Cloning an Amiga Forever SD card

[Eamoe]

I have my A2000 finally running. I would like to make a backup copy of the original SD card Amiga Forever came on. I've made an image of the card and written it to a blank one, but it doesn't work (I get "Not a DOS disk in drive GDH0:" or something of that ilk).

Furthermore, I've read that writing an image to the whole card is a desastrous way of using solid state media, it's better to copy all files from the source using the OS to freshly formatted partitions on the card.

So my questions are:

• how can I format an SD card so it can be read by the SCSI2SD controller in the Amiga? Start WB from a floppy and use the disk utilities, I guess?
• how can I copy the files from the AF card to the blank one? Can I use WinUAE and the PlipBox to move the files from the Amiga to the SD in WinUAE?

I may have answered my own questions, but I'd appreciate some advice instead of groping in the dark. Thanks!

[bni]

You could use https://github.com/cnvogelg/amitools

Like in this thread: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=104286

It might not make a bit for bit exact copy (disk image) if that is what you are after specifically.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Eamoe

I've made an image of the card and written it to a blank one, but it doesn't work (I get "Not a DOS disk in drive GDH0:" or something of that ilk).

The new card must be at least as large as the original one. If you cut off some sectors at the end the data won't be readable any more.

The imaging tool should have told you that the new card is not big enough.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Eamoe

• how can I format an SD card so it can be read by the SCSI2SD controller in the Amiga? Start WB from a floppy and use the disk utilities, I guess?

You should first configure the card to be one single SCSI target, at the size you plan to use it with.

Then you must create the RDB on it with an Amiga. After that you can take the card out and mount it in WinUAE and it should be writable.

If you make several SCSI targets onto the card, you must use dd or some other device dumping program to carve out the correct parts of the card as individual HDFs, then write them back at the right offsets. No further info on that from me, you should know how to do it anyway if you go down this route.

Please note: SCSI2SD V5 and older store the config on the SCSI2SD itself! If you intend to use several different cards with the older versions of the SCSI2SD, you should configure it to see your smallest card. The larger cards will be underutilized, but at least you won't be reconfiguring the adapter all the time.

SCSI2SD V6 stores the config on each card separately.