CF Boot Question

[spacebiscuit]

It has been a about a year since I fired up my Amiga 600 or WinUAE so I am sure this is something stupid:

My Flashcard boots Workbench in my PCMIA slot of my A600. However when I put the same card in my card reader of my PC WinUAE only boots to default kickstart screen with the floppy drive animation.

All of the hardware settings are the same as the profile which I use to boot he classic workbench 68k via a hdf.

What am i doing wrong

[fgh]

I bet you have a different card or hdd inside the 600.
PCMCIA CF is not bootable

[spacebiscuit]

No it's the same CF card, it has a partition with Workbench.

I've physically removed the card from the A600 and put in my PC's card reader. The A600 has no other drive to or device to boot from so it is 100% booting from the PCMIA/CF

[Geordie-Jedi]

1. Have you ever been able to use WinUAE and the CF card to boot into your WB HDD ?
(via PCMCIA)

2. Can you run WinUAE and mount the CF card as a standard HDD
(and NOT a PCMCIA card HDD) - Does this boot properly now ?

3. Do you have the correct drivers / .device files installed onto your CF card ?
To allow booting from a "PCMCIA HDD" ?

[derSammler]

Originally Posted by spacebiscuit

No it's the same CF card, it has a partition with Workbench.

I've physically removed the card from the A600 and put in my PC's card reader. The A600 has no other drive to or device to boot from so it is 100% booting from the PCMIA/CF

Then you have a custom Kickstart ROM, otherwise that can't work.

As for your issue: you need to start WinUAE as an admin and then use "Add Hard Drive" to add the CF card.

[supaduper]

Also some USB to Cf card readers do not work that well well with Winuae, I use HAMA brand reader aand never had a problem with it and Winuae

[spacebiscuit]

Originally Posted by derSammler

Then you have a custom Kickstart ROM, otherwise that can't work.

I've not done anything off-piste - just followed the guides. Why does booting from compact flash in the PCMIA slot require a custom Kickstart, it just acts as a HDD doesn't? As far as I remember A600 less troublesome than 500's when booting form the compact flash as the primary boot device.

[derSammler]

Why does booting from compact flash in the PCMIA slot require a custom Kickstart, it just acts as a HDD doesn't?

Because the Kickstart ROM does not have a device driver built-in to access ATA drives over PCMCIA (that's what a CF card is). It can only boot from SRAM cards in the PCMCIA slot. It's not possible, period.

As far as I remember A600 less troublesome than 500's when booting form the compact flash as the primary boot device.

I think you are lacking quite a bit of knowledge here. In this sentence alone, you are mixing internal IDE, PCMCIA, and also ignore the fact that the A500 has neither of that...

Anyway, we have two possibilites: even though you claim your A600 boots from that CF card in the PCMCIA slot, it really does not. It can't then in WinUAE either.

Second, there is something connected to the internal IDE that boots and probably contains drivers for the PCMCIA adapter. It may make you think you are booting from the CF card while you don't.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by spacebiscuit

I've not done anything off-piste - just followed the guides.

Which guides?

Why does booting from compact flash in the PCMIA slot require a custom Kickstart

Because standard Kickstart only has drivers for SRAM, not for compact flash. To read CF cards you need to load drivers from a disk. And to load something from a disk, you need the driver for this disk already. You cannot store them on the CF card you want to access.

it just acts as a HDD doesn't?

Maybe you mix up PCMCIA and IDE? Harddrives are usually connected to IDE.

As far as I remember A600 less troublesome than 500's when booting form the compact flash as the primary boot device.

An A600 has PCMCIA and IDE. An A500 has nothing.

The primary boot device of an A500 is a floppy disk. Or a third-party expansion.

The primary boot device of an A600 is connected to IDE in most cases.

[spacebiscuit]

What an idiot - yes I am confusing the IDE with the PCMIA. I just lifted the lid and spotted the CF plugged into the IDE. The PCMIA is used simply as my hdd. Like I said it has been a while - thanks for pointing me in the right direction.