save state and harddisk emulation

Save state does not support hard disk emulation. Why? (just wandering)

Also, is there a work arround? Id like to be able to quick save and use a hard disk at the same time:/

[Toni Wilen]

Hardfile: easy to implement but _dangerous_ to filesystem health..

Example: load state with hardfile, play game, game saves highscore and save file. You reload same state file, game saves highscore again BUT this time Amiga-side filesystem buffer cache and hardfile contents are out of sync -> result is dangerous hardfile filesystem corruption.

Only solution to this is to save whole hardfile with statefile but thats crazy and not very practical. Another solution is to only allow read-only hardfiles in state files.

btw, this can also happen with floppy disk images

Virtual (directory) filesystem: complex and difficult to implement but much safer, only currently open file can get corrupted, no danger to Windows filesystem.

It is difficult because UAE-side contains lots of filesystem state information (currently open files etc..), ports and pointers to m68k-code in Amiga side and everything must be saved and restored perfectly.

This will be done someday...

[thomas]

Hardfile: easy to implement but _dangerous_ to filesystem health..

What about checking file date or CRC of the hardfile and warn the user about possible corruption if something has changed ? If you restart at the same point with an unchanged HDF there should be no danger. Only if one uses the hardfile in another WinUAE session and then returns to the saved state, it is dangerous.