Home TOC

AFS FAQ
Common Problems
Last updated 23-February-1997

Copyright © 1996-1997 Mark Harden - All rights reserved.
Please do not copy. Make a link. That way we have one up to date copy !
E-Mail @: faq@harden.demon.co.uk

Table of contents - Common Problems

Home TOC Previous Next
My machine hangs when I format my partition. Why ?

Your MaxTransfer value is too high.

It must also be divisible by the sector size (Usualy 512) due to a bug in the WorkBench format code.


Home TOC Previous Next
I cannot get AFS to automount. Why ?

Use HDToolbox. Select the drive. Select advanced options. Select add/update. Delete all files systems. Now add AFS. Then click on OK. There is no need to have FFS installed in the RDB as it is in ROM anyway !

For each partition select Change. Check the MaxTransfer and DMAMask values. Ensure that the number of reserved blocks is 2 and 0 respectively. Also ensure that you have selected AFS\01 as the filesystem. The automount flag should also be set. Click on OK.

Now check the number of buffers you have allocated to each partition.

When you have done all AFS partitions click on OK.

Save changes to the drive. Exit and reboot.

Note that there is one problem that this will not solve. It is possible that the RDB is not big enough to hold AFS. To check look at the list of AFS in the L: directory. Now go back into HDToolbox. Select Change Drive Type. Select the appropriate drive type. Select edit old. Perform the following calculation :-

    1024 * BLOCK_PER_CYLINDER

This value should be greater than the size of AFS. If it is not you have problems. You are going to need to reformat you whole drive so backup your data first.

Now start HDToolbox select the drive. Select Change Drive type. Select the appropriate drive type. Now double the blocks per track, double the blocks per cylinder and half the number of cylinders (round down). If there is still not enough space repeat. Click on OK. Now double click on the new/edited drive type. When finished you will have to repartition your drive, reformat and the restore your data.


Home TOC Previous Next
I have installed AFS and it is very slow. Why ?

Check the number of buffers you have allocated.
Home TOC Previous Next
I have formatted my 100MB disk and already 6MB is used. Why ?

When you format an AFS disk an area is "reserved" for directory and bitmap information. This allows very fast access to this information. Hence the quick directory access.

Note AFS typically stores MORE data on a disk than FFS. FFS used a whole block for each file in a directory. It also uses "extension" blocks for larger files. AFS does this with a few bytes (Depend on name length).


Home TOC Previous Next
Why has my RollOver log file grown past its specified size ?

You have probably restored a backup of your files. This will convert all RollOver log files back to normal files. You should convert them back. This will involve renaming the file. Making the RollOver file and copying the data back. Remember to delete the renamed copy. I keep a script to do this for me. When I create a RollOver file I add it to the script so I don't forget.

Kirk Strauser has written some scripts to make this easier. They are available on AmiNet :-

    disk/misc/RolloverTools.lha

Please do not ask FLD for support on these scripts.
Home TOC Previous Next
I cannot access my partition after running DiskValid. Why ?

My guess is that you aborted DiskValid with CTRL-C because it can take some time if it finds bitmap errors. This leaves the disk "inhibited". Simon Dick has written a program to solve this problem. It is available from AmiNet or FLD's FTP site :-
    aminet: disk/misc/Inhibit.lha
    FTP:    ftp.flevel.co.uk:/pub/afs/contrib/Inhibit.lha

Please do not ask FLD for support on this program.

This problem also occurs if the partition name and label are the same.


Home TOC Previous Next
Why my application save files quicker with FFS than AFS ?

It shouldn't. Are you running 2.4 ? Versions prior to this did not handle "small" requests very well. Some applications perform a number of small writes instead of a few large ones. This used to slow AFS to a crawl. Please upgrade to the latest version
Home TOC Previous Next
AFS Has put up an "Out of buffers" requester. What should I do ?

The best option is probably to wait for disk activity to finish and reboot your machine. You will loose your most recent changes. When the machine comes back up increase the number of buffers allocated to that partition.
Home TOC Previous Next
How can I get AFS to with a ZorroII disk controller in a ZorroIII machine ?

ZorroII disk controllers like the Oktagon 2008 need the DMAMask set to use only 24 bit DMA memory. This should be a maximum of 0xFFFFFE. If you do this and try to use AFS on the disk and you have ZorroIII memory you WILL get a requester saying that AFS will not run.

This is not a fault with AFS. The device driver should handle this problem itself.

The solution is to set the memory type that AFS, or FFS, will use for its buffers. Unfortunately Commodore did not add this feature to HDToolBox. You can only do this with RDPrep. This is available on AmiNet and FLD's FTP size :-

   aminet:  disk/misc/rdp391.lha
   ftp:     ftp.flevel.co.uk:pub/rdp/rdp391.lha

Go to the partition screen. Select advanced mode and click on BufMemType until CHIP appears. Do the for all partitions on all disks connected to this device. Don't forget to save changes to the drive. Technically this change is needed for ALL filesystems...

AFS Should now work correctly !


Home TOC