Setting up internal cf card?

[jazzyalba2108]

is it always this complicated, don't get me wrong i grew up on an Atari st sorry!!! dos pc, windows etc, so know my way around a computer, but never had so many issues! is it me, the 600, or what?

[Amiga1992]

You are not describing your problems with utmost detail so we don't know where you have gone wrong exactly, you just write two lines of text and don't say much. The error you describe means not much, unless we know exactly all you are doing, we cannot help. Also you are confusing. Your first post says:

I have installed classic WB 3.1 and also WB 2.1. the classic was really slow and didn't really function well, I had set it up via emulation as well. the 2.1 was installed on the 600. however, I am having issues partitioning the card.

If you have problems partitioning, how did you install ClasicWB or Workbench 2.1? You wouldn't have been able to. Again, you aren't describing your issue properly.
Also getting a NDOS icon after you first set up a partition is NORMAL. You just have to format it. But I don't know where your setup is going awry.
ClassicWB 3.1 WILL NOT WORK on your machine, you have Kickstart 2.x!

Also yeah Amiga has a learning curve, like any other platform, if you never had one, there's lots of learning you have to do. Dunno why you went for buying a computer before using emulation first, but now you gotta deal with it!


Otherwise, yeah, just put it on the marketplace. Plenty of people want a 600.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Akira

ClassicWB 3.1 WILL NOT WORK on your machine, you have Kickstart 2.x!

It will, however its not advisable as you will get odd issues and crashes due to the old stuff on KS 2.1 and new stuff on 3.1.

Originally Posted by jazzyalba2108

is it always this complicated, don't get me wrong i grew up on an Atari st sorry!!! dos pc, windows etc, so know my way around a computer, but never had so many issues! is it me, the 600, or what?

If your willing to post us your CF HDD card. I will set it up correctly for you. You would only need to pay for shipping.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by FOL

you will get odd issues and crashes due to the old stuff on KS 2.1 and new stuff on 3.1.

Dunno what your definition of "will not work" is mate, but that's exactly it for me :P

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Akira

Dunno what your definition of "will not work" is mate, but that's exactly it for me :P

Booting to workbench. Not working, is not booting at all in my book.
Had an A600 here today running 3.1 (KS2.05) all day without crashing on the standard workbench programs. However you can have issues as your mixing libs, etc etc.

@jazzyalba2108
Anyway, my offer still stands.

[jazzyalba2108]

ok thank you guys, I setup CF card on WINUAE, I have used emulation before an amiga, I used an Atari, so I know of many games of that era. the issue is I originally set up the 600 with a CF CARD 4gb, in winuae, following the various youtube videos. however, WB 3.1, was sluggish and so I tried to install WB 2.1, using disks on the 600. this is where the problem is. I can partition, but cannot FORMAT, the larger WORK & GAMES folder. the WORKBENCH partition formats. does that explain it all. I also tried on WINUAE and the same thing!!! FORMATING is the issue. I did make that clear before, but FORMAT.

[jazzyalba2108]

when I originally set it up, I followed fitzsteve, nostalgia nerd, Dave Webster and retrosofer. I also used this forum as there are a few people having similar issues. so classic WB 3.1, was installed on my CF CARD, then transferred to the 600. although sluggish it worked! I then tried to reinstall WB 2.1, this is where I am!

[Amiga1992]

If you are running KS2.05 there could be an issue with the scsi.device and larger drives. I never put such a large drive in a 600, I always stuck to 1 or 2GB max to avoid trouble.

But now I have 3.1 and an updated scsi.device so it doesn't matter.

[jazzyalba2108]

yeah but I have WB 2.1 installed and someone suggested 1.6GB, I tried 1.5GB to be on safe side and same issue. just wont FORMAT the large partition!

[jazzyalba2108]

so at moment, I have a partition of 200MB called WB 2.1. that is FORMATTED correctly. the other 2 GAMES & WORK, both 1.5GB not FORMATTED, just says non dos disk, so therefore cannot FORMAT and cannot use both partitions. I hope I have explained properly the issue.

[Amiga1992]

It's not the partition size, but where the cylinders are located for the start of that partition.

You may have the older 2.05 kickstart. What exact kickstart version do you have?

Go to Workbench, open a Shell window and type VERSION

Originally Posted by jazzyalba2108

just says non dos disk, so therefore cannot FORMAT and cannot use both partitions. I hope I have explained properly the issue.

You are wrong there.
Just because it says NDOS on the icon it doesn't mean you cannot format it. It means it's unformatted! You should be able to format it. If it fails after formatting is another matter.
Again, you are giving contradictory accounts of your issues. Does it fail during format? Does it refuse to format ? (with what error?)

Did you follow a tutorial to set it up using PFS3 or SFS and you might not have the filesytem installed in L: anymore ?

[jazzyalba2108]

it fails to FORMAT, I did say that. it fails and says non dos disk the error window pops up. I defiantly have said that a few times! I am not talking about when you partition and it says NDOS or some rubbish. I am talking about trying to FORMAT and the error pops up!

[jazzyalba2108]

NOT A VALID DOS DISK. I mentioned that yesterday!

[Amiga1992]

Well what an attitude. No, you are not being clear.
Good luck with your Amiga.

[jazzyalba2108]

a special thank you goes to supaduper, thank you very much most appreciated.

[jazzyalba2108]

AKIRA, I not arguing I was just establishing that I have tried to explain the issue. I value your feedback and anyone else advice.

[jazzyalba2108]

"NOT A VALID DOS DISK" that is the error message when FORMATTING.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by FOL

4GB drives I have setup work perfectly fine with 30kb buffers. So thats not an issue, even with a vanilla 600.

I'm not talking about buffers but about the memory needed to build the bitmap. It's a one time job after formatting or when the disk-validator starts up. During normal operation the memory is not needed.

The partition will even magically become valid if you boot with more memory. No need to format it again.

Originally Posted by jazzyalba2108

i don't want to spend anymore money

You were talking about WinUAE. It costs no money to add some memory to WinUAE.

Once the partition is valid, you can connect it to the low-memory machine. But beware of the disk-validator.

It would be better to make smaller partitions. If the 400 MB partition formats successfully, then make another three of four of that size. They should all format ok, too.

[jazzyalba2108]

ok thanks THOMAS, how many partitions are possible?

[thomas]

Theoretically unlimited. There are some physical limits, though. First each partition occupies one block in the RDB area. Because HDToolbox always reserves two cylinders for the RDB area, the size is of the area is determined by the number of blocks per cylinder you configured during initialisation of the drive. But anyway there should be room for hundreds of partitions.

OTOH each partition is run as a DOS process which occupies memory and CPU cycles. Each partition has a configurable number of buffers, usually 30, plus the memory needed by the process itself, lets say 10 kb. Each buffer has the size of a block on the harddisk, so with 512 Bytes per buffer you loose 25 KB per partition.

You should also consider that 400 MB is plenty of space for an Amiga. Even if you count 2 MB per game you can save 200 Games on that partition. You won't ever be able to play all those. So why don't you just leave it as it is? You can still add more partitions when the 400 MB are full. Or when you get more memory.