Big CF Card not working with compactflash.device?

ProdigalAmigan · 10 July 2018, 21:39

Hello again fellow Amigans!

I'm sticking this in support.Hardware and hoping that it's the right place to put this.

When I went to upgrade the CF 'harddrive' inside my Amiga 1200 I went for a SanDisk Ultra 32 GB CF card and followed MsMadLemons guide on YouTube (using PFS3 AIO), and I got it set up and working perfectly. Absolutely amazing!

However I started looking for a way to back up the internal harddrive (CF card) without having to take it out of the machine every time, and so I thought I'd buy another 32 GB card and use it with FAT32 file system through the PCMCIA slot (with adapter) to be able to back up.

However the card is not recognized at all. Even tried setting it up as a PFS3 formatted card and creating a mountfile for it using GiggleDisk (which did not work either). Seems 32 GB cards work fine internally but not externally (PCMCIA).

Do you guys know if there is a way to get it to work? If not what is the largest size CF card the PCMCIA adapter will accept? I have a SanDisk 4 GB and a Transcend 8 GB card that works fine but would be too small for my intended purpose in this case.

.... Was also thinking about using this way to update the WHDLoad games/demos etc.

Any help would be much appreciated with this issue...!

//ProdigalAmigan

-Acid- · 11 July 2018, 01:42

Not all CF cards work in the pcmcia port it's just the way it is. There is no way to tell in advance either - you just have to try them and find out what works and what doesn't.

ProdigalAmigan · 11 July 2018, 09:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Acid-

Not all CF cards work in the pcmcia port it's just the way it is. There is no way to tell in advance either - you just have to try them and find out what works and what doesn't.

Fair enough. I figured since it worked beautifully hooked up to the internal IDE using a CF-adapter it would be fine through the PCMCIA port too but apparently not. Well I can use it to clone the internal card to to have a spare harddrive in case something happens I guess.

Question though is if it is the size of the CF card (32 GB) that is the issue when using compactflash.device through the PCMCIA port, so that getting a 16 GB card would allow me to use it properly, or if the issue is with this particular range of CF cards.... SanDisk Ultra...

Has someone else managed to get a 32 GB CF card working through the PCMCIA port I wonder....?

supaduper · 11 July 2018, 09:36

are you using the newest CF pcmcia driver, the author has updated it last year so it works with more CF cards
dropbox link on this forum here:
https://www.forum64.de/index.php?thr...-600/&pageNo=2

-Acid- · 11 July 2018, 10:20

I've got a 16gb micro sd card working in the pcmcia port using a SD to CF adapter and microsd to sd adapter in there. That one is Kingston branded.

grond · 11 July 2018, 17:30

I bought at least half a dozen different CFs to try and have only two that work in the PCMCIA slot. One has 256MB capacity and the other is a fairly recent 4GB CF. With the latter I did not feel the need to look any further so I cannot say anything about 32GB cards. It takes quite some luck to find a compatible CF card. AFAIK the PCMCIA slots in the A600 and A1200 were introduced even before PCMCIA was standardized which may explain some of the compatibility issues.

idrougge · 11 July 2018, 19:41

I'm not sure I've ever encountered a card that failed to work in PCMCIA. But then I mostly use Sandisk.

ItsTheSmell · 12 July 2018, 23:08

pcmcia is limited to 4gb max

Lemaru · 13 July 2018, 00:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by ItsTheSmell

pcmcia is limited to 4gb max

Where did you get that information??? If that's the case, then my 8GB CF card I used all the time shouldn't work, yet it is working fine, as does my 16GB SD card in an SD to CF card. So yeah, larger cards work fine.

idrougge · 13 July 2018, 01:12

Yep, no such limitation.

Toni Wilen · 13 July 2018, 10:39

I debugged this long time ago when I worked with aros m68k PCMCIA support: some CF cards refuse to accept selected configuration (Location of assigned IO ports etc..) and reset back to unconfigured state when in Amiga PCMCIA slot. It must be some bug in Amiga PCMCIA implementation (which, as was already mentioned, was designed before PCMCIA spec was finished)

Daedalus · 13 July 2018, 11:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by ItsTheSmell

pcmcia is limited to 4gb max

Yeah, I've heard a couple of people saying this too, but it's nonsense.

supaduper · 13 July 2018, 12:25

I will imagine that the max disk size will be 32gb, as the amiga CF is formatted in FAT32 to use the PCMCIA , unless someone can correct me

jPV · 13 July 2018, 13:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Acid-

Not all CF cards work in the pcmcia port it's just the way it is. There is no way to tell in advance either - you just have to try them and find out what works and what doesn't.

And in my experience it's not always a "physical" thing, it may depend how the card is initialized/formatted. And some non-working cards can be get to working ones.

For example, I have an old 512MB CF card which I've used "forever", but then I tried a newer 4GB card and that didn't work. Then I made an image of my working 512MB card and wrote it on the non-working 4GB card... and to my surprise it started to work! So clearly there is some formatting difference or something in softwarewise that should be taken in consideration. It's still an unfinished project on me to solve what's the difference on the preformatted card and on my image of old card... should get back into that some day.

idrougge · 13 July 2018, 13:15

There's nothing stopping you from using another filesystem in the PCMCIA slot, though. FAT32 is just for convenience.

Daedalus · 13 July 2018, 13:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by supaduper

I will imagine that the max disk size will be 32gb, as the amiga CF is formatted in FAT32 to use the PCMCIA , unless someone can correct me

FAT32 isn't limited to 32GB. Any normal filesystem can be used for cards in the PCMCIA, but FAT32 (via Fat95) is the most useful, and that supposedly has a limit of 2TB (though I haven't tested it to that level).

jPV · 13 July 2018, 13:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by supaduper

I will imagine that the max disk size will be 32gb, as the amiga CF is formatted in FAT32 to use the PCMCIA , unless someone can correct me

Why would it be 32GB? FAT32 can be much bigger (2TB - 16TB depending the sector sizes). I have a 2TB FAT32 backup drive myself.

sigma63 · 13 July 2018, 16:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by ItsTheSmell

pcmcia is limited to 4gb max

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Yeah, I've heard a couple of people saying this too, but it's nonsense.

Maybe they are confusing it with the 4GB RAM-Limit of the Amiga-PCMCIA?

idrougge · 14 July 2018, 20:56

No, that's 4 MB of RAM.

Mikerochip · 14 July 2018, 21:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daedalus

.. FAT32 (via Fat95) is the most useful, and that supposedly has a limit of 2TB (though I haven't tested it to that level).

I have! And, it's not pretty. Unless you make huge cluster sizes, stuff gets weird. (And even when you do, stuff still gets weird, well, under windows anyhow)

10 July 2018, 21:39	#1
ProdigalAmigan Registered User Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: Sweden Posts: 105	Big CF Card not working with compactflash.device? Hello again fellow Amigans! I'm sticking this in support.Hardware and hoping that it's the right place to put this. When I went to upgrade the CF 'harddrive' inside my Amiga 1200 I went for a SanDisk Ultra 32 GB CF card and followed MsMadLemons guide on YouTube (using PFS3 AIO), and I got it set up and working perfectly. Absolutely amazing! However I started looking for a way to back up the internal harddrive (CF card) without having to take it out of the machine every time, and so I thought I'd buy another 32 GB card and use it with FAT32 file system through the PCMCIA slot (with adapter) to be able to back up. However the card is not recognized at all. Even tried setting it up as a PFS3 formatted card and creating a mountfile for it using GiggleDisk (which did not work either). Seems 32 GB cards work fine internally but not externally (PCMCIA). Do you guys know if there is a way to get it to work? If not what is the largest size CF card the PCMCIA adapter will accept? I have a SanDisk 4 GB and a Transcend 8 GB card that works fine but would be too small for my intended purpose in this case. .... Was also thinking about using this way to update the WHDLoad games/demos etc. Any help would be much appreciated with this issue...! //ProdigalAmigan

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11 July 2018, 01:42	#2
-Acid- Registered User Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: South Shields Posts: 812	Not all CF cards work in the pcmcia port it's just the way it is. There is no way to tell in advance either - you just have to try them and find out what works and what doesn't.

11 July 2018, 09:36	#4
supaduper Registered User Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Krypton Posts: 1,210	are you using the newest CF pcmcia driver, the author has updated it last year so it works with more CF cards dropbox link on this forum here: https://www.forum64.de/index.php?thr...-600/&pageNo=2

11 July 2018, 10:20	#5
-Acid- Registered User Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: South Shields Posts: 812	I've got a 16gb micro sd card working in the pcmcia port using a SD to CF adapter and microsd to sd adapter in there. That one is Kingston branded.

11 July 2018, 17:30	#6
grond Registered User Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Germany Posts: 1,918	I bought at least half a dozen different CFs to try and have only two that work in the PCMCIA slot. One has 256MB capacity and the other is a fairly recent 4GB CF. With the latter I did not feel the need to look any further so I cannot say anything about 32GB cards. It takes quite some luck to find a compatible CF card. AFAIK the PCMCIA slots in the A600 and A1200 were introduced even before PCMCIA was standardized which may explain some of the compatibility issues.

11 July 2018, 19:41	#7
idrougge Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Stockholm Posts: 4,332	I'm not sure I've ever encountered a card that failed to work in PCMCIA. But then I mostly use Sandisk.

12 July 2018, 23:08	#8
ItsTheSmell Registered User Join Date: Mar 2018 Location: New Ferry Posts: 516	pcmcia is limited to 4gb max

13 July 2018, 01:12	#10
idrougge Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Stockholm Posts: 4,332	Yep, no such limitation.

13 July 2018, 10:39	#11
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,502	I debugged this long time ago when I worked with aros m68k PCMCIA support: some CF cards refuse to accept selected configuration (Location of assigned IO ports etc..) and reset back to unconfigured state when in Amiga PCMCIA slot. It must be some bug in Amiga PCMCIA implementation (which, as was already mentioned, was designed before PCMCIA spec was finished)

13 July 2018, 12:25	#13
supaduper Registered User Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Krypton Posts: 1,210	I will imagine that the max disk size will be 32gb, as the amiga CF is formatted in FAT32 to use the PCMCIA , unless someone can correct me

13 July 2018, 13:15	#15
idrougge Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Stockholm Posts: 4,332	There's nothing stopping you from using another filesystem in the PCMCIA slot, though. FAT32 is just for convenience.

14 July 2018, 20:56	#19
idrougge Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Stockholm Posts: 4,332	No, that's 4 MB of RAM.

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