Unable to copy large amounts of data (solved, ish)

[daveyw]

Would this be related to the SmartFileSystem 1.290 update issue as another thread on these forums?

I've eliminated the filesystem being the problem as I've used FAT32, SFS/00. SFS/02 and JXFS and had the same problem on all of them.

[daveyw]

@daveyw
I just re-read all your posts, and it isn't clear to me whether this error only comes from the TARGET empty drive, or if it has sometimes come from the SOURCE drive. Specifically, when you were doing IDE to IDE, was it the source or target drive that had errors? (Your textual copy of the message doesn't indicate.)

Anyway, assuming it was always the target drive, please try doing a FULL format several times, making a note of the error location each time (to see if it changes).

P.S. Did you make any further progress with your RAM tests?

Actually, it's both. When I got my second IDE drive, and I was copying data from the 1st to the new one, I would get it on the new drive (the TARGET). Now, when I'm backing up to my USB drive, it get the TARGET USB drive erroring. But sometimes the error is on my SOURCE IDE drive, the same drive I had the problem with earlier. And when this happens, and I reboot, the IDE drive is missing. I reboot again and its back.

On the Sam, the error is always with the USB TARGET drive.

I'll try doing a full format, but as I said, it would be really helpful if there wasn't contradictory info floating around out there.

As for the memory tests... the Sam is still running mtest and has been since Sunday. Might be done in another week. As the A1 was running about 5 times slower, I've left it for now.

[ChrisH]

A Quick Format is all that is usually necessary.

A Full Format will take a looong time, and is typically unnecessary, but won't do anything bad (it just fills your whole drive with zeroes). Some people have the strange idea that you should do a Full Format, but all it typically does is make you harddrive REALLY hot due to excessive heavy use (so make sure your Amiga & the room it is in is well ventillated!).

A LOW LEVEL Format is a really BAD idea, as that is only intended for SCSI drives, and may kill an IDE drive. I don't think AmigaOS4 allows you to do a Low Level format?

P.S. What is the point of running mtest much longer than the time taken for copying the harddrive? If mtest finds no problem in that time, then I'd have thought you were safe...

[Christopher Follett]

Might sound stupid, but how many buffers do you have set?

As I would get random errors on the Micro A1, until I thought about buffers. Set them to 2000 on the USB and it solved my issues and more than trebled the speed of data transfer.

Also I find CLI copy all command much faster than drag and drop, plus it tends to be more reliable.

[xenic]

Also I find CLI copy all command much faster than drag and drop, plus it tends to be more reliable.

Unless you are backing up data containing links. For example, if you copy your system partition with "C:Copy all" then the links in the SYS:SObjs directory will be copied to the destination as files instead of links. AsyncWB (Workbench drag'n'drop) will reproduce the links so that you get an exact backup of your files.

[xenic]

Might sound stupid, but how many buffers do you have set?

As I would get random errors on the Micro A1, until I thought about buffers. Set them to 2000 on the USB and it solved my issues and more than trebled the speed of data transfer.

How did you change the buffers on a USB drive? I don't see any way to do it in the "USB Massstorage" commodity and the "Edit partitions and filesystems" gadget in Media Toolbox is disabled for "usbdisk.device".

[daveyw]

A Quick Format is all that is usually necessary.

I tried a full format last night. After about an hour, it had managed 1% of a 500 GB partition, and I got the same error come up, although this time the "io_Offset" was a positive number 1864358912 as well as a dialogue box stating "Unable to format cylinder 72384475" . I rebooted and tried again to see if it stopped at the same place. Left it formatting over night, come morning it had done 4% but Workbench had frozen. No error messages, and the drive light was still going (although I've found in the past that it flickers even after an error message), but Workbench had locked up.

I'm now trying to format it on the Sam.

[daveyw]

Might sound stupid, but how many buffers do you have set?

As I would get random errors on the Micro A1, until I thought about buffers. Set them to 2000 on the USB and it solved my issues and more than trebled the speed of data transfer.

Also I find CLI copy all command much faster than drag and drop, plus it tends to be more reliable.

Using 1000 buffers on all my drives. I'll give the higher number a go.

I have used CLI "copy all quiet" and have been recommended Dopus 4, but I'm currently using Deniil's nice Back-Up. I don't recommend the otherwise excellent Filer, I found it much slower than Dopus 4.

[daveyw]

A Quick Format is all that is usually necessary.

I'm now trying to format it on the Sam.

No good, it came up with extaly the same filesystem error as above, but on a different (but very close) cylinder 72400704.

[daveyw]

How did you change the buffers on a USB drive? I don't see any way to do it in the "USB Massstorage" commodity and the "Edit partitions and filesystems" gadget in Media Toolbox is disabled for "usbdisk.device".

You should be able to access USB devices through Media Toolbox usbdisk.device same as any other drive. Try unplugging and plugging the USB drive back in and then going to Media Toolbox.