Format CF card for PCMCIA?

[Synthesize Me]

Hello everyone,

I have just bought a 4Gb Danelectro compact flash card for use with my amigakit.com PCMCIA (easyadf) kit because the 128mb card provided with it is just too small to transfer ScummVM games . The problem I'm having is that the Amiga shows it as CFnodos. I tried formatting the card to either FAT or FAT32 and still the same result. Is there a special way that I should format the card under windows? For example should I choose a specific allocation size unit or whatever? I specifically bought a Danelectro card because I have heard from many people here that they are very compatible with either PCMCIA or as a CF hard drive. I tried searching the forums for formatting instructions but all I could find was a compatibility list (under which the Dane card is listed as good). Thanks in advance for any help!

[alexh]

You need to install a FAT32 filesystem to AmigaOS.

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95

Or format it in AmigaDOS format (but then you can only read the card in WinUAE on the PC)

The most important thing when using CF cards is when you partition them to set the MAXTRANSFER size to 0x1FE00

[Synthesize Me]

Originally Posted by alexh

You need to install a FAT32 filesystem to AmigaOS.

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95

Or format it in AmigaDOS format (but then you can only read the card in WinUAE on the PC)

The most important thing when using CF cards is when you partition them to set the MAXTRANSFER size to 0x1FE00

Hey, thanks for the reply! I already have the FAT32 filesystem installed as it came with the amigakit.com PCMCIA transfer kit. I haven't tried to set the maxtransfer size, so I guess I should try that next. Only problem is I don't know how to do that...maybe you could give me a quick rundown for dummies? Thank you, I really appreciate it.

[alexh]

I doubt maxtransfer is your problem but you set it using HDToolbox, an app built into AmigaOS for partitioning hard drives. Use search on this forum or Google for info on how to use it.

[Synthesize Me]

Do you know what the specific settings while formatting under windows are? File system and allocation size?
To make matters worse, I just went out and wasted even more money buying a sandisk ultimate 4gb and a transcend 4gb card which both (big surprise!) don't work. The transcend card keeps my workbench from loading and the sandisk doesn't show up at all (dopus says CF drive is empty)
I checked the properties of the 128mb card that was included from amigakit and it says FAT filesystem but there is no way for me to figure out what allocation size to use. Or is there something else I need to do? I bet almost 9 out of 10 people on here use CF cards to transfer files how did they get their CF cards working!?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Synthesize Me

Do you know what the specific settings while formatting under windows are? File system and allocation size?
To make matters worse, I just went out and wasted even more money buying a sandisk ultimate 4gb and a transcend 4gb card which both (big surprise!) don't work. The transcend card keeps my workbench from loading and the sandisk doesn't show up at all (dopus says CF drive is empty)
I checked the properties of the 128mb card that was included from amigakit and it says FAT filesystem but there is no way for me to figure out what allocation size to use. Or is there something else I need to do? I bet almost 9 out of 10 people on here use CF cards to transfer files how did they get their CF cards working!?

Your making it to over complicated.
You souldnt need to mess with max transfer etc etc.

Put your cards in, if they dont show up, then go to SYS:System/Format.
See if it shows CF0: there, if it does, then try to format it that way.
If it refuses to format, then it will be the cards are not compatable.

Bet they will work fine as CF HDD's though.

[Synthesize Me]

Originally Posted by FOL

Your making it to over complicated.
You souldnt need to mess with max transfer etc etc.

Put your cards in, if they dont show up, then go to SYS:System/Format.
See if it shows CF0: there, if it does, then try to format it that way.
If it refuses to format, then it will be the cards are not compatable.

Bet they will work fine as CF HDD's though.

Thanks! I can't believe I was stupid enough to over look the first step!
It ended up working for one out of the three cards at least, but another one of the cards (namingly the DaneElec) shows up at some random size and then attempts to format for ages to just end up saying "not a DOS disk" or something like that...
Anyway, thanks for the tip (which should have been my first step). Maybe someone can help me figure out the DaneElec card issue..

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Synthesize Me

Maybe someone can help me figure out the DaneElec card issue..

Its not compatible. However they work great as CF HDD's.

[Synthesize Me]

Originally Posted by FOL

Its not compatible. However they work great as CF HDD's.

They sure do, I figured I would just make the best out of the situation and use them as "experimental" HD's I guess the next step for me would be to make the CF IDE adapter easily accessible through the side of the case for quick Hard Drive/ OS swapping! Well, at least I was able to get one of them working for the PCMCIA adapter, that's good enough for me, and the by product ended up being two extra HD's. All in all, a great solution.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Synthesize Me

They sure do, I figured I would just make the best out of the situation and use them as "experimental" HD's I guess the next step for me would be to make the CF IDE adapter easily accessible through the side of the case for quick Hard Drive/ OS swapping! Well, at least I was able to get one of them working for the PCMCIA adapter, that's good enough for me, and the by product ended up being two extra HD's. All in all, a great solution.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

I mounted mine next to my DVD-RW drive in the back middle of my case.
Makes life so much easier.