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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: sim085 on July 07, 2009, 09:36:40 PM

Title: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 07, 2009, 09:36:40 PM
Hi,

Today I recieved my AEC 7720 card. I connected everything in my GVP HD8+ (including CF card which had workbench installed on it) and turned my A500+ ... like a charm everything worked fine.

... then I decided to f**k the happy moment!

I decided to copy my WinUAE setup on the CF card. However partitions where of different sizes and therefore I decided to format the CF card back to FAT so that I could partiton again and then re-install Workbench 3.1

The problem is this; HDToolBox is recognising the CF card without any problem. I can partition and change the MaxTransfer value without any problem as well. I then Save the settings and reboot. However on bootup it seems as if nothing happens! In other words the partitions DH0: and DH1: do not appear on desktop!!

I have spent the last three hours on this (format, install, re-format, format to FAT, etc) and nothing seems to want to work!! Just now that things seemed to be going in the right direction.

Anyone has any idea what might I be doing wrong!?

Regards,
Sim085
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 07, 2009, 10:15:42 PM
Ok, I connected the CF card back to the real A500+ and used the GVP Fastprep disk to format the CF card and create two partitions. I must admit that Fastprep is much better then HDToolBox :) Let me see if I can get Workbench installed now :)
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 10:56:17 AM
Can the GVP FaaastPrep tool be used on WinUAE? When I try it I get an error that drive is found. Is this maybe because this tool is meant to only work on real GVP hardware?
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: Lockon_15 on July 08, 2009, 11:33:57 AM
FaastPrep works with gvpscsi.device, WinUAE works with uaehf.device
This means that run under WinUAE, FaastPrep cannot find any resource binding to original hardware.
 
I can also agree that FaastPrep is on-pair with HDToolBox, but you obviously missed the HDInstTools which is, IMHO, best choice to solve your issues.
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 02:44:55 PM
Quote from: Lockon_15;514935
FaastPrep works with gvpscsi.device, WinUAE works with uaehf.device
This means that run under WinUAE, FaastPrep cannot find any resource binding to original hardware.
 
I can also agree that FaastPrep is on-pair with HDToolBox, but you obviously missed the HDInstTools which is, IMHO, best choice to solve your issues.

Is this correct:
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/hdinst

I will try that one and see how it goes :) This is not part of Workbench right!?
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: the_leander on July 08, 2009, 02:53:01 PM
HDInstTools - Aminet (http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/hdinst).
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 03:17:53 PM
Quote from: the_leander;514968
HDInstTools - Aminet (http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/hdinst).


Thanks, I change the parameter ;Device=scsi.device to 'Device=uaehf.device' However when I start this tool it tells me that no card was found. While with the Old HDToolBox the CF card is at least found!
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: the_leander on July 08, 2009, 03:43:43 PM
Given that it was working from within the A500, why not simply use that and have done?

Or at the very least, use it to make the partitions and then use UAE to install the OS...
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 03:50:20 PM
Quote from: the_leander;514975
Given that it was working from within the A500, why not simply use that and have done?

Or at the very least, use it to make the partitions and then use UAE to install the OS...


I was trying to copy the files from my setup on WinUAE to the CF card but obviously things have taken a strange path ...

I am inclined to reformat the CF card with the FaaastPrep tool and install Workbench from real A500+ and then use WinUAE to transfer some other files.

However I still can't understand how to make HDInstTools work from WinUAE!
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: the_leander on July 08, 2009, 03:57:13 PM
Quote from: sim085;514978
I was trying to copy the files from my setup on WinUAE to the CF card but obviously things have taken a strange path ...

I am inclined to reformat the CF card with the FaaastPrep tool and install Workbench from real A500+ and then use WinUAE to transfer some other files.


Tbh this sounds like your best bet.

Quote from: sim085;514978

However I still can't understand how to make HDInstTools work from WinUAE!


Perhaps if you keep it set to scsi.device...
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: MozzerFan on July 08, 2009, 05:04:09 PM
Quote from: sim085;514861
Hi,
 
The problem is this; HDToolBox is recognising the CF card without any problem. I can partition and change the MaxTransfer value without any problem as well. I then Save the settings and reboot. However on bootup it seems as if nothing happens! In other words the partitions DH0: and DH1: do not appear on desktop!!
 
Sim085

Type "info" in a shell and see if the disk is mounted.
If it is mounted, try to format it from the shell.
Type the following from the shell:
 
Format Device=DH0: name FFS INTL QUICK
 
 
If it still doesn't work, it's no problem to partition/format it on the amiga with faaastprep and copy the needed files in WinUAE.
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: Lockon_15 on July 08, 2009, 06:34:42 PM
@simhq
How do you connect CF on PC? External (USB) reader or built-in cardbus slot (notebook?) ?
 
I have external reader, which allows to define CF as harddrive in WinUAE settings.
I guess you have XP, not a Vista/Windows7.
First you must inspect if Windows put a driveletter on that device, when connected. If there is, then use Disk management snap-in from mmc console and remove driveletter. Next on, edit WinUAE shortcut so Target field point to i.e. "C:\Program Files\WinUAE\winuae.exe" -disableharddrivesafetycheck". If you have Vista or Windows7 then you'll have to disable UAC also or make a forced "Administrator" start of WinUAE session. Finally, when adding harddrives in WinUAE, make sure you pot CF disk right on top of other stuff, like i.e. WIndows path acting as virtual Amiga disk.
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 07:31:26 PM
Hi again to everyone and thank you very much for the replies. I believe at this point this is more of a problem between the CF card and WinUAE rather then between the CF card and my A500+. As of now I managed to get installed Workbench 3.1 on the CF card without even a single problem!!

What is amazing me the most is that when I opened HDToolBox to change the MaxTranfer value I found this set equal to 0x7fffffff and not the one I was doing on WinUAE 0x1fe00! I left it as is and the installation of Workbench went fine.

However when I tried to do the same on WinUAE this morning (i.e. MaxTranfer was set equal to 0x7fffffff) I had checksum errors. I changed it to 0x1fe00 and still had some problems!

I can not understand why the CF card mod seems to work like a charm on the real hardware but not from WinUAE! Note that after the installation I can see workbench and I can boot from the CF card (connected to my laptop with the USB adapter). But I can not transfer a large bulk of files! :(

Regards,
Sim085
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 08:02:10 PM
Quote from: sim085;515009
But I can not transfer a large bulk of files! :(


Actually I can not even transfer a single file from my PC to the CF card. I tried to transfer 'Installer' into Sys:C. However when I reboot before Workbench comes up I get an error ... something about bad header section! After that I can not transfer anything else!

I am lost! ... After installing Workbench from A500+ WinUAE seems ok, but after trying to move files this happens :(
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: MozzerFan on July 08, 2009, 08:10:00 PM
Quote from: sim085;515013
Actually I can not even transfer a single file from my PC to the CF card. I tried to transfer 'Installer' into Sys:C. However when I reboot before Workbench comes up I get an error ... something about bad header section! After that I can not transfer anything else!
 
I am lost! ... After installing Workbench from A500+ WinUAE seems ok, but after trying to move files this happens :(

 
Have you used Fastprep or HDToolbox.
 
If you used Fastprep, try to format the Card to Fat32 on your pc and try to partition it with HDToolbox under Winuae. Try to format from the shell (see my previous post).
 
Use a maxtransfer size of 'FE00' just to be sure.
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 08:14:38 PM
Quote from: MozzerFan;515015
Have you used Fastprep or HDToolbox.


I have used FastPrep to create the partitions. I then installed workbench 3.1 - always from real A500+.

Quote from: MozzerFan;515015

If you used Fastprep, try to format the Card to Fat32 on your pc and try to partition it with HDToolbox under Winuae. Try to format from the shell (see my previous post).


My XP does not want to know anything about the CF card anymore. Anything I try it does not want to format the CF card. However from A500 everything works great!

Quote from: MozzerFan;515015

Use a maxtransfer size of 'FE00' just to be sure.


Can I re-partition from A500+ and then I load CF card from WinUAE and change the MaxTransfer to 0x1FE00? - btw ... it is 1fe00 or fe00? I am asking just to confirm.
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: MozzerFan on July 08, 2009, 08:17:43 PM
Quote from: sim085;515016
Can I re-partition from A500+ and then I load CF card from WinUAE and change the MaxTransfer to 0x1FE00? - btw ... it is 1fe00 or fe00? I am asking just to confirm.

 
Yes that is possible.
 
I'm using '1FE00' myself, but to be absolutely on the safe side you can also use 'FE00' .
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: MozzerFan on July 08, 2009, 08:20:31 PM
BTW you can also try to use HDToolbox on your real Amiga.
 
Just boot with the 3.1 install floppy and change the the device tooltype of hdtoolbox to gvpscsi.device.
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 09:04:04 PM
From WinUAE, when I change the MaxTransfer from HDToolBox everything seems to crash. As soon as I press 'save change' it acts very strange! starts freezing.

Additionally sometimes Windows may just un blug the USB adapter! I do not know ... maybe it is the USB adapter that is faulty! :(
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: MozzerFan on July 08, 2009, 09:24:11 PM
It's either the CF card itself or the cardreader.
 
It's not a good sign that you cannot format the card under Windows XP.
 
If possible, test it with another cardreader.
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 09:35:28 PM
I think it is more probable that the problem is the card reader because when on A500+ I managed to install workbench wothout even one error! (neither checksum errors!).

Additionally WinXP keeps giving strange errors! I will try to use the card reader on another OS (Vista) and see if I have more luck :)

.. all in all I am happy that I can Install Workbench on the CF card from the A500+ ... all I am scared is the number of formats I did on the poor card :)
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 08, 2009, 10:47:29 PM
With Windows Vista I have some better results but still far from a solution.

I tried copy the contents from my laptop to the CF card but I had a lot of checksum errors. I must admit that using MaxTransfer equal to 0xfe00 gave me less errors then using 0x1fe00 however the errors seemed to be on the same files.

Also from my A500+ I can format (from workbench) any drive, while when in WinUAE, after selecting this option, after some time I get an error "Not a DOS disk".

In short, from WinUAE my CF card is identified but I can not manage to interact with this CF card!
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: MozzerFan on July 08, 2009, 11:24:36 PM
Try to format the card under vista, and if that works partition and format the card under winuae.
 
If the NDOS icon doesn't show after you partitioned it, try to format the card from a shell.
This is the way you did it the first time, and that worked, so I think you should try it that way.
Title: Re: Back to some CF problems ...
Post by: sim085 on July 09, 2009, 12:35:37 AM
Hi again ... ok I can confirm all the problems where because of the card reader. I had an external hard drive. pulled the IDE -> CF adapter out of the GVP and put all cables in place inside the external hard drive. The CF card and works fine in WinUAE :) ... also I can format from Windows without any problem!! ... aahh ... I should have thought about faulty card reader before.

Thanks for all the help :)