Using a Compact Flash card on a600/a1200 IDE

[amiganer]

what a shame.

thanks.

i was very hungry at that time.

[Jope]

:-)

[amiganer]

It's a sticky in prb.Hardware pics .. you didn't look very hard. ;-)

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=28249

oh, but i am interested in PCMCIA compatibility mode

so if it is not in this thread maybe there is another?

[FOL]

Hi,

Anyone know if a Sandisk ultra 2 4GB will work with IDEFIX EXPRESS?

Only asking as i have ordered 1, to replace my other cheapo 1 that fried.

[Zetr0]

Any CF2 compatible device should work as a hard disk drive.

99% of problems faced with CF as a hard disk are down to

• false check sum / read errors
• Adapter not having correct pin structure to enable ATA on the CF card

both are easly sorted with

• change the MAXTRANSFERS to "0x1fe0000"
• change the adapter to a conformed ATA CF type 2

if the device (be that adapter or CF card) does not support ATA or CF Type 2 then its unlikely going to work on the Amiga IDE. I would say that this is untested under CF cards faster than 3times (ATA100 / 100mbit ) there are reports that these do not work on the Amiga.

IDE fix express should work if the native amiga IDE works with the device, if not then its a play to see if you can. I would say that AmigaKit might be able to advise possible solutions as I have not an IDE FE device yet, hopefully if the wifie lets me have some extra pocket money this month

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

Any CF2 compatible device should work as a hard disk drive.

99% of problems faced with CF as a hard disk are down to

• false check sum / read errors
• Adapter not having correct pin structure to enable ATA on the CF card

both are easly sorted with

• change the MAXTRANSFERS to "0x1fe0000"
• change the adapter to a conformed ATA CF type 2

if the device (be that adapter or CF card) does not support ATA or CF Type 2 then its unlikely going to work on the Amiga IDE. I would say that this is untested under CF cards faster than 3times (ATA100 / 100mbit ) there are reports that these do not work on the Amiga.

IDE fix express should work if the native amiga IDE works with the device, if not then its a play to see if you can. I would say that AmigaKit might be able to advise possible solutions as I have not an IDE FE device yet, hopefully if the wifie lets me have some extra pocket money this month

Lmao, and theres me thinking i was the only 1 under the thumb, have to run everything by my wife,

[FOL]

Really give up, got my new card and it still hangs, . I must have fried 1 of the transistors on the CF board, when changing the connector from female to male, I cant even install normal IDEFIX when only the CF adaptor is connected directly to the IDE connector.

[Zetr0]

@FOL

it doesn`t seem to be your day.... I really do wish i could help m8

has anyone else had problems with CF cards when using an IDE Fix Express module?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@FOL

it doesn`t seem to be your day.... I really do wish i could help m8

has anyone else had problems with CF cards when using an IDE Fix Express module?

Stupid thing is, it runs fine without idefix installed (obviously, got not CDROM). Its really wierd, has to be the board, as if i put my hd in its fine.

[FOL]

Right, after hours and hours, I have finally got a way around this problem. It cant be my setup, yet at the same time it cant be the idefix express. So heres what i done.

I installed idefix express, over and over, trying all combinations, i could think of. Removed Acellerator card, removed express connector, ran cf on its own, so got to the point of giving up. Then i noticed, if you dont load idefix command, then use find device, atapi is missing. So i copied the atapi.device to the storage folder, then altered cd0 mount file (added Device=atapi.device and unit=3) tool types, to look at the atapi.device. Rebooted and OS 3.9 dectected it straight away and read the disc in the drive, both hd and cdrom are working fine (screw express connector, should have stuck with original idefix, wasted to many days trying to sort this problem).

[Zetr0]

@FOL


FINALLY!!!!!!! well done FOL!

what are the speed tests like ? try sysinfo

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@FOL


FINALLY!!!!!!! well done FOL!

what are the speed tests like ? try sysinfo

Aint got that installed, only basic install of OS3.9 (unless its hiding somewhere, aint really gone to deep into OS3.9 yet), Still now I know how to get it working, might go back to Classic OS or 3.1, .

Speed will proberly be crap, cause im using FFS 45.9 (found sfs didnt see partitions bigger than 2gb), Will test speed tommorow. Errrmmmmm, rather today, damn is that the time 2:38 AM, lol.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by FOL

Aint got that installed, only basic install of OS3.9 (unless its hiding somewhere, aint really gone to deep into OS3.9 yet), Still now I know how to get it working, might go back to Classic OS or 3.1, .

Speed will proberly be crap, cause im using FFS 45.9 (found sfs didnt see partitions bigger than 2gb), Will test speed tommorow. Errrmmmmm, rather today, damn is that the time 2:38 AM, lol.

Just to add,

@Zetr0

Well, the CF transfer rate is 2 MB/Sec and the CDROM is 500 KB/Sec. Not that fast, but it works, thats the main thing,

[Rebel-CD32]

Can someone re-upload that patched HDToolbox to the Zone again? I've been having no luck with any CD cards on my 44pin IDE adapter.

[Zetr0]

@all

I have noticed that a lot of CF-Card-Adapter problems have a tendency to be the 44pin varients... hmmmm food for thought...

if some one up's the modified hdtoolbox i will host it and link it to the beggingin of this post...

[sweetlilmre]

Hi,

Perhaps you can help with this 4Gb CF / CDROM issue:

A1200 Blizzard 030 32Mb, OS3.9:

1. I am using an IDE splitter (not buffered) which basically splits the IDE from the Amiga into a 40pin IDE + power connector for a CDROM and a 44pin female connector for a HD. A CF->IDE adapter is connected to the 44pin female, and the adapter is set to master. See:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWN:IT&ih=001
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWN:IT&ih=001

2. I can use a 4gb card with no problems as long as I don't add any CD drivers (no checksum or other errors occur). The CF card was initialised with 0x0001fe00 as the MaxTransfer value. I have also tried 0x00001fe0, 0x0000ffff and other combinations. No matter what the value, adding a CDROM causes checksum errors (see below)

3. If I try to add a CDROM using either the OS3.9 driver or IDEfix, as SOON as I try to mount the CDROM, checksum errors occur on the CF (requester appears) (with IDEfix this would be when I select atapi.device under the FindDevice program).

As a note here:

In order to get IDEfix to load and not crash (and sometimes corrupt the CF card) I had to skip the initialisation of IDEfix during the install and then change the prefs to: 4-Drive Adapter -> NONE before rebooting to load the patch.

However in order to get IDEfix to patch the scsi.device correctly, I have to use:
C:LoadIDE RESET QUIET
C:SetPatch SKIPROMUPDATES "scsi.device" QUIET

If I have: C:LoadIDE START QUIET, the machine hangs until I reset it, then it loads properly.

I thought that SetPatch was supposed to reset?

I tried C:IDEfix which does not seem to work. The system boots but version scsi.device returns 40.12. Am I doing something wrong here?

SetPatch is version: 44.38, BB1 and BB2 installed.


4. I have a 3.2Gb HD, a 40Gb HD and a 256Mb CF card which work perfectly with the CDROM.

5. I have tried 2 different makes of 4Gb CF card.



This is driving me !!!

-(e)

[Zetr0]

remove

LoadIDEFix from the startup / user-startup by booting with no startup and then typing

ed s:startup-sequence

use a ";" semicolon to REM the line and then save the file

also I would remove ActivateIDECrossdos from the startup / userstart-up.

[sweetlilmre]

Hi,

I need IDEfix for the 40Gb drive, and it is working (in all configurations), its just that I have to use C:LoadIDE RESET QUIET, followed by SetPatch to get it to patch scsi.device, which means 2 resets before the OS can completely load.

Whereas from what I have read, C:LoadIDE START QUIET should work as SetPatch should reset the machine, making IDEfix resident. I'm not 100% sure but I don't think I have ActivateIDECrossdos in startup anywhere, I will check this tonight.

With or without IDEfix in any form in the startup, mounting the CDROM causes checksum issues with the 4Gb CF.

What I just can't understand is why the 4Gb CF + CDROM combo only gives me problems when I load the CDROM driver (under SFS I get bad blockid requesters and under FSF I get checksum errors). Up until the point of loading the CDROM driver all is 100%!!! Moreover the 40Gb HD works flawlessly.



-(e)

[Zetr0]

okay now i have a bit of time to takle this postie and give you some (hopefully) more ideas to try.

Okay.

1. I notice you are only using a splitter (non-buffered) would you have a buffered device to try?

2. false Read and Checksum errors occure quite commonly with CF cards you will need to change the MAXTRANSFERS (in the hard disk prep menu) to "0x1fe0000" leave the mask as it is though. you can drop this an octet if it still has issues i.e. "0x1fd0000" or further still "0x1ee0000" as you may know MAXTRANSFER's is about block size to transfer.

(will point out if you get an IDEFix - express or FastATA you may need to change the MAXTRANSFERS again.

3. The amiga IDE is about as intelegent as my spelling of the word and thusly should not consider it to have the ability to resolve issues. So try to configure both the devices as Cable Select (CS) and see if this makes a change, obviously you would have to have the hard disk fist in the chain.

4. Ahhh good old LBA Blockmode, to reduce the over head of intelegent electronics in the IDE device (in the old days) they had to put some inteligence in the devices (namely HDD) these essnetially setup the starting and ending locations of the next device in the chain. now days the BIOS on a PC does this instead.

(I doubt CF -adapters have this level of intelegence but a Hard-disk would) the IDE in the Amiga is a woefull beasty... infact its more an aproximation of IDE afterall it has no REAL DMA as its polled input.

5. removing the LoadIDE from startup.

Now there is a lot of contention here, but first let me say that any device set to mount will already have in its tool type device the required drivers so you only really need it LoadIDE resident if you intend to use a lot of removable media, personally i find it buggy as hell and it was only on ONE flavour of 1200 that i managed to get it to work properly. hmmm anyway theres some food for thought.

I hope it helps.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

2. false Read and Checksum errors occure quite commonly with CF cards you will need to change the MAXTRANSFERS (in the hard disk prep menu) to "0x1fe0000" leave the mask as it is though. you can drop this an octet if it still has issues i.e. "0x1fd0000" or further still "0x1ee0000" as you may know MAXTRANSFER's is about block size to transfer.

Your maxtransfer sizes are a tad high, or are they adjusted for CF use?

Usually when talking about IDE drives, the recommended max size is 0x1fe00, aka 127,5kB (just under the magical 128 kilobyte barrier)