8GB SanDisk card not mounting in A500?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I've always used Transcend CF cards in my Miggy's.  Just had good luck with them.  Recently however I bought an 8GB SanDisk "Ultra" CF card based on a whole lot of positive reviews and a supposedly lower rate of failure.

Formatted the CF with the latest version of PFS on my A2000, partitioned it, the system sees it and mounts it just fine, no issues.

Plug it into my A500 however, and it won't show in early startup.  If I boot to Workbench I can see it in HDToolbox, but I still can't mount it or format it or do anything else with it.

Interesting because both machines are configured very similar:  GVP controllers, 4.15 ROM's, Mechware SCSI card readers, etc.

I'm wondering if the A500 doesn't like it because it's 8GB, or doesn't like it because it's a SanDisk?  Thoughts?  Oh well, should've stuck with the brand that's always worked for me in the past, LOL!  

PS - Anybody want to buy a SanDisk card cheap?  :lol:

[danbeaver]

Same device and LUN's?  Have you tried a 4 GB partition, another filing system?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Well, the SanDisk mostly worked if I formatted it with FFS (the version from 3.9), but only under 4GB, and there was still  some really erratic and unpredictable behavior.  At first it seemed like it was entirely caused by PFS, or some basic incompatibility between the GVP sidecar and PFS-formatted cards, but then I was able to use other PFS-formatted devices, so that blew that theory right out of the water.  Will re-visit this issue after I get some sleep, perhaps.  

[Thomas]

If I boot to Workbench I can see it in HDToolbox, but I still can't mount it or format it or do anything else with it.

If HDToolbox sees it then all else is a software problem.

Formatted the CF with the latest version of PFS

PFS-TD64, PFS-DS or PFS-AIO?



Is the CF card the only HDD in the A500? And in the A2000 was it the only HDD?

If there was another HDD in the A2000 with PFS, did you perhaps forget to store PFS on the new CF card?

Another thought, if you run HDToolbox on the A500, install drive, define new, read configuration, does it show exactly the same values as when you did the same on the A2000?

Did you successfully use CF cards >4GB before?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

PFS-TD64, PFS-DS or PFS-AIO?

PFS-AIO, the latest version on Aminet.

I also have the full 5.3 archive, but that's only for the C: tools (PFSformat, etc.).

Is the CF card the only HDD in the A500? And in the A2000 was it the only HDD?

When I prepped it in the 2000 it was the second CF - I have SCSI card readers with multiple CF slots.  In the A500 I've tried it by itself, in conjunction with another CF that has 3.9 on it, in conjunction with another CF that has 3.1 on it, and with a random XD card that I had laying around.  In most cases the other drives are detected & mounted correctly but the new SanDisk is not.  The other cards are all either 2 or 4GB.

If there was another HDD in the A2000 with PFS, did you perhaps forget to store PFS on the new CF card?

Nope, did it at least a dozen times.  

Another thought, if you run HDToolbox on the A500, install drive, define new, read configuration, does it show exactly the same values as when you did the same on the A2000?

A2000 is at my office, A500 is at home, so I can't compare them side-by-side.  I should be able to do this by Monday, though.  

Did you successfully use CF cards >4GB before?

A2000 has been running an 8GB Transcend CF with PFS for the past two years.  Never tried one in the 500 before now.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Strike that.  New CF is now throwing an "Error 4 in drive description" when clicking on "Read configuration".  Previously this had worked several times.  No other changes to hardware or cabling and all other SCSI devices working correctly.  Tried to format the card on my PC and brought it back over to my Amiga to see if that would make any difference.  Nada.

Screenshot attached, but I think I should cut my losses and just try using a different card.  So much for all those positive reviews on amazon!  

[Thomas]

In the A500 I've tried it by itself, in conjunction with another CF that has 3.9 on it, in conjunction with another CF that has 3.1 on it, and with a random XD card that I had laying around.

What about PFS? Are all these cards formatted with PFS? All with PFS-AIO?

Do you always use the same slots of the SCSI reader, i.e. do you always use the same SCSI IDs? Can it be that the SCSI ID or LUN of the Sandisk is higher than all the other cards? And were the other cards used in conjunction with another card before? What I want to say is, did you clear the "last LUN" and "last ID" flags on the other cards? If not, drives with higher IDs or LUNs won't be mounted.

[mechy]

Strike that.  New CF is now throwing an "Error 4 in drive description" when clicking on "Read configuration".  Previously this had worked several times.  No other changes to hardware or cabling and all other SCSI devices working correctly.  Tried to format the card on my PC and brought it back over to my Amiga to see if that would make any difference.  Nada.

Screenshot attached, but I think I should cut my losses and just try using a different card.  So much for all those positive reviews on amazon!  

sounds like you got a bad card or a counterfiet. i usually buy sandisk from newegg and have never had any trouble. i use the ultra and such pretty much exclusively.
I use sfs 1.279(sfs/00) for all my stuff though.
One thing you can try,and i cant recall if it makes a difference,but try formatting in the pcmcia to cf adapter in the card reader.

Oh and dont use hdinsttools

Mech

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

So, to conclude this story:

Brought that pesky 8GB SanDisk card to my office and popped it in  my  A2000 (where it had previously worked fine), and up came a "228" error.

Having quite enough of that, I picked up a nice 8GB Transcend, a brand I've never had any issues with, for the princely sum of $17, popped it in my A500, it started to work, but then errors again!  Gaah!  Before I started pulling my hair out I used a little Google-fu and found this post on EAB:  http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=831346&postcount=14

Where it said:

Click Add/Update, Add New Filesystem, then put the address of the file  of PFS3, then Ok) you have to overtype the 0x43465300 or whatever you  have depending on the FS you're using...

AAAH!  I'd been putting in the wrong number on that screen!  Operator error!  D'oh!  :angry:

Problem resolved and my A500 is now happily installing 3.9 onto it's new 8GB Transcend card; I think I'll still throw this SanDisk card across the room for my troubles, LOL.  

Here's a picture of her, in all her shining glory:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

BTW, @Thomas - I found this post of yours while I was researching and it was very helpful.  I wouldn't have known about the update if I hadn't seen it on EAB.  Any chance of getting this new filesys file and latest version of Check4GB uploaded to Aminet to replace the old version that's currently on there?  Thanks!  

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=946262&postcount=2

[Thomas]

AAAH!  I'd been putting in the wrong number on that screen!  Operator error!  D'oh!  :angry:

Which number did you enter? Normally it should not matter which identifier you enter exactly, as long as you use the same one for both the file system and the partition and as long as the number does not conflict with another file system.

Some file systems change their behaviour depending on the identifier. For example PFS-AIO first checks for usability of Direct-SCSI if you enter the number for PFS-DS rather than that of PFS-TD64. Other than that it makes no difference.

Any chance of getting this new filesys file and latest version of Check4GB uploaded to Aminet to replace the old version that's currently on there?

I am currently working on a new program called HDDReport to replace Check4GB. It will print much more information about harddrives and partitions in addition to just "ok" or "***".

So the answer to your question is no, I won't upload a new version of Check4GB to Aminet, I will rather replace it with something much better (IMHO).

[KimmoK]

Hehe... insane, but still... year 1987 computers using 8GB memory cards???
Ounleyyyy aaamiiigggaaahhh!

Or did someone already try with real IBM-AT HW and windows 1 or so? ;-P

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I don't have it in front of me right now, but it was something dumb  like 0x434... and then the rest was correct.  Don't know how I was getting that wrong, I'm just going to quietly go back to facepalming myself in the corner now, LOL.  

Great news on the software, looking fwd to it!