#FFS on Floppies??
9 messages in this thread
Hi, folks! I have a question that seems perfect for the Amiga veterans here
on the forum. A few months ago, I bought my first Amiga, an A-3000/25. I
have been reading up on the details of AmigaDOS, and have come across a
strange item: I noticed that the Amiga uses two disk filing systems, OFS
(Old) and FFS (Fast). I also found out that on my A-3000, the hard drive
partitions use the FFS system, while the floppies still use the OFS.
My question is: aside from compatibility, is there any reason that the
floppy is set to OFS? Is it possible, or even benificial, to change the
floppy to format FFS disks? I tested formatting a disk using the Shell and
the command FORMAT DISK NAME "" FFS/s, and it worked fine, in fact, the
disk had more capacity under FFS (879K vs 837K)! It seems obvious that all
floppies intended to be used on my machine only, use FFS. Any advice on
whether or not to do this, and, in fact, HOW I can do it through the
Workbench would be appreciated! Thanks!
— Dave
Dave,
As you have found, using FFS floppies is relatively easy now that the
filesystem is in ROM. Historically, until the 2.0x release of the
operating system, only the OFS existed in ROM, which meant that a
fastfilesystem-formatted floppy disk could never be bootable. Also, a FFS
floppy disk would generally not be a good idea to use for a disk that is to
be widely distributed, as a number of folks have not upgraded to 2.0x.
In addition, the OFS diskettes do offer one additional advantage –
reliability/recoverability. The old filesystem was designed with a number
of redundant control structures which allowed better detection of errors
and better capabilities of reconstruction of files in the event of errors.
Since floppies are known to go "bad" on their own more frequently than hard
disks, some folks feel that the additional "security" is worth the extra
40K of overhead (and slight reduction in performance).
hope this helps….
– BobR
Bob: Thanks for the info. OK, the OFS offers better recovery in the event
of a disk error/failure, in exchange for less disk space and slower access.
However, since my main data is on the hard disk, and I use floppies for
backup, I might be inclined to forgo the extra security.
Is there a way to get the floppies formatted via the workbench in FFS, or
would I have to do it from the shell all the time (or write a script to do
the job)? I would think some modification to the mountlist in DEVS would
work, but I haven't found anything in the mountlist that refers to disk
drives other than a ramdisk.
Thanks again!
— Dave
Dave,
The only way to format a FFS floppy from workbench would be to create an
IconX script file and icon to do the format. The current workbench
"Format" option will only do an OFS format. The system does not use a
mountlist entry for the standard floppy drives, and I don't recommend you
try to add a "pseudo-entry" for a device sharing the trackdisk unit – it
could too easily confuse the system and cause you problems.
Hope this helps….
– BobR
Bob: Eeeeew, I was afraid you might say that. OK, that'll provide me with
my first progamming project for my Amiga. It can't be too hard… then I
can choose FFS or OFS formats, depending on which Format to use. I can even
put it in the "tools" menu using ToolsX.
Thanks for your help… I'll start writing that IconX script ASAIC.
— Dave
Well, the only problem you might run into, and it happened to me, I had
some JPEG pictures on some floppys formatted in FFS that I took over to a
friend so he could copy them. Well I forgot he was still using 1.3 so I had
to use a different method so that he could recover the files (Disksalv).
Other than trading disks with people that are using the old 1.3, I don't
see any other problems with using FFS.
John
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
Thanks, John. I do have a friend who has a 2000HD, and uses 1.3. We do
trade disks on occaision, so as long as I send him OFS disks, there should
be no problems, right?
— Dave
Dave: Yep, as long as you send your friend disks formatted with the OFS,
there should be no problem.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
John: Well, it looks like I figured out a way to format the floppies using
FFS without having to go into the shell and type out the commands each time
(wouldn't want to do THAT! <grin>).
I began by writing a simple IconX script, which did the job, but didn't
offer me enough options, such as getting a second chance to change my mind
before blowing off the disk. So, I wrote a short ARexx program that not
only gives me the option of bailing out, but lists the directory of the
disk beforehand, if the disk is already formatted, to make absolutely sure
I have the right disk. The ARexx program is launched by a 3 or 4 line IconX
script, which basically says "RX FastFileFormat.rexx". Works out very
neatly and elegantly. Thanks for your advice!
— Dave