Minimig PIC firmware improvement?

[boing4000]

Hello,

due to the FAT16 limits it is only possible to store 231 entries in the root directory of the drive (SD/MMC Card). In Minimig case this means 229 adf files (or about 201MB) to store because minimig1.bin and kick.rom also have to be there.

This night (;-)) I was thinking about improving the PIC part by storing the adf files in a seperate \adf folder.
Inside a subfolder there can be stored much more files then in the root.

Unfortunately I am not able to do this by myself, because I dont know to program in C(++) and dont (yet) have a PIC program device.

Its only an idea to help :-)
Sascha

[BraindeaD]

Hi all!

@Boing4000:
I'm not sure, but I've read in someplace, that the FAT16 supports up to 512 files per folder.
Maybe someone could corect me, if I'm wrong.

Bye!

[boing4000]

I also remember it different, but currently I can only store this 231 "things" in my FAT16 MMC and SD formated cards, any more shows "no more space left on device".
Even 512 entries are still not enough to fill a 1GB card with adf images. Right now I made a demos and games folder and move the adf files in root (\) to make them selectable in Minimigs OSD.

EDIT:
Just tried out with a Linux bash script to create (0 byte) files in a subfolder. Here it is possible to store more then enough entries!!
To be correct: 65534 files.
A bit advantage against the root directory!

[BraindeaD]

Hmmm... weird, I've tried to copy more files to my SD card (Kingston SD 1Gb, FAT16 format), and it only manages up to 233 files...

[Darrin]

The solution is:  Several smaller SD cards!  ;-)

Seriously though, I have different folders on my 2GB SD card where I keep things like alternative Kickstarts, different cores, games that don't work, games that do work (but I don't want to play).

Having 200+ disks that you need instant access to is a bit of overkill.  Just use your PC to read the card and drag them around the folders as necessary.

Access to sub-folders would be nice though, just to be able to group multi-disk games together.

Roll on hard drive (hard file) support...

[boing4000]

@Darrin
I did it until now, storing unused adf files in \games and \demos folder and just move the wanted adf files into root to use.
that will spare OSD scrolling and confusion a bit.
but in this case a PC is necessary to make all files accessible.
perhaps a directory browser can also be realised to make this more useful.