Why cant I format my CF Card on a500+

[djos]

Hi all, I've been trying to get my a500+ to use a CF-HDD via my IDE68K v402 and I've tried 2 different adapters and CF cards and I can set them up using HD Toolbox but cant format them - Format just sits there forever and does nothing.

Im currently using an AmigaKit supplied CF-HDD adapter (for the 4000, I just changed the way it's powered and seems to work fine) with the supplied Kingston 4GB CF card and I've also tried a SanDisk 4GB card with the same results.

I havent tried setting up the Kingston card in WinUAE yet but for some reason this does not translate into a working HDD using the SanDisk CF Card. My Miggy appears to start booting and then does nothing and wont even boot from floppy unless I use the boot menu to disable the CF card.

I have been setting the max transfer to 0x1fe00 whenever partitioning the cards and this setting sticks no problems.

Any Idea's?

[djos]

Ok, I stumbled across this amazing post on EAB:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=61666

Looks like I shouldn't be using the normal format option but the quick format option, I will see if that makes any difference tonight.

[djos]

Interesting, that worked and I can now boot both my CF Cards using both my CF-IDE Adapters (not at the same time of course) but it's painfully slow to startup, takes a good 4-5 mins?

[djos]

I used FFS and yeah even after boot it's barely faster than a floppy drive.

I do have SFS on a floppy that amigakit provided but I've no idea how to install it?

[djos]

How do I install pfs3 and why use that instead of SFS?

[djos]

im just using GAYLE emulated IDE via an IDE68k v402 so i've no idea if it's buffered or not.

I must admit Im really thinking seriously about an ACA-500 + 12xx combo now. :p (it never ends)

[djos]

Looks like SFS and PFS require a 68020 so that rules them out, looks like Im stuck with FFS for now.

I wonder why it's so slow on my real miggy, using WinUAE and a 500+ HW profile (including 1mb chip & 8mb fast ram) it's very responsive by comparison.

[djos]

Found some info here:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=731751

Going to try a 512MB System partition and complete reconfig from scratch in WinUAE first and see if it speeds things up in my a500+ (currently both partitions are 1.9GB).

EDIT: based on some info in that topic, I wonder if my IDE68k is faulty?

[djos]

thanks, I'll try that - I'll add it after the autoaddram for my 8mb fast ram.

[djos]

@djos Not wanting to hijack your thread but if you are still looking at a 500 plus board...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMMODORE-AMIGA-A500-MAINBOARD-REVISION-8A-PERFECT-FAST-UK-SHIPPING-/290770253300?pt=UK_VintageComputing_RL&hash=item43b341f5f4

Oooh, tempting!

[djos]

Cheers, I'll have a go tonight.

[djos]

Interesting, I do have an autoconfig 8mb board on the way so it'll be interesting to see what diff that makes.

[djos]

Btw, I tried an IBM 2.5" 1.44GB mechanical HDD briefly this morning but I dont think my 25watt PSU was providing enuf juice and so my 500 would crash while booting from floppy - I prolly should have disconnected my external Floppy but ran out of time.

[djos]

It seems to do validate the disk at each boot up - I've checked and once WB is running the Validation is finished.

It is still painfully slow even with Buffers set to 70 - the fastest I've seen it boot was with just a single 501mb FFS partition as it only took 30secs to start loading the OS and was fairly responsive once WB was loaded. As soon as I added 2x 1.7GB FFS partitions it was back to being very slow.

I did discover one other issue with the v402 IDE68k during my testing tho - because the IDE connector is to the left of the CPU the IDE cable naturally wants to drape across the CPU causing it to overheat after about an hour of running. :p I re-routed the cable a bit to prevent this happening again.

[djos]

Arrrgh, got one of my 4GB CF cards working perfectly in WinUAE with PFS3 (not DS - dunno what the diff is either) using ClassicWB on a 500mb system part with a 3.3GB Data part and it wont boot in my real miggy! :confused:

I get the drive clicking in 15seconds (vs 2mins with FFS) and I see HDD activity for about 1 min with a black screen then HDD activity stops and nothing happens!

Should I be using PFS3-DS or is this a case of having 2x partitions with buffers of 300 each doesnt work with my current non-autoconfig 8mb ram (i have 1mb chip)?