How to set Maxtransfer rate for HD?

[oracle_jedi]

I am trying to experiment with some WHDLoad images on an Amiga 1200.

 

Loading from the external CF card plugged in through the PCMCIA port they work ok, but if I copy the files to the internal HD (which is really a 2GB CF card), they mostly fail with various errors.

 

Games installed on the internal drive from floppy disk work ok.

 

A suggestion is that the Maxtransfer setting for the internal drive is wrong, and to use HDToolBox to change it. I can't see where in HDToolBox that setting is exposed? Can I set the maxtransfer rate from HDToolBox and if so how? Is there a way to do this for an existing drive/partition without having to reformat?

 

KS3.0/WB3.0 if that makes any difference.

 

Thanks

[+OLD CS1]

It is not a "rate" but rather a "transfer block size." You should use HDToolBox to change the MaxTransfer value. To change it, you have to select the partition and CHANGE. This is where you set the DOSType and MaxTransfer.

 

For the A1200's IDE MaxTransfer should be set to 0x1FE00 and if that does not work use 0xFE00.

[oracle_jedi]

Thanks CS1, it looks like I have to delete and recreate the partition for this to work right?

[+OLD CS1]

Thanks CS1, it looks like I have to delete and recreate the partition for this to work right?

 

Nope. You can change MaxTransfer with impunity. Changing the block size or filesystem will require a reformat.

[oracle_jedi]

Okay thanks for the guidance.

 

For any other Amiga newbie struggling with this, what I found was that the HDToolBox that came on the Workbench install disks was pretty much useless.

 

You can find MaxTransfer under "Partition Drive, Advanced Options, Change", but no matter how many times I set the value to 0x1FE00 it refused to stick.

 

I tried deleting the partition and managed to delete the primary partition too. So that was a fun day rebuilding everything....

 

A better option I found was The HDInst tools from Aminet. This tool made it simple to set the transfer rate and the changes stuck first time.

 

WHDLoad is now working as expected, so this is awesome.

 

Thanks again and Happy New Year.

[+OLD CS1]

There may be a big enough difference between 3.0 and 3.1, then. I apologize I have no experience with 3.0 as I went directly from 2.04 to 3.1. Glad to hear you got it running -- you are gonna have a blast!