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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 03:22:27 PM

Title: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 03:22:27 PM
Hey ppl i need your help again,

I removed my CF 4gb card out of its ide connector in order to copy some files via pcmcia adaptor to my other 1200 - this didn't work, presumably because 4gb is too large a CF to be used with pcmcia.

So i re-install my 4gb CF back into the ide connector of my 1200 but it no longer boots upinto WB. Instead the screen flickers and then goes black.

Hmmm, i load up winuae v 2.3.3 on my pc and load wb via system.hdf as a hardfile, I insert the 4gb cf into the pc cf adaptor... I am wondering how to access my 4gb cf in winuae as i think i may need to edit the setting to make it "bootable" again. How do i do this and how do i test that my 4gb CF is working fine in winuae, because only then will i feel happy re-installing it in my 1200 ide slot.

I really don't want to have to wipe my 4gb cf as i will lose 3 months worth of saved games :confused:

Any help would be appreciated :)
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: CritAnime on December 27, 2011, 03:42:32 PM
I had this a while back. Put the card into your PC and just try booting, if nothing then try resetting and doing a bootselect and seeing if the card is still been picked up. I have a feeling that putting it in the pcmcia slot has altered the RDB.

There is a way of fixing with a tool. But for the life in me I can't remember it's name. Thomas might be able to help you with it.
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 03:50:20 PM
hi critanime, can you expand on what you mean.

So far i am in winuae 2.3.3 and i load wb via system hdf ( if try to boot from the cf card in winuae i get a prompt saying "DH0: not recognised" or something like that.)

Can you give me a step by step account of fixing the rdb that you mention.

I definitely feel that removing my CF card from my 1200 and inserting into pcmcia has been a poor move on my part :confused:

Thomas where are you........?! Can anybody else help?!
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: CritAnime on December 27, 2011, 05:56:47 PM
That certainly sounds like it could be an RDB issue :(

What I would do to test it is this.

1) open WinUAE as admin.
2) Try the CF as admin, just to make sure that windows isn't causing any issues reading the card too.
3) If this fails then load what ever version of WB (set it to something like DH3) you use and also have the CF as a second hdd HDD.
4) Start UAE and hold down both mouse buttons on boot and select boot options.
5) select DH3: and let it boot and see if it allows you to access the data on the drive.
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 06:10:24 PM
hi critanime,

i'm having real problems getting the cf card mounted as a hard-drive in winuae as every time i click on it it says its not a recognised file format (no doubt because its an amiga file system) so i wonder if i should be trying to access the cf via wb? But then i need to add the cf card as a hard-drive to do this ? arghhh! How do i get out of that loop? :roflmao:

Whenever i mount my cf card as a hard-drive it says under it device name "n/a" and under volume "n/a"

hmmm:confused:
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Thomas on December 27, 2011, 06:14:08 PM
Quote
Whenever i mount my cf card as a hard-drive it says under it device name "n/a" and under volume "n/a"


That's how it should be. Why do you wonder?
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 06:19:17 PM
ahh thomas, can you help me get my cf card recognised in winuae wb?

Do i need to use system hdf to access the cf and if so why does it not show up in wb?,

 If not then how do i get the cf to boot up in winuae??
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: CritAnime on December 27, 2011, 06:30:53 PM
Wow thats an issue I have never come across. What version of WinUAE are you using? Maybe it's the drive safety check cicking in.

Open notepad and put this into it

winuae -disablehardrivesafetycheck

save as something like WinUAE.bat to your desktop. Go to your WinUAE install directory and copy the newly made .bat file over. Right click and select run as admin. See if that works.


--edit

THOMAS!!! The HDD expert lol. Is there something we are missing?
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 06:41:56 PM
i thought winuae version 2.3.3 did not need the "disablehardrivesafetycheck" thing...

hmmm :confused:
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: CritAnime on December 27, 2011, 06:58:43 PM
Dunno then... I have hit the limit of my knowledge when it comes to this kind of thing. :(
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Thomas on December 27, 2011, 08:08:02 PM
Quote from: Snoozy;673089
( if try to boot from the cf card in winuae i get a prompt saying "DH0: not recognised" or something like that.)


Can you describe this a little bit more detailed (with the exact error message).
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 08:20:30 PM
Quote from: Thomas;673138
Can you describe this a little bit more detailed (with the exact error message).

Well its not loading my cf card from the purple wb prompt now?!, but it does recognise it as device n/a, volume n/a, Path: multi Flash reader 1... R/W yes, Block size 512, Size 1927...

Should i try changing it from a uae device to a ide0 device, save that and then reload in my 1200 ide port?
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Thomas on December 27, 2011, 09:16:01 PM
Quote from: Snoozy;673139
Well its not loading my cf card from the purple wb prompt now?!, but it does recognise it as device n/a, volume n/a, Path: multi Flash reader 1... R/W yes, Block size 512, Size 1927...


Try to run WinUAE as administrator (right-click and select "run as admin").

Quote

Should i try changing it from a uae device to a ide0 device, save that and then reload in my 1200 ide port?


Not sure why this should help. If WinUAE does not boot from the CF card, why do you think that the Amiga would? Especially because you started with WinUAE because the Amiga didn't boot any more.
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 09:31:35 PM
I am already running in winuae as administrator.

I can mount the hard-drive and see it with the values (i already provided) but i cannot seem to get it to boot from the purple wb prompt in winuae.
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Thomas on December 27, 2011, 10:38:15 PM
What does it say in the selection list when you click on add harddrive? Does it say [RDB], [MBR] or [unkn] and is the size correct?

Is the size correct after you used add harddrive? You said 1927... above. You can drag the vertical bar in the headline so that it does not say "..." any more. If it is a 4GB card it should say 3927 MB or 3.9 GB or something similar.

What does the card look like in Windows disk management? Is the size correct there?
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 27, 2011, 11:41:28 PM
It says flash 1.9gb UNK RW, when i select it from the drop down menu. Is this because it is recognised as being in 2 partitions rather than one 4gb partition?

(sorry thomas i am having probs with windows disk management - in that its not working (or constantly loading drives)

As this doesn't look like a straight forward fix, do you think i should just return the drive to the vendor for them to examine as it is only 3 months old ?

I can't understand how using the cf card with a pcmcia adaptor into a pcmcia port has since ended its bootable capability as an ide cf hard drive.:confused:
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Thomas on December 28, 2011, 09:51:24 AM
Quote
sorry thomas i am having probs with windows disk management - in that its not working (or constantly loading drives)


I would say that there is something wrong with your Windows then. Does it do this only while the CF card is connected or even without it?


Quote
Is this because it is recognised as being in 2 partitions rather than one 4gb partition?


How do you know that it's two partitions? You didn't mention this yet.


Quote
As this doesn't look like a straight forward fix, do you think i should just return the drive to the vendor for them to examine as it is only 3 months old ?


I am quite sure that he will connect it to his PC and try to initialize/format it for Windows and if it does not work, offer you a replacement. Both will mean that you loose all data. If you can accept this, it's probably the best (easiest) option.


Quote
I can't understand how using the cf card with a pcmcia adaptor into a pcmcia port has since ended its bootable capability as an ide cf hard drive.:confused:



Did you connect it while the Amiga was running? Perhaps there happend some kind of electric shock which destroyed something in the card.

Or FAT95 tried to "repair" something in the file system. I wonder anyway how you would have accessed the Amiga partitions on the PCMCIA adapter. You would have needed some kind of mounter utility which mounts the Amiga partitions on compactflash.device. It does not do this automatically.



If you still want to try to rescue it yourself, next thing to try would be to connect the CF card back to the Amiga's IDE port, boot with the Install3.1 floppy disk and run HDToolbox. Does it list the drive as "unknown" or does it still have a valid drive type?

If the former, which capacity does it recognise if you go to change drive type / define new / read configuration?

If the latter, does it still show the partitions?
Title: Re: 4gb CF no longer boots up on a1200
Post by: Snoozy on December 28, 2011, 11:42:00 AM
Well I kept the 1200 switched off before I inserted it so maybe it changed fat 95, hmm.

Thanks for your help thomas but I think I better return this to the vendor, I have explained what has happened and they said they will take a look.

Incidentally attaching the cf card back to the 1200 ide port seems to upset the 1200 boot sepuence with the screen flickering and then going black, back to purple wb prompt without the cf attached.