Using a Compact Flash card on a600/a1200 PCMCIA

[Jonathan Drain]

Having trouble with that PCMCIA SD card reader. Every card I use shows up in Format as CC0: with 20KB capacity, and won't format (Format gives same result without the PCMCIA card inserted). Tried with Corsair 60x 1GB and Sandisk 1GB MicroSD and a MicroSD to SD adaptor.

Stock A1200 with hard disk and Workbench 2.1 (not a typo, long story )

Am I missing drivers? Have the card in upside-down?

[Jope]

Yes, no.

You need to have cfd.lha and fat95.lha from aminet and configure them properly.

CC0: is not suitable for anything but ancient SRAM cards when formatted to use as storage. Won't work with SD/CF.

[Jonathan Drain]

That worked! Thanks, Jope.

If anyone still doesn't have an Amiga CF/SD reader, this SD card reader works fine for me. It's labelled "5 in 1 PC Card Adapter (MCR-5A)". I've tested it with an A1200 and using a 1GB Corsair "60x" SD card, formatted as FAT under Windows.

For anyone finding this thread later, here's what I did to get it to work under Workbench 2.1:

Get cfd.lha and fat95.lha from Aminet. You'll need something else to get those files onto the Amiga first (Amiga Explorer, CrossDOS with 720k formatted PC disks).

From cfd.lha, copy devs/CF0 and devs/CF0.info to SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers/ . Copy devs/compactflash.device to DEVS: . Copy everything from the c/ directory to your system's C: directory.

Extract fat95, go to the directory for your language. I think all you have to do is run install_fat95.

Type "Mount CF0:" on the command line to mount it.

I've finally got a combination of Lindy 16/32 bit PCMCIA adapter and SanDisk Extreme III 4GB CompactFlash to work with my A1200/Viper 030 so I thought I'd share my experiences.

I downloaded fat95 and cfd.device from Aminet and copied the fat95 handler to l:, compactflash.device to devs: and the cf0 mountlist to devs:dosdrivers/ without changing any default settings. After rebooting, the Amiga was able to read/write an old Kingston 256MB compactflash but would only detect the new SanDisk card as an unreadable NDOS device, even though it worked fine with Windows and Linux.

A trawl through Google showed that the Amiga is rather fastidious when it comes to compactflash brands, whether attached via IDE or PCMCIA. The most plausible explanation offered was that new cards tend to have their controllers hardwired so that they behave as “removable” rather than the “fixed” devices that scsi.device and compactflash.device expect. As a last resort I plugged the SanDisk card back into my Linux box and took a look at it with fdisk. Although it had at first sight appeared to be a standard FAT32 volume it didn't have a partition table. Could this be the problem? I created a new FAT32 partition and reformatted it with mkfs -t vfat. Tried it again with the Amiga and it worked perfectly!

It was well worth persevering. Being able to transfer large amounts of data quickly with cheap off the shelf parts seems miraculous to this Amiga junkie used to getting his fix from outrageously priced second hand equipment, and ham fisted home soldering projects. Having several GB of removable, PC-interchangeable storage makes the Amiga seem almost modern. It's much faster than my ancient internal hard drive too.

[amicrawler]

i use in my 1200 a sandisk ultra 2 15MB/s 4GB card
works like a champ and a kingston 128MB cf card
i got the drivers from aminet works great

[salax54]

@all: May i propose a little something? I hope this isn't too much, but seeing as there is always a need for users to have the right CF / SD card, not excluding myself, it so happens many times to try and read a whole thread from the beginning. Sometimes a thread may be quite recent, other times quite old. Thus, say we post a little linky to an ebay auction showing a really working item. A proven to be good card for example. It won't take long, (even last year) before the auction ends, and the seller withdraws all details and pics from there. So, trying to follow the conversation ends many times in not knowing what an item actually was (brand, size, etc.) Wouldn't it be much better if anyone spots a good thing to try and at least post a pic of it on a more "permanent" link? I hope you catch my point, cause English isn't my language.. And it would be even better if we could manage a trully up to date table that gathers every known working combination of cards, readers, software etc. Just an idea there... :-)

[whiteb]

Thread revival time.

I got a PCMCIA adapter for my A1200 so I can use CF cards and as naturally, i am having a problem.

I have a CF card INSIDE the A1200 on the IDE, that works fine, its a 4GB Sandisk.

I have got ClassicWB installed on the IDE CF card, which, as it happens, does come with Compactflash.device by default.

I have got a Mountlist all set up for CF0: with The Compactflash.device and Fastfilesystem (Formatted to FFS), yet when the A1200 boots, the PCMCIA adapter (With CF card, Another Sandisk 4GB, from my A4000) only shows up as "CF0:Uninitialized". Yet this is a card from my A4000, Fully partitioned off and working.

I can load HDTOOLBOX on the A1200, it finds Compactflashdevice.device fine, and then recognizes the CF card, and it shows Partitions fine as I expect them.

What gives ?

[edit] found it was clashing with FAT95 CF0:

Now it tells me "Not a DOS DISK", despite it being Formatted and partitioned to FFS.

[ppill]

@whiteb

Have you tried giggledisk from aminet to generate the mountlists?

[whiteb]

Originally Posted by ppill

@whiteb

Have you tried giggledisk from aminet to generate the mountlists?

No i have not, i was going to then got side tracked with less important Real Life stuff

[telbee]

Hi,

I've bought a PCMCIA to CF adaptor (IBM MICRODRIVE) and a PNY 2Gb card.

I've installed CFD and FAT95 as described on many pages. I've formatted my card as FAT under WinXP. Whenever I boot up my Amiga (a1200, A1230 accelerator, 32mb ram) and type CF0:, I'm returned with 'no disk in drive' requestor.

Can anyone please help - CDF readme reports that IBM microdrive adaptor has been reported working.

Much love to everyone who has enjoyed Amiga as much as I have!!

T

[rkauer]

Mount the driver: move the CF0 icon from Storage/Dosdrivers to DEVS/Dosdrivers and reboot.

Or open a run window and type "mount CF0:" (no quotes).

How to open a run window: right-click on the Workbench (in any place), from the now visible menu go for the leftmost option (Workbench). From the drop-down menu select "run command". Type "mount CF0" and press enter.

[telbee]

Hi rkauer,

Como estas esta noche?

I've tried to mount it from a CLI window (used 'newcli' from toolsdaemon)

When I type 'mount CF0:', the requester says 'device cf0: already mounted'.

I'm starting to think my CF card isn't compatible!


Thanks for response.

T

[rkauer]

Eu estou bem, apesar de cansado. ( = I'm fine, besides the tiredness)

Even if I can read/write/speak Spanish very well, my native language is Brazilian Portuguese.

Back on topic:
Since the CF.device is properly mounted, check if you have the FAT95/FAT98 handler located on the L drawer before think to blame the poor CF card.

Remember the L drawer is "invisible", as it normally does not have an icon. So how to see it?

Double click on the system (boot) partition, then right-click anywhere and from the drop-down menu choose "Window", then "show all files".

The L drawer will show up, double click on it and see if the FAT95 archive is in there.

Also you must check if the CF0 archive (not the icon "properties") have the proper driver call.

[Stardust]

I have brought a A1200 of ebay tonight. Always been nostalgic about Amigas and tinkered with WINUAE but i thought might as well get the real thing as they are cheap enough 2nd hand. I want to do the card flash\IDE adaptor thing. I already have a Transcend 8GB 120x
Cardflash. Will this work? Or is it best to keep it simple and get the ebay 4GB kit that has Workbench and other stuff preloaded? Thanks

[rkauer]

Transcend cards are good (with a few detractors blaming it). Go for it.

8Gb? Are you intending to install OS3.9? If so, again, go for it.

If not, use only the first 4Gb of the card and you are good to go.

On the system installation side: grab a copy of Classic Workbench (on the flavour of your choice) and activate it (using a 3.1 Workbench main disk image using WinUAE), then copy the result to the CF, previously Amiga-partitioned and formatted.

[Stardust]

I would like to install OS 3.9 but first I need to learn Workbench in general better. I will tinker in WINAUE. Ordered a card flash to IDE 44pin adaptor and 2.5" IDE cable from ebay

[Stardust]

After reading http://classicwb.abime.net/ I will use their 'Classic Workbench LITE' packaged workbench. As I will be using a 1200 with no accelerator or RAM upgrade.

[telbee]

Originally Posted by rkauer

Eu estou bem, apesar de cansado. ( = I'm fine, besides the tiredness)

Even if I can read/write/speak Spanish very well, my native language is Brazilian Portuguese.

Back on topic:
Since the CF.device is properly mounted, check if you have the FAT95/FAT98 handler located on the L drawer before think to blame the poor CF card.

Remember the L drawer is "invisible", as it normally does not have an icon. So how to see it?

Double click on the system (boot) partition, then right-click anywhere and from the drop-down menu choose "Window", then "show all files".

The L drawer will show up, double click on it and see if the FAT95 archive is in there.

Also you must check if the CF0 archive (not the icon "properties") have the proper driver call.

Hi, and thanks for responding. Sorry, I don't know Brazilian Portuguese. That will teach me for being a smart-ass!

I got my kit working and, yep, the problem WAS the CF card. PNY ULTIMA 2GB. Works fine, formats etc in Windoze. even re-partitioned it. rewrote the mbr. Not happening.

Found a 64MB sandisk in the shed and plugged it in 'just to see'. Typed 'CF0:' in a shell and it reads/writes perfectly.

Got me some Sandisk 2GB cards comin this way for use with my IDE -CF that just arrived too! Watch this space!

Ahora, estoy muy cansado tambien!

Cheers
T

[MrGimper]

Looking to buy a PCMCIA - CF adapter. Seen some SANdisk ones around and just wanted to check they are OK. Spec listed as follows:

ATA and true IDE interfaces
3.3V operation
68-pin type I card
Rugged ( up to 2000Gs )
Lightweight
Supports all memory card sizes
Supports Windows 98SE / ME / 2000/ XP
Type I PCMCIA slot

G

[r0ber7]

Originally Posted by lopos2000

Not so long ago I uploaded my software I used on my A1200 to install a CF adapter. It works fine with my Scan Disk 250MB (XP & A1200). Maybe you download it and try it out.
PCMCIA Software

this link gives a 404, is it gone? i'm trying to get a 2gig sandisk working on an a1200, it might be useful.