FAT32 improvements needed

Hello,

Following my thread about the memguard hit, some facts from the FAT32 support on AOS4, who need to be really updated.

Feel free to discuss if problems or if something missing and technical explanations about the problems or advice to never use FAT32 or just with small capacity, are welcomed..


Format FAT32 big capacity:

For example, my 16go key take 10 minuts to make a quick format and the progress bar not work.

When finished, 250 mo are in use, the rest are free.


- Do we really try to format something FAT32 on the amiga ?

- If yes, what is the size limit (if a size limit exist) ???


Clusters:

Formatting by default my HD on Seven and not work on AOS4. AOS4 said that the cluster size seven choose by default are bigger that 4096.

- FAT32 on AOS4 need to support more clusters size.

(I know 512 octets is a good size but the FAT32 HD will be used as a big filesize storage).



Copy on FAT32:

Copy datas on FAT32 medias with AOS4 give sooner or later datas crash with 8+3 filename and big size.

IMHO, the problem should came from protect flag not present on AOS4 files but need ot be confirmed.

- What are the actual problems of FAT32 support on AOS4 ?



FAT32 is important. For sharing the datas between differents OS, a perfect FAT32 support for AOS4 is verry verry necessary IMHO.

@Mrodfr
Don't know if it's relevant (and it's certainly nothing new) but I screwed up my 320GB external HD in my early Sam days (the HD was FAT32 formatted and previously "filled" using windows). It only contained pictures, videos, music and Rom/Adf images (for the various emulators) no windows software installed whatsoever.

Transfering files from the HD to my Sam worked nicely, but when I tryed to copy stuff from my Sam to the HD (it was a large video file) it corrupted the disk.

Luckily enough I had just bought a 1TB NTFS formatted drive for my PC and backed up the important stuff on it "before" trying.

Is this normal? And...will we ever be able to just mix and match BIG Fat32 formatted drives between Amiga and other machines without fearing corruption?

Quote:

Classic and poseidon 3.8 for spider2 and FAT95:

I have inserted the HD on the classic with poseidon and spider2:

- drive and clusters are recognized.
- names of the 2 partitions not known (just default numbers) but recognized (drive made with a special tool on the PC).

Just with poseidon, the free space decreased slowly ? (Maybe caused by the clusters size) that mean this HD not work completely well with poseidon 3.8.


AOS3 (FAT95 program) recognized more clusters size than AOS4 ?!?.

@Mrodfr

Since someone meantioned USB was fixed I never bothered to test anything more, like USB to SFS formated stick. But I have now a strict read-only policy on all my USB (which are FAT32) devices. Delete is the only thing I perform, and only if I really need to, and only one file at a time.

The FAT32 screwup is annoying.

And it means that you gotta have something other than an Amiga if you want to use your MP3 player.

At least my Sansa Fuze, though it can be set up to be used in MSC (storage device mode) and should be usable free of Windows support, only leads to frustration if used with OS4.

The Sam recognizes it (usually) on plugging into the USB, and the internal and card storage show up on WB as devices. TuneNet can play off of it fine.
But, try moving downloaded MP3 files onto it and you will be sorry.

Seems to work ok while attached, but after removal the new files are not visible to the Sansa. Some of the old files that were already on the Sansa have disappeared. It is soon reformat-the-Sansa time.

I would blame Sandisk and Windows for monkeying around with FAT32, but doing the same things, via storage device mode, on Linux seems to work like a charm, with no glitches as on the Amiga.

Tom

@tbreeden

Your mp3 player does not like the "specially formatted" directory entries within the FAT
filesystem to hide the Amiga specific entries.

Try to mount it with the NOAMIGAAATTR option enabled and please send me the data USBInspector shows for your mp3 player.

@ZeroG

Ah.

Will try that, and send you the USB report.

Thanks.

Tom

@ZeroG

How do I make the NOAMIGAATTR permanent and global??

I never store any files on USB that I later need special Amiga attributes on. Perhaps that fixes some problems..?

@ZeroG

Quote:

Under Functionality,
Mass Storage shows
ms ifac 1 (SCSI::BULK_ONLY)
with Information
Type: Interface
Product: SanDisk Sansa Fuze
Vendor: SanDisk
Serial no.: 0301EE170139B6A80000000000000000
Version: a5.dc

Class: Mass Storage
SubClass: 6
Driver: MassStorage Device Task

Under Topology
ohci.usbhcd unit 1
Hub
SanDisk Sansa Fuze
with Information
Type: Function
Product no.: 0x74c3
Vendor no.: 0x0781
Serial no.: 0301EE170139B6A80000000000000000
Version: a5.dc

Class: Multiclass
Subclass: 0
Mode: Interface

@ZeroG

Quote:

Couldn't figure out how to do this.
Added a tooltype "Control=NOAMIGAAATTR" to L:CrossDosFileSystem's icon.

Also did a mountinfo on "USB0:", which was the device the Sansa was mounting on. And then added a "Control = NOAMIGAAATTR" to the resulting USB0 mountfile, which I put into Devs:DosDrivers/

However, after a cold reboot and plugging in the Sansa, it seemed to then avoid mounting as USB0:, but instead mounted as "USB0.0:"

I tried putting a comment into one of the files in USB0.0:, disconnect reboot, replug the Sansa, and the comment was still there - so I don't think I succeeded in enforcing NOAMIGAAATTR.

Suggestions or requests?

Thanks,

Tom

@tbreeden

Thanks for the data. I will forward it to the right person.

Quote:

Try this (mp3 player is mounted as USB0: ):

- enter the following commands in a shell


- open the new mountlist ram:xyz in NotePad and add the line

to the end of the file

- save the changes and doubleclick the mountlist.

You should now be able to copy files to your mp3 player.
Please note that my system (A1 with OS4.1 U2) gets instable after this.

Another way (without a instable System, but with some very annoying requesters and no automount for FAT disks) is to force the usb stack to mount FAT formated media with a filesystem that does not exist.

@all

Others problems with FAT32: (I came from a friend who have seven). size of FAT32 medias.


problem 1:

OCZ RALLY2 16go key formatted with a cluster size of 4096 (minimal with seven on the PC).

- AOS4.1U2 recognize the key as 512 blocks size ?????


problem 2:

on seven, the size of the key is 15.xx go and the cluster size is 32 ko.

- AOS4.1U2 show the USB key:

used: 16 mo (32 816 blocks).
free: 14.9 go (31 277 08 blocks).

- DOPUS4 show the size of the key: 16013828096 octets.

Seven on the PC, AOS4.1U2 and dopus4 not show the exact value of my formatted key !!!!!