Copying files from CF (PCMCIA) to internal HDD is driving me nuts

[Nostromo]

So I am trying to transfer WHDLoad games (many, many .lha files) to my Amiga 1200 in internal HDD, using a CF (PCMCIA) as a source.

For some reason it always stops half way with an error that it cannot find a source file, and when I check the contents, all the files from that point onwards would have disappeared from the CF.

Any ideas how I can get around this please?

Thanks!

[mboot]

Hi. I recently discovered my 1200 would not detect the cf card on the pcmcia slot. After recapping the Amiga, it was fixed. Not sure, but it may be related to your problem...

[duga]

Try another CF card or another PCMCIA to CF-adapter.

[supaduper]

If you are selecting the whole contents of your CF card to transfer then try it in smaller transfers , so say select a third of what you want to transfer and try that, it will take a little longer but should work

[meynaf]

If it says it cannot find a source file... is it always the same file ? If so, this is probably not a hardware problem.
My guess is that there could be some file with invalid characters in it, or with name too long, things like that.

[demolition]

Are you using COPY on the command line or WB? WB chokes when there's lots of files. I'm also with meynaf - you are copying between two different file systems which have different limitations that may not translate well. FAT can have much longer file names and deeper paths than FFS supports (don't know if that's what you're running).

In any case, I always use WinUAE when I need to transfer large amounts of data like that. And it is even faster if you make an image of your system CF, mount that up, transfer files and then write back the full image to the CF. Set it up with max speed and JIT enabled and the copying will be done much much faster. And if the error still occurs, it is much easier to debug since you don't have to wait very long between each attempt.

[Nostromo]

Update:

It would stop randomly and on refreshing the CF contents it would show a ton of files missing. If you remove and insert the CF again, the files are still there.

I am now trying with a different CF card, and no such problems.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by demolition

In any case, I always use WinUAE when I need to transfer large amounts of data like that. And it is even faster if you make an image of your system CF, mount that up, transfer files and then write back the full image to the CF. Set it up with max speed and JIT enabled and the copying will be done much much faster.

I would not regularly write full images to CF (or SD) cards unless it's restoring from a disaster. Your cards will live longer if you mount the CF card in WinUAE directly and copy the files to it.

Especially SD cards can fail after only 10 full image rewrites. This comes from experience of almost a decade of working in the embedded business. Thankfully the cards have gotten better over the years, but it's still wise to be gentle with them.

[demolition]

I doubt it is much better copying 3GB worth of files (not unrealistic for a large WHDload collection) to a 4GB card than just writing a full 4GB image once. Particularly if you're retrying multiple times because the copy process stops midway. I'm assuming there's some overhead in writing individual files since the file table is updated so many times instead of doing it all in one sweep which may make the effective number of bytes written larger if you're doing individual files.

But yes, you shouldn't do a full image restore if you're just doing some small adjustments like setting up WB in WinUAE. Then it would be better to mount the CF card directly.

[Jope]

Yeah, that is true if you end up writing such a big bulk of files every time. Better keep backups if the entire collection must be deleted and recopied every time.

My personal solution is to copy WHDLoad games (and other software) on demand when I want to play new ones and upgrade them one at a time as whdload notifies of newer slaves. Amiga driven, it's ok to pull them in via ethernet. I wouldn't dream of regularly unpacking multiple gigs worth of every possible game on the native machine though. :-)