Compact Flash Card as a Disk in WinUAE?
 

Is it possible to read a CF card as a disk in WinUAE? I want to transfer some files between my computer and my Amiga (using a PCMCIA to CF adapter).

There are two possibilities:

1. go to the harddrives tab and use "add directory".

2. go to the harddrives tab and use "add harddrive", then inside WinUAE create a DosDriver similar to CF0 on the Amiga but using uaehf.device instead of compactflash.device.

I am not sure but there might even be a third possibility: if your PC has a PCMCIA slot, I think WinUAE can use it just like the PCMCIA slot of the Amiga. Don't know where in the config you enable it, though.

I was going to configure the card as a hard drive, but when I go to use it on my real Amiga (via the PCMCIA port), will the Amiga recognize it? Can the Amiga recognize two hard drives (the one on the CF card and the real one already inside)?

I use a CF card to transfer files between my PC and my A1200.

The CF card is 2GB and I format it using FAT-16 (FAT-32 may also work).

When I need to use it on the WinUAE/PC side, I insert it and it gets recognized as a removable drive. It then also gets mapped by WinUAE as a DHx: device on the Amiga side.

I transfer the files I need to transfer and then eject it from the PC side (the proper way to remove it).

On the Amiga side... I use it in the PCMCIA slot, using a 16-bit (non-CardBus) CF Adapter.

Yes, you can also connect it via the IDE cable as a primary or a secondary (in addition to the existing hard drive) device.

I do use a 4GB CF card as a primary mass storage device in my A1200.

Reference Information
 

Check out this thread. I got some good information from it as well:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...ht=card+driver

Hmm... Good info. I'll give this a shot and see how it works. Thanks.

Well I think I got WinAUE to see the CF card, but it wont see any of the files on it. I put the .DMS file for my accelerator board firmware on it, but WinUAE doesn't seem to see it. It says that 256K is used, but there's nothing in the window when I go to look at it.

This might be a daft question but have you right clicked and selected "Show all"?

I meant on the Amiga side, not on the PC side (unless there's a show all on the Amiga as well).

I may have spoken too soon. I can get WinUAE to see the drive if I add it as a directory (but then it doesn't show anything on it), but I can't seem to add it as a Hard Drive (it says something about it not being empty or partitioned and it doesn't add it as a device).

I went in through the shell and the Amiga sees them on the CF card there. I guess they just have no icons associated with them so I can't see them in the GUI. Odd.

Ok so I figured out how to get the ADF disk image out of the DMS file. However when I go to use EasyADF to transfer the file to a real disk it says: No disk present in device CF0. I have the card in the adapter and I installed all the software. Any ideas?

WinUAE can see the "drive" as a removable drive IF you enable the show PC drives in the options. WinUAE will assign a drive letter (ex. DH4:) to it automatically.

At that point, DH4: will behave like any Amiga partition, as far as file I/O is concerned. Make sure the CF card is formatted in FAT16 ONLY for the greatest flexibility.

When this is working properly, you can simply transfer data to it directly from Windows (or WinUAE), eject the CF card from Windows and take it over to the Amiga and simply plug it into the CF-PCMCIA adapter and CF0: will be available with the contents ready for transfer.

If the card is properly formatted as mentioned above, and you installed the drivers, then something may be wrong with the driver installation.

Make sure you have BOTH of these packages properly installed:

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/cfd - Compact Flash drivers

and

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95 - Fat95 drivers (for the FAT16 support)

Maybe that's my problem? Whenever I tried to add it as a hard drive it wasn't assigning it an identifier and gave me the error I mentioned. I'll try that tonight and see what happens.

I assume those are the packages I installed with the disk that came with the adapter. If not, how the heck can I get those onto the Amiga? That's the reason I bought the adapter. :) It's sort of a chicken or the egg sort of deal.

Aminet is your source, unless you got the adapter from Amigakit, then that one comes with its own software.

The stuff on Aminet is freeware.

I got it from Amigakit and installed their software. I assume it's the same drivers or compatible ones.

I think the Amigakit software is more polished than what you get from the PD (Aminet).

I guess they have a nice floppy <--> ADF transfer tool, but I'm not sure what they use for the device drivers.

I'd use the CompactFlash driver and FAT95 and then add the Amigakit ADF tool on top of Workbench to do the disk transfers, etc.

There might be more software that they include, I'm just not aware of it...

You are doing it wrong :)

"Add harddrive" = add harddrive-like device (includes memory cards, usb sticks, any storage device) as a block level harddrive. Usually used when you want to access Amiga formatted/partitioned drives.

"Directory" = add existing Windows accessible directory as a virtual Amiga harddrive.

EDIT: make sure "Automount removable drives" is ticked in harddrives panel if it does not automount when inserted. There is no need to add any removable drives to harddrives list.

Ahh that worked. Now I can see the CF on the WinUAE end, but still not on the Amiga end. When I try to use EasyADF it just says "No disk present in device CF0" and I ran both the "Install-ADAPCMCFL" and "Install EasyADF" programs that were included on the disk that came with the adapter.

The adapter must be working though, because PrepCard detects the CF card in it. Although I can't do anything from that menu.

HELP! :)

Just to back up what Toni is saying I'll give an example of how I use my cards.

Add Harddrive: My actual hard drive (compact flash) connected to the IDE port inside my Amiga by way of adapter. If I need a lot of stuff transferred over I take it out the miggy and add it under WinUAE. I add a PC folder a voila!

PCMCIA Card: You don't need to open WinUAE at all and I think the OP is confused as to it's function.
You format the card in Windows (FAT16), it's then seen as a drive under My Comptuer. Put your stuff on it, take it to your Amiga and it should see it. You may have to "View All" to see the files.

Another daft question - did you get your card from AmigaKit?

Although some cards show up in prepcard thay aren't compatible with the PCMIA kit.

I got my original setup from AmigaKit and it took a couple of tests and trials to get a card that would work correctly.

Have you got another card to try?

Dave G :cool