PCMCIA CARD AND BOOT DISK PROBLEMS- WORKBENCH 3.0

[Pat the Cat]

Thomas, you really are being a an adhominen abusive pompous yob.

Grow up. When was the last time you took an 1992 A1200 and tried to get files into it? Nothing but a WB 3 disk?

I don't use FAT95 because I don't have to. I don't use Windows. Nobody has to.

I'm trying to help somebody here, you're just blowing steam for effect.

The way I do it, using Linux, I can put downloads straight onto a card, then plug it directly into the Amiga. Boot from that with Amiga FFs, no more copying required.

It would take quite a while for an A1200 to copy 16gb from one compact flash card to another even if it did work.

Anyway Wraith, Thomas is quite right to suggest trying the compact flash on your laptop at least.

One other point is that CF is hot swappable, so unplugging and plugging in the card is OK. If not your Gayle definitely could do with a fixer plugged into it. Causes a lot of aggravation with A1200 PCMCIA. There are software workaround too they might well be included in that hard drive with IDE adapter if you want to persist with the whole idea.

[Pat the Cat]

It boils down to whether compactflash.device is using it's own TD64 friendly IDE access to the compact flash card over PCMCIA, or whether it's just rerouting the inbuilt versions. Which aren't TD64 on a Kickstart 3.0 machine.

[Pat the Cat]

Well Wrath, if you can't get any joy out of that PCMCIA with 16GB - I'll buy it off you for what you paid for it.

PM me if you don't get any joy out of it.

I can try it in my A1200, could be your A1200s PCMCIA has been damaged (somebody tried to fit wrong card type).

Here's the thing - according to "what has been written", people have got 2GB cards working that way. Bigger cards with Os later than 3.0. But people also reporting no luck with 3.0, Maybe compactflash.device just doesn't work that way.

I'd like to find out.

[Pat the Cat]

Put a couple files on it. Makes it more like what you'll be using it for.

I realize that you can't copy them anywhere, but blank space on a card is set to FFFF... which the Amiga can mistake for "media removed".

The screen shot from ebay showed a drawer, "system volume information" or such. I presume that's windows record keeping, so leave it alone.

[Pat the Cat]

Yeah, extra RAM and hard drive on an A1200 make a big difference. Everything gets snappier and more responsive.

The CPU doesn't have any controllers to help do the heavy lifting with hard drive and PCMCIA access. Even when it does work it on a vanilla A1200 using just chip RAM.

Using a hard drive setup for 3.1 or later with 3.0 can be problematic. Bit of a glut with 3.1 chips for A1200 because of the recent release of 3,1,4.

3.0 starts up the quickest though.

Like I said Wrath, PM me and I can send you cash to cover your costs over Paypal. Plus a bit extra to cover postage to UK.

[Pat the Cat]

well, at least you don't have to boot from floppy anymore.

How abou a dir DF0:?

How starting up the machine, then plugging in the PCMCIA card?

If the original driver disk was named "CF0" that would also cause a problem. Once the drivers are in the right places on the hard drive, you shouldn't need it inserted in a drive anyway.

You DO have to reboot the system between copying the drivers and using the PCMCIA card though.

(Very likely, they're already on the hard disk).

[Pat the Cat]

If i had my harddrive/cf card accessible via the rear trapdoor that might work. Then if i put the wb 3.1 cf card in my pc would i be able to transfer files to it and then insert it back in the slot? Would the pc read the wb 3.1 card and allow files to be placed on it?

Yes, that's an ideal way from a hardware perspective. But...

Not with Windows alone, no. You can do it with using WinUAE, to read an Amiga formatted disk (fastfilesytem V40 I think). Or you could just boot Linux on a Usb stick and use that (the Linux will see the Windows partitions and files, and like I've already said, a line of code in a terminal will mount an Amiga FFs disk for use with a file manager to copy files around). 98% using a mouse and graphic interface. And yes, it will see the Windows hard disk as well.

This has always been a Microsoft policy, to exclude "foreign" types of disks from competing operating systems.

EDIT: GParted on Linux does not have to be used to format or partition the Amiga drive, but it comes in very handy for working out which device location to use (for instance sdb1, sca2, whatever) when mounting the drive in Linux.

https://sordan.ie/product/737/amiga-1200-8mb-fast-ram-memory-trapdoor-expansion/

I am thinking of getting one of these... Basically if i can run d-paint or such and transfer 32 colour sprites/frames to the 1200 and make any needed adjustments there i should be good for now. Though an accelerator can be had for 150 euros online.

It can do that without a memory expansion, but the RAM helps make it a less clumsy experience. Do shop around, buy local. Accelerator would be a bit overkill for Dpaint. Would help converting the graphics but a 14MHz 68020 with it's own RAM area is not too shabby.

Though i possibly need a specific monitor or old crt? I use a flatscreen at the moment.

Old television with a scart socket should do just fine, with a decent scart cable. To check your graphics on a CRT. The differences in effect are subtle.

http://ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/Amiga_SCART/amiga_scart.html

[Pat the Cat]

Most excellent news.

Do let us know if you get the full 16GB on one partition fired up or not. I for one would love to know for sure.

And which filesystem worked on the PC end? EXFAT? Or FAT32?