Max transfer & mask for CF card?

[PowerPie5000]

I'm having a few problems with both a 128mb Sandisk CF card and a 2gb Kingston CF card installed in my Alfapower 500. I've been reading up on max transfer and mask values but have no idea what they should be for my setup?

At the moment i'm using HDInstTools and it shows these values (amongst others) for my 2gb Kingston CF card:

Mask: 0x7FFFFFFC
MaxTransfer: 0x0000FE00
Buffers: 2033
File System: FFS (version 36.104)
DOSType: DOS/1

My setup is an A500+ with a KS 2.04 ROM (37.175), 2mb chip and an Alfapower 500 with 8mb fast ram (16 x ZIP chips) and 2gb Kingston CF card (via 44-pin IDE - CF card adapter). I'm quite sure the Alfapower IDE uses polled I/O and not DMA transfers if that makes a difference? And is RDB compatible.

Any help is appreciated, cheers

[thomas]

I'm having a few problems

Is this a quiz game or do you think everybody has a crystal ball?

Buffers: 2033

You can afford more than 1 MB of RAM for each partition?

an Alfapower 500 with 8mb fast ram (16 x ZIP chips) and 2gb Kingston CF card

Depending on firmware version, the AlfaPower is limited to 500 MB drives. You might need this: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/oktapus

[PowerPie5000]

Originally Posted by thomas

Is this a quiz game or do you think everybody has a crystal ball?

That's hardly helpful. Do you say that to everyone who posts a thread in the hardware support section? If i knew the answer then i wouldn't be asking would i . I know there are people here with knowledge of this stuff... without using crystal balls

Originally Posted by thomas

You can afford more than 1 MB of RAM for each partition?

I have no idea as this was automatically detected/set-up by HDInstTools. This kind of stuff goes beyond me as i've never had to deal with it before. HDD setup was plain and simple until i started using CF cards with an A500 sidecar expansion... Also i was just a gamer back in the Amiga days so i had no need to mess around with stuff like this!

Originally Posted by thomas

Depending on firmware version, the AlfaPower is limited to 500 MB drives. You might need this: http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/oktapus

I will give it a go but i will need to somehow get the file from my PC to my A500+... I could try formatting a disk on my PC as 720K DD and then run Cross Dos on my A500+.

Do you have any idea's as to what the buffer size should be for my 2gb CF card? I'm guessing by your comment that it's too large at the moment? (my A500+ has 2mb chip + 8mb fast RAM). Also do the mask & max transfer values look correct?

Thanks

[thomas]

Originally Posted by PowerPie5000

That's hardly helpful. Do you say that to everyone who posts a thread in the hardware support section? If i knew the answer then i wouldn't be asking would i . I know there are people here with knowledge of this stuff... without using crystal balls

You don't need to have an answer, but you should ask a question. Just saying "I have some problems" without any information about what kind of problem that could be is just silly. I cannot help you if you don't tell me your problem.

What would you expect a doctor to do if you phone him saying "I am ill, please send me some medicine"? I would guess he answers "I cannot help you if you don't tell me what kind of illness you have".

[PowerPie5000]

Originally Posted by thomas

You don't need to have an answer, but you should ask a question. Just saying "I have some problems" without any information about what kind of problem that could be is just silly. I cannot help you if you don't tell me your problem.

What would you expect a doctor to do if you phone him saying "I am ill, please send me some medicine"? I would guess he answers "I cannot help you if you don't tell me what kind of illness you have".

Ok maybe i wasn't clear. I just need someone to confirm if the values i posted look correct for a 2gb CF card connected via an Alfapower IDE controller (polled I/O not DMA).

The problems include format errors..."format failed:error 21" using HDInstTools and checksum/bad sector errors when formating with WB2.04 and 2.1. I know the CF card is good as it's been thoroughly tested on my PC for any bad sectors etc.

[thomas]

The values are ok. As mentioned above you were probably accessing beyond the 500 MB limit.

[PowerPie5000]

Originally Posted by thomas

The values are ok. As mentioned above you were probably accessing beyond the 500 MB limit.

I think maybe you're right... I made a single partition just under 500mb and it seems to be working fine, but i've heard of oher people using drives sizes of 1gb and upwards without any issues? I might increase the partition bit by bit and see where it hits the limit


Well, i think i'm still going to try and find another GVP HD8+ as i find "real" fixed disks more reliable, although a bit noisy at times

EDIT: I also have no idea how to use or even install that "Oktapus" update file you linked

[thomas]

The OktaPussy.doc file contains installation instructions.

IDEfix97 might fix the issue, too.