CD0 device running but the CF card is not appearing

[superfrog76]

Hi guys

Trying to find out how to run the CF card via PCMCIa port.

I've the adapter in, running ClassicWB EX, turned on the machine but the partitions on the card do not appear.

The CD0: is running; if I use Opus, when it switch on CD0 it says that the disk cannot be recognized...which I do not understand, since I have formatted the disk  in the amiga (it also has one WB bootable partition).

Do I have to initialize somehow the CF card to be used with PCMCIA adapter? I assumed that it would be recognized without issues, once I format it as amiga FFS.

Thanks!

[Matt_H]

CD0: is the CD drive. You need CF0:. Download cfd.lha from Aminet and install it. You'll also need fat95. ClassicWB may include these already, I don't know. Because CF0: is configured for the FAT file system, if you've preformatted the CF card with FFS, it won't work.

[superfrog76]

Gah, sorry...I did a bit of confusion.

So classicwb should have it already? I see in the devs only pipe and CD0

Tried to use prep card, and when I select to prep the card as disk, I get a write error....which makes me think that probably I need the 2 archive that you mentioned.

This card was used before as my hard disk on the CF IDE adapter; I've formatted it as such, since I thought that I could then use it to just move files from the computer to the Amiga, but it seems that I need to format it again first.

Thanks! Trying it now

[superfrog76]

So, strange enough, I have the fat filesystem in L, and also I have the card device in Devs, but there is no CF0... Not sure if the guys at ClassicWB missed that or there is some reason for it.

Have to open the amiga now, to retrieve the CF card; so I can plug it to my computer and download the 2 lha archive.

BTW is there an easy way to make CDs for the Amiga? I would rather have these file on a cd, and avoid to have to take apart every time the miggy I made a CD and a DVD and neither can be read from the Amiga (it says "the disk is not a dos disk, when I try to do a cd0:....I use Toast, since I have a mac).

Installed the CF0 from the archive on aminet; but still I see no CF. When I try to use opus to go to CF0: I get an error saying that there is no card in CF0:

What am I doing wrong?

[Robert17]

I've found that too with ClassicWB Too, at least v27, not tried v28 yet. You could maybe use a 720kb formatted floppy to transfer the file from your PC to your Amiga?

Also, I've used the Amiga 911 Bootdisk before, that has support for compact flash plugged into an adaptor in the PCMCIA Port, and Fat95 too so it's easy to transfer onto a blank drive for example, without opening the case

Robert.

[superfrog76]

I've found that too with ClassicWB Too, at least v27, not tried v28 yet. You could maybe use a 720kb formatted floppy to transfer the file from your PC to your Amiga?

Also, I've used the Amiga 911 Bootdisk before, that has support for compact flash plugged into an adaptor in the PCMCIA Port, and Fat95 too so it's easy to transfer onto a blank drive for example, without opening the case

Robert.

Thanks Robert, but it would take me days to move the files with a floppy; plus I don't have a floppy on my pc

So far I had no luck at having the cf card recognized at all...the prep card utility won't prepare it as disk; I've formatted it as Fat and still the Amiga won't see it, and even if I use the hdtoolbox I see it but it recognize it as "unknown"; the auto recognition does not find the right parameters so I am quite confused...it is a 4 Gb Kingston, which should be compatible.

Where do I get this Amiga911 boot disk?

[paul1981]

So, strange enough, I have the fat filesystem in L, and also I have the card device in Devs, but there is no CF0... Not sure if the guys at ClassicWB missed that or there is some reason for it.

Have to open the amiga now, to retrieve the CF card; so I can plug it to my computer and download the 2 lha archive.

BTW is there an easy way to make CDs for the Amiga? I would rather have these file on a cd, and avoid to have to take apart every time the miggy I made a CD and a DVD and neither can be read from the Amiga (it says "the disk is not a dos disk, when I try to do a cd0:....I use Toast, since I have a mac).

Installed the CF0 from the archive on aminet; but still I see no CF. When I try to use opus to go to CF0: I get an error saying that there is no card in CF0:

What am I doing wrong?

CF0 in ClassicWB is where it belongs, with the other "optional" drivers; System:Storage/DOSDrivers.

Just click it when you need it, or for permanent use drag the CF0 icon into Devs/DOSDrivers.

[Thomas]

BTW is there an easy way to make CDs for the Amiga?

Just make sure that it is in ISO9660 format. Mac HFS might work depending on the Amiga CD file system used. AmiCDFS and CacheCDFS should be able to read HFS IMHO.

Packet writing (formatted CD-RW or DVD-RW) won't work.

UDF won't work, too.

[superfrog76]

CF0 in ClassicWB is where it belongs, with the other "optional" drivers; System:Storage/DOSDrivers.

Just click it when you need it, or for permanent use drag the CF0 icon into Devs/DOSDrivers.

Well, if you know where it belongs... I went on the site and read every page and there was no mention about where the cf0 was.

I have dragged it in DosDrivers, so I have it ready at boot, but still no luck.

Once you have CF0 mounted, you should be able to use prep card right? Should I format it on the pc?

[superfrog76]

Just make sure that it is in ISO9660 format. Mac HFS might work depending on the Amiga CD file system used. AmiCDFS and CacheCDFS should be able to read HFS IMHO.

Packet writing (formatted CD-RW or DVD-RW) won't work.

UDF won't work, too.

Thanks Thomas; so plain ISO9660 should work...gotta check which settings are used by Toast, otherwise I have to restart in bootcamp and use either Nero or Alcohol.

Thanks!

[fitzsteve]

Well, if you know where it belongs... I went on the site and read every page and there was no mention about where the cf0 was.

I have dragged it in DosDrivers, so I have it ready at boot, but still no luck.

Once you have CF0 mounted, you should be able to use prep card right? Should I format it on the pc?

You shouldn't use prep card, this is for preparing SRAM cards as fast ram for example.

You should format your CF card on your PC as FAT32, note not all CF cards are compatible with PCMCIA on Amiga, what brand CF do you have?

[superfrog76]

You shouldn't use prep card, this is for preparing SRAM cards as fast ram for example.

You should format your CF card on your PC as FAT32, note not all CF cards are compatible with PCMCIA on Amiga, what brand CF do you have?

Doh, good thing that I have asked then! I was formatting it as disk, since prep card has 2 options: as ram and as disk...first time using it, sorry.

It is a Kingston 4 Gb CF card; was purchased at Amikit (it is what they sell with the IDE adapter), altho I also have a 8 Gb Sandisk, I use both as hard drive with the IDE adaptor.

[Matt_H]

Now that I'm not typing from a lousy iPhone keyboard I can offer some additional input:

Since you were previously using the CF card as an Amiga hard drive, you can't simply attach it to the PCMCIA/CF port and get it to work. CF0: functions very similarly to PC0:. It expects a PC-formatted device to be inserted. But while PC0: has an Amiga equivalent using the same physical port (DF0: ), CF0: does not, so you can't attach an Amiga-formatted device.

Theoretically, you should just be able to issue a 'format CF0:' command from the shell (there's some additional syntax also required) to reformat the card as FAT32 at which point you'll be able to use it to shuttle files between the Amiga and PC. Reformatting will, of course, destroy all your data, so make sure you have a backup.

As others have mentioned, PrepCard is old and deprecated. It was built to prepare 4MB SRAM cards for use as a disk or as RAM. It won't work with any of the modern cards.

So what I think you should do is plug the card you've been using back into the CF-IDE adapter and go back to using it as a fixed hard drive. Then pick up a second CF card from a store and pop that into your PCMCIA-CF adapter. Then you'll have your internal hard drive and a portable (FAT32) card that can shuttle files back and forth between machines. If you already have a spare CF card, reformat it on your PC to save yourself the challenge of reformatting from the Amiga shell.

[superfrog76]

Hey Matt; thanks for the reply

So the CFcard on the PCMCIA connector will never be an Amiga formatted card,but it is a PC formatted card...I was missing that piece of info

So, I have a 8 Gb, which is my main drive on IDE, and a 4 Gb kingston from amikit, which is the card that I had before as internal HDD.  I am planning to use the 4 GB as PCMCIA volume, so I can move data between computers (altho with all this hassle, I am almost convinced to get a network PCMCIA card, but it would take days to copy few GB lol).

This is so far what I have found, using classicwb advsp on my real amiga:

1) the card is in the slot, formatted from my pc as fat32; I have cf0 in dev, nothing appears/gets mounted

2) if I issue a mount cf0: I get an error (already mounted)

3) if I issue a cf0: I get an error that the disk is not dos

4) I have used the "check 4gb" utility, which is in classicWB, and I can see cf0 as compact flash device, version 1.27, type fat1 (3.11); which makes me think that the card and adapter are working correctly.

The card is formatted, but I can't access it at all; not sure what am I doing wrong here T_T

[magnetic]

superfrog

Alot of CF cards will NOT work with the PCMCIA and WILL work on internal IDE> The safest bet is to use official Sandisk CFs only. THere are threads online about what cards work and what dont..

sounds to me like this is your problem