Mounting CF-card with WB installed on WINUAE

Hello

Firstly as a new member I would like to thank everyone contributing to this board which has already been extremely helpful to me and is a great testimony to the continuing life of the Amiga. I have been into the Amiga scene on and off since 1990 when I got my first A500. Currently I'm running an A1200 with a Blizzard 1230 IV, Indivision AGA and CF-drive as well as WINUAE 3.5.0 to support it. Under the desk is an A2000 which is WIP at the moment. I can't help it, I still feel for 1.3 systems.

I apologise if my question is one that has been answered before. I realise there are hundreds of topics and tutorials dealing with the issue of CF-cards in WINUAE and I assure everyone I have spent considderable time going through them. So far I have been unlucky. Please help me if you can.

What I'm trying to do:

I have a pre-installed 8GB CF-card with WB3.5, WHDLOAD and games installed. This card is running fine in my A1200. I would like to copy/make an image of the contents of this card as backup and to use in WINUAE. Further more I would like to install WB3.9 onto another CF-card and transfer the games onto it.

Where I have gotten:

I have been able to install WB3.9 from my original CD onto a directory on my PC that I use as a boot drive in WINUAE 3.5.0. I get stuck when I attempt to mount my pre-installed CF-card.

I try to add the CF-card in WINUAE properties, I find the "7.5 enerig STORAGE DEVICE" in the drop down menu, I select IDE (Auto) and 0, and i start up. After this I'm hoping to see my drive in WB, but with no luck.

What should I do to access the drive?

[thomas]

In order to use an emulated IDE controller you have to configure a mainboard (chipset) which contains an IDE controller and use the matching Kickstart ROM.

It's easier to use the UAE controller (just leave the default).

Originally Posted by thomas

In order to use an emulated IDE controller you have to configure a mainboard (chipset) which contains an IDE controller and use the matching Kickstart ROM.

It's easier to use the UAE controller (just leave the default).

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Still no luck however. This is one of many thing I also tried before, just fooling around with the settings. I did try it again though.

[meynaf]

Step-by-step guide that worked for me :
1. plug the cf - windows wants to format it, just say no (it DOES want to, doesn't it ?)
2. run winuae, load your config (a config without any previous attempt to add the drive)
3. CD & Hard drives tab, add hard drive
4. select your cf card, leave UAE as default, add hard drive
5. check its line : no "*", UAE, n/a, flash reader name, yes, 512, size, n/a
6. start : now you should boot ok and see your cf partitions (you HAVE rdb and partitions on the cf, don't you ?)...

Originally Posted by meynaf

Step-by-step guide that worked for me :
1. plug the cf - windows wants to format it, just say no (it DOES want to, doesn't it ?)
2. run winuae, load your config (a config without any previous attempt to add the drive)
3. CD & Hard drives tab, add hard drive
4. select your cf card, leave UAE as default, add hard drive
5. check its line : no "*", UAE, n/a, flash reader name, yes, 512, size, n/a
6. start : now you should boot ok and see your cf partitions (you HAVE rdb and partitions on the cf, don't you ?)...

Hi, thanks for yor reply.

I think we're getting at the problem. Everything is ok up to phase 5. The line says: E, UAE, n/a, -, yes, n/a, n/a, n/a. Meaning "Path" is blank (just the line), "Block Size" and "Size" are both n/a.

My card reader seems to work on the Windows 10 side and finds PC-compatible cards just fine. When I attach it with my Amiga CF-card in it, it prompts to "Insert a disk into drive f:" Just to make sure I hadn't corrupted the card while fooling around with it, I just tested it in my Amiga1200 and it still worked.

Any ideas?

Are there many compatibility issues with card readers? Mine is one of the models with different slots for different cards. I would expect this is what most people use? Should I try to get a dedicated CF-card reader?

[meynaf]

Originally Posted by Titus the Fox

Hi, thanks for yor reply.

I think we're getting at the problem. Everything is ok up to phase 5. The line says: E, UAE, n/a, -, yes, n/a, n/a, n/a. Meaning "Path" is blank (just the line), "Block Size" and "Size" are both n/a.

My card reader seems to work on the Windows 10 side and finds PC-compatible cards just fine. When I attach it with my Amiga CF-card in it, it prompts to "Insert a disk into drive f:" Just to make sure I hadn't corrupted the card while fooling around with it, I just tested it in my Amiga1200 and it still worked.

Any ideas?

The line starts with "E", indicating there is an error. No need to start the emulation in this case, the Amiga side will see nothing...

From pc side it seems formatted but somehow empty. Perhaps win10 sees some "valid" partition table (there might even be a real one before the rdb, btw) and locks it so winuae can't access it.

Isn't there some info such as [ACCESS DENIED] or [NO MEDIA] in the device list (= the dropdown where you select your cf) ?
If not, does unchecking "read/write" (to make it read only) change something ?

Originally Posted by Titus the Fox

Are there many compatibility issues with card readers? Mine is one of the models with different slots for different cards. I would expect this is what most people use? Should I try to get a dedicated CF-card reader?

I also have a reader that supports several card types and it works fine.
If there is no problem with windows then it's not the card reader. Could be the card itself but usually it's rather card seen in pc and not in amiga...

[Toni Wilen]

Did you try running winuae as administrator? (Usually it is not needed with memory card readers). You can also try ticking "Lock" checkbox.

[meynaf]

My experience says running winuae as administrator has zero effect in this case. If win$ sees a partition table, then it's locked regardless of anything else, and only destroying it will solve the problem... At least this is what happened on my 8.1, forcing me to prep the CF on my A1200.

[Toni Wilen]

"E" after adding the drive (but before starting emulation) usually means some kind of unexected error (can be also access related), even if it is Windows mounted it should still report something else than "E" ("OS" or "UNK" etc..). Another possible reason is some paranoid security software.

"E" after booting is normal if it was mounted as read-write. (Read-write opens in exclusive access and GUI tries to open the drive handle again which fails because it still open by hardfile subsystem. GUI really should really use same handle..)

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by Titus the Fox

I would like to copy/make an image of the contents of this card as backup and to use in WINUAE. Further more I would like to install WB3.9 onto another CF-card and transfer the games onto it.

You can clone perfectly and within seconds yours CARD/PENDRIVE 1:1 with USB Image Tool (Software Stand-Alone)

Also you can use it on WinUAE CARD/PENDRIVE formatted in FAT16-32, this way you share the data with Windows; for permissions to access the device on AmigaOS remember to add option LOCK in WinUAE "Hardrive Setting" see video.

[ Show youtube player ]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Did you try running winuae as administrator? (Usually it is not needed with memory card readers). You can also try ticking "Lock" checkbox.

I'll be damned! Running as admin did the trick!!!

Just in case someone else struggles with this problem in the future and for documentation I'll answer the remaining questions for reference.

Isn't there some info such as [ACCESS DENIED] or [NO MEDIA] in the device list (= the dropdown where you select your cf) ?
If not, does unchecking "read/write" (to make it read only) change something ?

The entry in the device list had only a question mark in front of it. "? (7.5G) eneric (sic) STORAGE DEVICE..." When running as admin this changed to "RDB (7.5G, RW) Generic STORAGE DEVICE...".


If not, does unchecking "read/write" (to make it read only) change something ?

Yes, this did have the effect of changing R/W to "no".

Thank you, Kiitos, merci beacoup, vielen Dank and grazie for helping me out with this one!

[Toni Wilen]

Could you do following: run winuae without admin privileges (don't start emulation), add the CF card, quit. Attach winuaebootlog.txt (should be in same directory as winuae.exe)

I'd like to see exact error reason.