You aren't using TOS 1.4, are you? Get it and your problem will vanish.
> 
> Or, try out TURBODOS (it is on atari.archive).
> 
> A word of warning though:  I used TURBODOS for 2 years, and I experienced
> occasional problems with files, and eventually had corrupted files.  This
> may have just been a bad sector in an unfortunate place, who knows, but
> now I've got TOS 1.4, so I'll never know.
> 
> If you try it, you'll like it - it speeds things up HEAPS.
> 
> Warwick.
> --
>   _--_|\   	warwick@cs.uq.oz.au
>  /      *  <--	Computer Science Department,
>  \_.--._/ 	University of Queensland,
>        v    	AUSTRALIA.

Don't ever use TURBODOS, its VERY buggy, even Atari does not recomend it.

From what I have read, it was compiled with Turbo 'C' Version 1.0,
this I believe has/had bugs in its libraries.

Far better to go and get TOS 1.4, and possibly try a Optomiser
on your Partitions..
-- 
Roger W. Sheppard   85 Donovan Rd, Kapiti New Zealand...

hvaalde@cs.vu.nl (Aalderen van Harold) (04/02/91)

Roger.Sheppard@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:

>Don't ever use TURBODOS, its VERY buggy, even Atari does not recomend it.

TURBODOS crashed my HD several times
but if you don't want to buy TOS1.4 at the moment you could try FATSPEED
I have used FATSPEED for some years know with AHDI 3.01 never had any troubles


Harold van Aalderen (hvaalde@cs.vu.nl)

bart@bluemoon.uucp (Bart Jaszcz) (04/03/91)

> For example, when I copy a file from a flop or from some directory into
> particular folder on the TOS (drive C) partition, the harddisk moves (it
> sounds and the orange BUSY light flashes once briefly), and than the ora
> BUSY led starts blinking with a frequency of approx. 1 blink/sec for abo
> (now) 19 times, after which the disk rattles again and stores the file i
> the appropriate place.

Try using FATSPEED.prg - speeds up dir search/access - instead of
blinking, it will light up, and stay lit up for a second or two, until it 
finds a place for the file.

geoffc@zebedee%tharr.uucp (Geoffrey Coan) (04/05/91)

In article <9516@star.cs.vu.nl> hvaalde@cs.vu.nl
(Aalderen van Harold) writes:
> >Don't ever use TURBODOS, its VERY buggy, even Atari does not recomend it.
> 
> TURBODOS crashed my HD several times
> but if you don't want to buy TOS1.4 at the moment you could try FATSPEED
> I have used FATSPEED for some years know with AHDI 3.01 never had any troubles
> 
I use FATSPEED with ICD utils (4.8.10 ?) without any problems at all - even with
large (27Mb) partitions.  Was there ever more than the first (1988 ?) release ?

One day I'll pay for TOS 1.4 ...

Geoffrey
> 
> Harold van Aalderen (hvaalde@cs.vu.nl)
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
are you ready to SKYDIVE ??                                       Geoffrey Coan
well all right then, if you say so ...        ..!ukc!axion!tharr!zebedee!geoffc

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dick@ahds.UUCP (Dick Heijne CCS/TS) (04/05/91)

	I would like to thank everybody who responded to my article
	about the slow speed of my Megafile 44.
	Summarized, it is clear to me that there are two solutions
	to the problem:

		1. Use TOS 1.4, or
		2. Use FATSPEED.PRG

	and
		0. Do NOT use TURBODOS

	Since some of my programs (like my favorite Mac emulator Aladin)
	fail to work with TOS1.4, I think I stick to TOS1.2, so I'll try
	FATSPEED if I can obtain it somewhere. Is this freeware or what?
	Where to get it ?

BTW, back in the good old CBM PET days, we had the BASIC ROM versions 1.0,
1.1, 1.2, 1.4 etc (all totally incompatible - Tramiel Systems marching on...)
all online, selectable with a rotary turnswitch on the front of the PET.
Maybe I switch back to that principal someday >:-((

Dick.