Buddha IDE comes up as a SCSI device in HD Tools

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    I do not like the software that comes on the 20TH Anniversary DOM. It preps and formats a hard drive way too fast, so fast that I do not trust the prep and format. Because of this, I actually prefer to use HD Tools in Workbench 3.1. When I load up HD Tools, the Buddha IDE and IDE drives come up as SCSI devices, even though they are IDE. Also, I know that you are suppose to low level format SCSI drives, but, do we low level format IDE drives? I know on the PC side, you should never low level format an IDE hard drive.


    Since I am not using the software that comes on the DOM, is there a device driver that I am suppose to copy over to my Workbench Install disk, or just use the one included with Workbench 3.1?

    Quote from RetroGeek

    It preps and formats a hard drive way too fast, so fast that I do not trust the prep and format.

    Now that's a first - things happen too fast and too easy. Can't argue with that :-)



    Quote from RetroGeek

    I actually prefer to use HD Tools in Workbench 3.1

    Please note that it's an expert's thing to install drives that are larger than 4G. Because of the complexity of this task, we decided to write an automatic installation routine, so the lengthy steps that need to be taken are automated. I do understand that taking a good 2-3 hours of work off you feels like we've taken away some of the installation fun. Yes, it is possible to achieve the same with HDToolbox and some elaborate TD64 and/or NSD64 trickery. If that's your hobby, that's good. However, please understand that we can't give support for that task, as it's too error-prone.


    Quote from RetroGeek

    When I load up HD Tools, the Buddha IDE and IDE drives come up as SCSI devices, even though they are IDE.

    That's common for the Amiga, and it's just a name of the device driver. In reality, HDToolbox does not care about the physical interface, so as long as the driver supports the required commands, it'll work. Please note that even Commodore has named it's device drivers "scsi.device" for the A1200, A4000 and A600 IDE ports.


    Quote from RetroGeek

    is there a device driver that I am suppose to copy over to my Workbench Install disk

    Buddha has it's device drivers in the ROM, so no additional installation required for the HD part, if your drive is smaller than 4G and any partition is smaller than 2G. If it's any bigger, use the included installer. If you want to install a CD drive, use the installer from the old Buddha disk, also included on the DOM.

    Well, I never use hard drives or CF Cards larger than 1 GB. In fact, I usually use 512 MB or smaller. Because of this, I have NEVER had any problems with any of my 5 Amiga 2000 computers. They work perfectly, because I do not allow my ego to get in the way. So, can I remove the DOM and just use HDTools to prep and format my drives? Normally, on SCSI hard drives, I type in and save the parameters, low level format the drive, partition the drive, and then check the drive for errors. Then I reboot the Amiga and do the high level format. I have done all of this on the IDE drives as well, except for the low level formatting. That is what I am unsure of. Because, on the PC, you never low level format IDE hard drives. But, on the Amiga you type in and save the drive parameters onto the boot sector of the hard drive. This is the reason why the low level format starts at sector 2, not sector 1. In fact, after you type in the drive parameters and save them to the boot sector of the hard drive, HDTools will not allow access to sector 1 when formatting and partitioning the drive. Anyway, I thank you so much for your help. I am recording a series of videos about the 20TH Anniversary Buddha IDE controller, and then I will post those videos on my YouTube channel: Hans Campbell. So, I am asking these question to make sure that I have the correct information. You have a great product, so, I am promoting it. :)

    Quote from RetroGeek

    So, can I remove the DOM and just use HDTools to prep and format my drives?

    Yes, you can.

    Quote from RetroGeek

    I have done all of this on the IDE drives as well, except for the low level formatting.

    Low level formatting should not be required ever since the actual controller was integrated with the drive, so "just after MFM and RLL controllers were out of fashion" (sometime in the late 1980s). It is certainly not required for solid state media, and any developer of microcode for these drives will surely implement the command, but actually do nothing with the media - I'd expect it to be a NOP for the device.


    Quote from RetroGeek

    and then check the drive for errors.

    I'd say that's unnecessary either, as current solid state media does fully-transparent bad block mapping; you won't even notice if a block is bad, because the drive will just use another block from a reserved space. That's how NAND flash works these days: It's just slightly smaller than the actual semiconductor process can handle, but error correction algorithms work around that. The same is done on magnetic media - today's harddrives would fail badly if it wasn't for elaborate error correction happening completely transparent for the user.


    Quote from RetroGeek

    You have a great product, so, I am promoting it.

    Thanks! I like the way you're just wiping away tendencies of most users to go for "the larger drive" by saying "I don't let my ego get in the way". We've just recently calculated what the largest drive would be in terms of RAM requirements of the file system and found that anything above 1T is totally out of the question. Even the complete Aminet fits on a 64G CF card with more than 10G of free space. There's of course a lot more collections (like the Fred Fish library, just to name the most famous one), but even all of them combined can't fill a few-hundred-G drive.


    Since cards/DOMs smaller than 4G are hard to find these days, we make sure to support 64-bit addressing with the included software. If you're making a video, you should do some research about how to format them manually with 64-bit support, so the amount of work saved with our installer is shown. There aren't many people like you who want to do things manually!

    Thank you Jens for the quick response. I will add your information to the videos. In part 3 of the Buddha IDE Series, I will show viewers how to prep and format hard drives and Compact Flash drives that are larger than 4 GB. In part 4 of the Series, I will show viewers how to use the older Buddha IDE software, included on the DOM, to use CD-ROM and ZIP-100 drives. I may have to ask you more questions before recording the videos. I want the information in this series of videos to be correct. I have searched YouTube, and there are only 2 to 3 videos about the Buddha IDE, and those videos are not very good. I think the Amiga community needs a series of videos about this great product.

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