Amiga 1200 and CF HDD Help

[mistermsk]

Hi All,

I recently got a Compact flash card to work with WinUAE with Amiga 1200 settings. I have an adapter to install it in my Amiga 1200. I removed the original HDD which is working before and after. However, when I install the adapter with the CF card, I get nothing.


It works fine in WinUAE when attached as a Hard Drive. It boots just fine and I have no ADF file/image in DF0:.

[Astrofra]

Originally Posted by mistermsk

Hi All,
However, when I install the adapter with the CF card, I get nothing.

I assume you are trying to get the CF recognized in HDToolBox, at first, but no device is listed at all?

[mistermsk]

Well, I have a Compact Flash to IDE interface board (The one like Amiga Kit Sells).

I have my Compact Flash card able to boot up in WinUAE using Amiga 1200 chipset and the Amiga 1200 ROM (same ROM that is in my Amiga 1200).

With the case open (but unplugged) I change the 2.5'' HDD with the Compact Flash adapter, which includes the CF card that works in WinUAE. I can not get the Amiga to boot. I don't even get the insert disk message. I verified the cable is on correctly. I revert back to hooking up the 2.5'' HDD, running the same Workbench version and all works fine. Not sure why it does not boot.

[Astrofra]

I experienced the exact opposite
My 2 CF couldn't be properly configured under WinUAE but I was able to configure & format both of them on my real A600.


What HD Controler have you selected in WinUAE ?




My suggestion would be to boot on your WB3.0 disk in DF0: and launch HDToolBox (can be found on your Extras or Install disk)

[mistermsk]

Here is mine:



Works fine in WinUAE just not on a Real Amiga 1200. I have a second adapter that I am thinking about trying this evening.

BTW, I tried IDE0 And UAE and both work fine in WinUAE.

I did find that one of my Compact Flash Readers could not read my 4 Gig Card due to the Compact Flash card being Hi Speed or something. Reads my older ones fine. I went to a place called MicroCenter and bought a ~$4 50-IN-1 Hi Speed card reader and it worked fine with that. I am wondering if that is your problem. CR-72_50-in-1_USB_Card_Reader

[thomas]

Working in WinUAE means nothing. We have often seen that WinUAE can easily be fooled by Windows about the real begin of the drive, sometimes resulting in different Amiga partition tables seen by WinUAE and by the real Amiga.

I would suggest to do this:

First connect the CF card to the PC and kill the Amiga partition table you created in WinUAE. This is not needed actually, but it's better so that you don't get confused later. Use HDInstTool or KillRDB to really remove the RDSK identifier. Deleting all partitions is not sufficient.

Then open a DOS window in Windows and run DiskPart. Select your CF card and use CLEAN.

Now connect the CF card to the real Amiga's IDE interface, boot from the Install3.1 (or 3.0) floppy disk and run HDToolbox. Create the partitions you need.

Finally connect the CF card back to WinUAE. WinUAE should now see the card in the same way as the real Amiga does. Especially the parttions you created on the real Amiga should be visible in WinUAE. Now you can install or copy your software to the card. (It's easier if you made a backup before you killed the data in the first step.)

[Turran]

2 questions..

Are you running OS 3.9?
Did you run WinUAE as administrator?

[mistermsk]

I found out what it was. The adapter for the CF card had a short. I found out by buying a couple different adapters off of e-bay. I found that both adapters off of e-bay worked fine, with the exception of one not displaying the LED activity light at all.

BTW, i read people having difficulty with there compact flash card.

The steps I did.

First, I have made a HDF of Amiga OS 3.9 with BoingBag 4. This is really needed since I have a 32 Gig CF Card which I partitioned into 4 gig partitions with the boot (1st partition) being 700 Megs so some older kickstarts can see it fine but still have enough room to have other tools and such on it.

Then using Windows 7 (and I also did it on Windows 8). Put the card in a Compact Flash Reader that can read high capacity/high speed compact flash cards. I bought one at microcenter.com for under $4 USD.

Windows asked if I wanted to format the card. I said no. Using this article, I cleaned the CF card.

NOTE: Make sure you do this on the compact flash card and not your hard drive or a external SD card you might have in your laptop at the time. It could erase it.

Also, note that I look at the overall size of the drive to make sure I selected the right one.

Open command prompt as Administrator (right click CMD and select run as Administrator).

Now follow these instructions:

1) Type diskpart

You should see the prompt turn to diskpart>

2) Type list disk

You should see you disks listed. Find the number of your disk. Make sure you get the number with your compact flash one. Since, it could erase you hard drive.

3) Type select disk n (where n is the number of your CF card)

4) Type list volume <--- Not Need, per thomas.

Again, find your compact flash card.

5) Type select volume n (where n is the number of CF card volume)

6) Type clean all <--- Per thomas use clean without the all.

This WILL take some time and completely reformat the card with no partitions.

Once complete. Close the command window and launch WinUAE.

I selected Amiga 1200 since that is what I own. I go to CPU and FPU, in the menu and select Fastest possible under CPU Emulation Speed.

Under CD & Hard drives, I select. Add Hard file. I add the AmigaOS 3.9 HDF I mentioned and make that interface IDE0.

Now, I click Add Hard Disk and select the compact flash one. I change this one to IDE1 before hitting Add hard drive button.

I also add the the AmigaOS3.9 CD to the mix as IDE2.

When Started. You should see the CF drive as NDOS. I click the icon and right mouse button. I then select format disk and format it. It should be working now. If you get something about not DOS disk after formatting. Try loading the HDToolBox under Tools and re-partitioning the card out to just under 4 gig parititons.

Once formatted, click the Boing Ball icon for Amiga OS 3.9 and install the OS.

Please note that Amiga OS 3.9 is a paid program so make sure you get a legal copy of Amiga OS 3.9.

[fitzsteve]

Are you sure your CF-IDE adapter is working?

I've pulled many new ones from the packet and they don't work, sometimes from bent pins but mostly look like bad soldering.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by mistermsk

Using this article, I cleaned the CF card.

The autor of this article is stupid.

Either select disk or select volume is needed to select the disk, not both. Select volume has the advantage that it tells you the drive letter.

A simple clean is completely sufficient. Clean all just reduces the card's life time. There is no way to format a CF card. The command just overwrites each and every block on the disk. That's surely not necessary on a new CF card.

Furthermore he can specify the desired size of the partition he wants to create. It's not necessary to create a full-size partition and then shrink it.

Try loading the HDToolBox under Tools and re-partitioning the card out to just under 4 gig parititons.

There is no partition size limit. You can make a 700 MB boot partition and a 31.3 gig work partition. Although PFS3 or SFS is recommended for such big partitions.

[mistermsk]

Thanks, thomas. I updated the instructions.

@fitzsteve

I actually fixed the adapter. There was a short between two connections. The one in question really had a lot of solder all over the place. However, I bought some other ones that look professionally soldered. So, I am good.