Problem with new CF PCMCIA card reader - CC0: or CF0:

[gurthuk]

New CF PCMCIA card reader arrived yesterday and tonight I have sat down to play with it however I'm having a little trouble...

A1200, Workbench 3.0 hard drive install and followed the Amigakit instructions but my compact flash card doesn't appear on the desktop.

I've looked in Workbench / Tools and ran the Format program and there appears to be 2 devices:

CC0: (20k)
CF0: (0k)

Why do I have 2 and why do neither show my CF card?

I also ran the Workbench Prep Card program. It seems to see something in the reader but fails to format.

[amigakit]

Some CF cards have problems with the Amiga because they are locked to ATAPI mode in their firmware- some can have their firmware changed back to ATA mode.

Here is a compatibility list:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=28249

We supply CF cards that are tested with Amiga on the webstore.

[tone007]

Compatibility list FAIL.

[gurthuk]

Guess I'll have to buy another card then...

[gurthuk]

Amigakit - are all your Compact Flash cards okay to use? Looking at your site the description reads "suitable for some Digital Cameras and personal electronic organisers" - nothing about Amiga.

[tone007]

The compatibility list Amigakit pointed out isn't aimed at what you're trying to do.  Check out "cfd" on Aminet, you'll need that to access the card. http://aminet.net/driver/media/cfd.lha

[gurthuk]

cfd is part of the Amigakit install, I've read the same readme file that your link contains.

[tone007]

Eh, get a WiFi/network card, way more fun.

[Thomas]

Why do I have 2 and why do neither show my CF card?

CC0 is created automatically by AmigaOS, but it only works reliably with SRAM cards. It does not recognise CF cards.

CF0 is created by the CF0 file in devs/dosdrivers. It should represent your CF card. What happens if you select it and click on Quick Format ?

What happens if you open a Shell window and enter diskchange cf0: or dir cf0: ?

Bye,
Thomas

[gurthuk]

If I try the quick format option I'm presented with a prompt telling me no card is inserted. I have 2 cards (same model) an both return the same message.

Not tried the Shell option yet as I packed the Amiga away last night to make room.

If I remove the whole PCMCIA card I can see my RAM increase slightly, add the card and my RAM comes down a little which I think the OS mounting the drive correctly.

I'm sure the Amigakit install has gone okay. Sadly I can't install it again as the disk corrupted after it forced me write to it when I registered the Transfer ADF program.

Sounds as if I need to try another CF.

[gurthuk]

ah I did try CF0: in the shell last night and it came up with the same no card / disk in drive prompt. Not tried the diskchange method though...

[gurthuk]

Does the ATAPI / ATA firmware matter if I'm side-loading the card through the PCMCIA slot? The same cards work fine in an IDE-to-CF adapter.

[amigakit]

Yes it does, the CF cards on our webstore are fully compatible with Amiga.  We can supply a new copy of the floppy disk if you have corrupted your copy.

[gurthuk]

Ok will order a CF card today (and new ADF disk if I can please).

[gurthuk]

Card arrived this morning, plugged it and straight away it appeared on the Workbench desktop. I'm up and running.

- thanks AmigaKit!