formatting CF card problems and winuae

Hi

..Can someone please help me get a compact flash card working as an HD in my A1200. I've been fighting this for months. Finally, I beg for help! :(

I want to partition and format a 4gb CF card under winuae ( ideally use sfs or at least have very few big partitions) copy workbench classic over to it, add a ton of whdloads and then pop it in my a1200.

I have no way of transferring data onto the A1200, hence via winuae. There seem to be lots of guides out there, has anyone here made this work OK?

I admit I dont know amiga well. It could be the CF card... but I've tried 2 cards and a CF<>SD card adaptor with same results. I've tried 2 card readers, XP and Win 7, and same issues persist at every turn. It could just be me. Help!!

Ok, breathe slowly Iain..


what I have:
I have an A1200.

I have no workbench disks.

I do have workbench disk .adf's.

I DO have a working workbenchclassic .hdf, working in winuae.

The 4gb Cf card is presently set up as 3 partititions to avoid any going bigger than 2gb.

Using both SFS and fast Filing System I've tried various CF transfer values, presently 0xfe00.

btw I cant get SFS to work, at all.

what usually goes wrong:
hdtoolbox doesnt seem to remember partitions or transfer values much of the time...query the drive later and sometimes it's back to default..

the big /latest roadblock: I have a CF card thats FINALLY partitioned by hdtoolbox in winuae, each partition shows on the desktop (see screenie) .. but NOW refuses to format. Each partitition, on choosing 'format' comes back as NDOS "not a valid DOS disk" error - eh??

screenshot1 is the present error message. screenshot2 is the format tool showing the partititions look ok..

what am I doing wrong?

cheers in advance for any help anyone can chuck my way. please!

Iain :)

Did you try a quick format?

Yes, that's where it fails. From the format exe as well as the right-click menu on each partition on desktop

It could be the brand of card, or it may be something as simple as using a 2 letter identifier plus a number for each partition insetad of 3...

E.G.

HD0 instead of GDH0
HD1 instead of GHD1

Try re-partitioning the card into 3 - 250mb For HD0, 500mb for HD1 and the remainder as HD2. Save the partition info, reboot and quick format.

Hi

Seems to be an error on RDB.... Try the next.....

- Create one Install disk from your adf's
- Boot A1200 with the Install disk.
- Create new RDB on CF card
- Create DH0 (or CF0, or...) up to 492MB, FFS (NO Directory Cache)
- Reboot & quick format DH0:, rename as System

Then use WinUAE to install ClassicWB. Once installed, the best way is to create the other partitions using the real A1200 & SFS.

Best wishes

Thanks for that

Err two newb questions then

Is 'rdb' the disk layout /partition table etc itself, in Amiga terms.

Can I create an install floppy from winuae on my windows pc??

Ta!:)

@iainjh

RDB = Rigid Disk Block

Is like the MBR on PC Systems.

No way to make a floppy from Windows unless you have special hardware (Catweasel MK-IV).

Ok, try the next:

- In Windows Computer Management/Disk Management try to put the CF cards like uninitialised state.

If no way....

- Try using a special app like the Parangon Partition Manager (I use this for all my partitions jobs, and works great).

---------------

With the uninitialised CF go to WinUAE and add an HDD, select the CF card (shows as RAW) and create the DH0 partition using the WB Install disks.

After this the RDB is created correctly and it's possible to work on WinUAE and Real Amiga without problems.

Best wishes

thanks Merlinkv, I'll try that. I just popped the card in and the lid back on too haha :)

I had an idea it was some kind of MBR issue, the cf always shows in winuae as [MBR]... I formatted the CF in an old digital camera without any improvement, also tried clearing it down under os x and with ranish.. I'll try that partition manager, ta for this, i'll try it now.

AND Blankstares' very kindly made me an offer for a disk, I'll pm him back and will try both routes til I get past this.

Thanks guys

iain

PS if I set up the CF in the a1200, can I later still pop it back into the pc to transfer my whdloads etc over via winuae? Else I may yet come back with questions to transfer stuff off the pcmcia port onto the internal cf!

I had a very similar issue with WinUAE and formatting a CF card the other day, I dont actually know what fixed it but after creating the partitions I had the same format error as you did.
Out of frustration I shut down WinUAE and then restarted it, before beginning the emulation I needed to add the CF card as a hard disk again, last time I did this it had "MBR" at the beginning of the string, this time it said "RDB"??! Anyway, I started the emulation and then tried formatting (I always quick format) and it worked :) Im not sure what fixed it but that was the process of things that happend, maybe its the same with your error?
Also, I dont run as an admin on my normal user logon but WinUAE requires you to run the task as an Administrator, dunno if your setup is like that?

EDIT:My emulated OS is 3.9

I think I'm over the core issue now, but I also think there's something fishy with at least one of my cards.

I didnt use paragon partition manager as its not free (soz) but I had tried ranish, so I tried "EASEUS Partition Master" which is free and you know what? it cleared off the MBR and ..winuae detects it as [RDB]

ta tajmaster for the further detail on that.

then hdtoolbox'ed the partitions in about 30 seconds, see all that practice.. formatted them, all seems good in winuae!

hooray!

winuae still threw a wobbly refusing to boot from the classicdesktop when I added the sfs folder (eh?) so I gave up on sfs for now, will see how far I get without, and have set the CF up with 3 partitions

(but merlinkv, the classic desktop hdf is 512k, more than you said.. is 492k a max for a boot partition, or do you think i'll be Ok?)

I'll leave winuae copying over the classic desktop to the boot partition for now, and will report when I have at least that one working in a real a1200

cheers for help all

blankstare - I'd still like those disks btw as then I'll have a set to hand and will be able to sort out the drive locally.

ta all ! :) :) :)

iain