CompactFlash.device how-to?

[RedWarrior]

Finally managed to get pfsformat to work on this CF card I was planning to use as a transfer card.... (borrowed from my A600)

Luckily I didn't just wait an hour for nothing...
I want to cry.

[paul1981]

Finally managed to get pfsformat to work on this CF card I was planning to use as a transfer card.... (borrowed from my A600)

Luckily I didn't just wait an hour for nothing...
I want to cry.

I'm afraid you did. A quick format would have sufficed. I must say, I'm more confused than you now I think. LOL.

Traditionally, compactflash.device / CF0 is used to transfer files between PC's and your Amiga (or Unix box or Mac or whatever). Fat filesystem is used because it's the default filesystem used on flash devices, because all computers can understand the fat file system so therefore it's used widely to share files, including cameras, audio recorders, mp3 players etc. There are more up to date ones now which are used for higher capacity flash media and hard drives but I'm just trying to give you a bit of background.

I thought you were trying to use a CF card reader with your CF, but now it seems you're attaching it to the internal IDE?

[paul1981]

Does the CF0: card reading thing care if it's an Amiga formatted Card (PFS3) or Fat32? Will it read both? or only Fat95?

CF0, the actual file I mean, is a mountlist which is mounted by the AmigaDOS command 'Mount'. You can view its contents with a text viewer (More or Multiview for example) and you can edit it with an editor such as Ed. CF0 is tailored to using fat95, you'd have to edit it to use a different filesystem, but you should really stick with fat95, as then you can put the CF card into your PC or laptop and easily transfer files to and from your Amiga, where WinUAE isn't required.

[paul1981]

Queensland Rail. Groovy!!

[RedWarrior]

Yeah I think I got confused and wanted to try everything I could think of... as you can see the format failed anyway, so I let Windows format the card as FAT32... and the Amiga still didn't read it anyway...

I didn't use diskpart this time... is that important? I can't remember- it's all a blur...

[paul1981]

CardPatch and CardReset... I have tried running those as commands... nothing happens... is something meant to happen? The card is/was in my Amiga600 and I tried to format it under winuae with pfs3 (as per your earlier recommendation, as I have done for the internal CF)... though it returned with "OUT OF MEMORY" and rebooted when I tried to perform pfsformat.  

PFS hasn't been mentioned in this thread. For internal IDE use yes, by all means use PFS.

[RedWarrior]

I tried ASSIGN - and this is what came back...

When I double click the CF0 in Devs/Dosdrivers - it tells me it's already mounted...

Maybe there are different kinds of "mounted"?

[RedWarrior]

Trawling google, it's quite disturbing how many similar threads there are out there like this... they just trail off and there's no solution. I wonder what happened to those poor people? Am I next?

...what was that?!...

[paul1981]

No, there's only one sort of mounted. Everything in Devs/DOSDrivers will get mounted during the boot sequence, just as the printers, datatypes, keymaps, monitors do etc. Which leads us perfectly down the path towards Storage. Storage is where you keep those unwanted keymaps, printer drivers, DOSDrivers (like RAD) and monitor drivers. You see, if they're in Storage you'd have to click on that RAD to mount it, or that printer, or monitor driver. I hope this helps!

So CF0 is mounted, that's good. Run CardReset, and if the card is fat formatted it should show up. If nothing shows up, run the Format program in System, and Quick Format CF0.

That noise... that was the sound of the disk motor bearings straining in your CF card from that Full Format you subjected it to.

[AmiDude]

Yeah I think I got confused and wanted to try everything I could think of...it's all a blur...

You've confused us all... :confused: :insane:
Have a cold brewski and go do something else!  :drink:

[PanterHZ]

I have always found it best to do things the following way with PCMCIA - CF card adapters:

1. Turn on the Amiga
2. When Workbench has loaded, mount CF0: (if it's not already done)
3. Insert CF card into adapter (if it's not already done)
4. Insert adapter into PCMCIA port

After a few seconds, the icon of the CF card should now appear on the WB screen.

[RedWarrior]

You're right... it SHOULD appear...

Weird that on my (now dismantled) a600 I could pop any card in the PCMCIA port and it would at least show up on workbench... even as CF0:NDOS if it didn't like it.

On my 1200 nothing shows up... ever. (Though Cardprep does confirm that it can identify the card- so it can't be a hardware problem)

I'm using a hackjob OS - from the workbench311 hardfile that comes with WinUAE... would that have any bearing on the situation?

[Thomas]

Please run this: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/downloads/hddreport.lha
and attach the report here. It should give some hints where the problem could be.

[RedWarrior]

Please run this: http://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/downloads/hddreport.lha
and attach the report here. It should give some hints where the problem could be.

Ok- thank you! Lots of info in there! photos attached....

[RedWarrior]

more pics

[Thomas]

come on, you got the lha archive to your amiga, so you can move the txt file the opposite way and attach it here as a single file. I refuse to read text from blurry photos.