CF card - "no disk in drive" format failure

Zapotek · 23 June 2011, 12:56

Hiya!

I got my A1200 back from a friend and it still worked--8 years since it was last booted up

It has a Blizzard 1230 50MHz card with 8MB (I think) RAM and a SCSI controller. I also got back my zip-drive (SCSI) and one disk -- can´t wait to see if it still works -- Last time I used the zip-drive and the disk was over 10 years ago. Have no idea what the contents are.

Anyway, I am trying to prep a CF card to use as a hard drive. I have used HDToolBox to make two partitions, but I am only able to format dh0:

When I try to format dh1: I get a message telling the is no disk in drive

-- see attached pictures. I am doing this in WinUAE - still waiting for some missing cables to be able to plug it in the miggy.

Hopefully there is a simple solution to this -- any ideas?

fitzsteve · 23 June 2011, 13:45

Hi!

What is the capacity of the CF card?

Steve.

FOL · 23 June 2011, 13:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zapotek

Hiya!

I got my A1200 back from a friend and it still worked--8 years since it was last booted up

It has a Blizzard 1230 50MHz card with 8MB (I think) RAM and a SCSI controller. I also got back my zip-drive (SCSI) and one disk -- can´t wait to see if it still works -- Last time I used the zip-drive and the disk was over 10 years ago. Have no idea what the contents are.

Anyway, I am trying to prep a CF card to use as a hard drive. I have used HDToolBox to make two partitions, but I am only able to format dh0:

When I try to format dh1: I get a message telling the is no disk in drive

-- see attached pictures. I am doing this in WinUAE - still waiting for some missing cables to be able to plug it in the miggy.

Hopefully there is a simple solution to this -- any ideas?

I get odd things like this. Its proberly the reader.
Press F12 remove your cf card, then put it back in, wait for windows to see it, then press reset in WinUAE.
This is what I do to get around that.

Zapotek · 23 June 2011, 14:13

Thanks for the replies.

@fitzsteve
2GB card

@FOL
tried it, but still doesn´t work.

partition dh0: works fine. I have installed WB3.1 on it.

Maybe I should just make one partition. It´s not that I need two partitions, but I used to have a separate "work:"-partiton for all my files, programs, games etc back in the days.

If it is the cf-card reader acting up I should--in theory--be able to format it when plugged into the A1200--but what would happen if I used it with WinUAE again??

I will try again later tonight. If anyone can think of anything else please share your thoughts.

Hewitson · 23 June 2011, 14:31

Strange. You've probably already done this but I'd try repartioning the drive, you might have done something wrong the first time.

fitzsteve · 23 June 2011, 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zapotek

Thanks for the replies.

@fitzsteve
2GB card

@FOL
tried it, but still doesn´t work.

partition dh0: works fine. I have installed WB3.1 on it.

Maybe I should just make one partition. It´s not that I need two partitions, but I used to have a separate "work:"-partiton for all my files, programs, games etc back in the days.

If it is the cf-card reader acting up I should--in theory--be able to format it when plugged into the A1200--but what would happen if I used it with WinUAE again??

I will try again later tonight. If anyone can think of anything else please share your thoughts.

I thought it would be from the partition sizes but I know somethimes wrong sizes are reported for larger drives and can cause these problems.

My suggestion is to partition the drive in the real Amiga with the Workbench Install Floppy, hopefully this will work for you.

Steve.

terexuk · 23 June 2011, 22:57

try this then partition and reformat

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=715736&postcount=3

Zapotek · 24 June 2011, 09:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by terexuk

try this then partition and reformat

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=715736&postcount=3

Well, shiver me timbers !!

I didn´t think of this as I had already done it, but I cleared the card again with diskpart, and started all over. Both partitions now appeared on the wb-screen as NDOS and I was able to format both of them.

Thanks terexuk

terexuk · 24 June 2011, 13:14

no probs ,glad you got it sorted

Photon · 31 August 2014, 17:48

On a Kingston 4GB, cleaned and partitioned correctly with HDToolBox, doing the above (Clean again) solved the "Error writing to cylinder 0" alert shown by WinUAE.

But we still get the No disk in drive on format. Info shows the correct partitions.

So currently we're going to try booting from WB 3.1 floppies and write the RDB blocks (partition) on a real Amiga.

My question is: if that fails, is it 100% certain that the card is incompatible, or is there another trick to pull on PC or in WinUAE?

thomas · 31 August 2014, 19:20

It will fail. Writing a new partition table does not change the contents of a partition.

Here is the solution: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=69128

P.S. the same was asked just yesterday: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=74931

Photon · 01 September 2014, 20:18

Maybe we're talking about different things? There were no contents on the partitions, because the partitions weren't even formattable, let alone available to fill with content.

He wrote the RDB blocks on the Amiga and was able to install WB 3.1 on the first partition without a hitch. It then boots fine into WB. But as soon as he was going to copy files to the card in WinUAE, he got a bad block error after just a few files.

thomas · 02 September 2014, 07:43

If you create a partition in the partition table it points to a part of the harddrive or memory card which does exist. And memory which does exist has some value. If the manufacturer decided to create the memory with all bits set, then FastFileSystem unfortunately interpretes it as "no disk in drive". So you have to change the contents of the memory before you are able to write something else to it. Writing to the beginning of the harddrive (to the partition table) does not write to the beginning of the partition. But you have to write some value other than 0xffffffff to the beginning of the partition before the Format program allows you to proceed. It does not matter which computer you use for that or which AmigaOS you install on the first partition.

Checksum errors on a freshly installed IDE harddrive or memory card usually are caused by a too high MaxTransfer value.

Photon · 03 September 2014, 18:51

But the fact is he got "No disk in drive" when partitioning with HDTools in WinUAE with a card reader, but could install, partition, and format the card from WB 3.1 disks in an A500.

So there must be at least one more cause of the "No disk in drive" that info reports and which prevents formatting, or WinUAE wrote blocks to the CF card incorrectly, but ACA500 wrote them correctly.

thomas · 03 September 2014, 21:10

Maybe. But now that it is installed it's too late to analyse something. We would have needed a dump of the partition's first block when the problem was happening and a dump of the same block read by the Amiga before it was overwritten. Now it is too late.

Photon · 04 September 2014, 00:20

Yes, if that's the only variable.

Well, according to you the first block inside partitions should not be touched just by partitioning. Either that is false, or WB (or ACA500) does but HDTools in WinUAE doesn't, or there is another variable that also causes "No disk in drive", besides first block inside partitions.

I have a distinct memory that I have even used Faaastprep under kick 1.3 to install "1.3 FFS" when I have not been able to under WinUAE. This would have been at the time I did my SCSI Interface performance tests several years ago. I have not changed card reader since then, so it's out of the equation. The WinUAE version would have been old of course, so that's a variable for this claim.

23 June 2011, 12:56	#1
Zapotek Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Haugesund / Norway Age: 44 Posts: 96	CF card - "no disk in drive" format failure Hiya! I got my A1200 back from a friend and it still worked--8 years since it was last booted up It has a Blizzard 1230 50MHz card with 8MB (I think) RAM and a SCSI controller. I also got back my zip-drive (SCSI) and one disk -- can´t wait to see if it still works -- Last time I used the zip-drive and the disk was over 10 years ago. Have no idea what the contents are. Anyway, I am trying to prep a CF card to use as a hard drive. I have used HDToolBox to make two partitions, but I am only able to format dh0: When I try to format dh1: I get a message telling the is no disk in drive -- see attached pictures. I am doing this in WinUAE - still waiting for some missing cables to be able to plug it in the miggy. Hopefully there is a simple solution to this -- any ideas? Attached Thumbnails

01 September 2014, 20:18	#12
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,604	Maybe we're talking about different things? There were no contents on the partitions, because the partitions weren't even formattable, let alone available to fill with content. He wrote the RDB blocks on the Amiga and was able to install WB 3.1 on the first partition without a hitch. It then boots fine into WB. But as soon as he was going to copy files to the card in WinUAE, he got a bad block error after just a few files. Last edited by Photon; 01 September 2014 at 20:40.

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23 June 2011, 13:45	#2
fitzsteve Professional slacker! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Kent, UK Age: 44 Posts: 6,683	Hi! What is the capacity of the CF card? Steve.

23 June 2011, 14:13	#4
Zapotek Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Haugesund / Norway Age: 44 Posts: 96	Thanks for the replies. @fitzsteve 2GB card @FOL tried it, but still doesn´t work. partition dh0: works fine. I have installed WB3.1 on it. Maybe I should just make one partition. It´s not that I need two partitions, but I used to have a separate "work:"-partiton for all my files, programs, games etc back in the days. If it is the cf-card reader acting up I should--in theory--be able to format it when plugged into the A1200--but what would happen if I used it with WinUAE again?? I will try again later tonight. If anyone can think of anything else please share your thoughts.

23 June 2011, 14:31	#5
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,773	Strange. You've probably already done this but I'd try repartioning the drive, you might have done something wrong the first time.

23 June 2011, 22:57	#7
terexuk Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: leicester Posts: 196	try this then partition and reformat http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=715736&postcount=3

24 June 2011, 13:14	#9
terexuk Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: leicester Posts: 196	no probs ,glad you got it sorted

31 August 2014, 17:48	#10
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,604	On a Kingston 4GB, cleaned and partitioned correctly with HDToolBox, doing the above (Clean again) solved the "Error writing to cylinder 0" alert shown by WinUAE. But we still get the No disk in drive on format. Info shows the correct partitions. So currently we're going to try booting from WB 3.1 floppies and write the RDB blocks (partition) on a real Amiga. My question is: if that fails, is it 100% certain that the card is incompatible, or is there another trick to pull on PC or in WinUAE?

31 August 2014, 19:20	#11
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 7,000	It will fail. Writing a new partition table does not change the contents of a partition. Here is the solution: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=69128 P.S. the same was asked just yesterday: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=74931

02 September 2014, 07:43	#13
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 7,000	If you create a partition in the partition table it points to a part of the harddrive or memory card which does exist. And memory which does exist has some value. If the manufacturer decided to create the memory with all bits set, then FastFileSystem unfortunately interpretes it as "no disk in drive". So you have to change the contents of the memory before you are able to write something else to it. Writing to the beginning of the harddrive (to the partition table) does not write to the beginning of the partition. But you have to write some value other than 0xffffffff to the beginning of the partition before the Format program allows you to proceed. It does not matter which computer you use for that or which AmigaOS you install on the first partition. Checksum errors on a freshly installed IDE harddrive or memory card usually are caused by a too high MaxTransfer value.

03 September 2014, 18:51	#14
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,604	But the fact is he got "No disk in drive" when partitioning with HDTools in WinUAE with a card reader, but could install, partition, and format the card from WB 3.1 disks in an A500. So there must be at least one more cause of the "No disk in drive" that info reports and which prevents formatting, or WinUAE wrote blocks to the CF card incorrectly, but ACA500 wrote them correctly.

03 September 2014, 21:10	#15
thomas Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 7,000	Maybe. But now that it is installed it's too late to analyse something. We would have needed a dump of the partition's first block when the problem was happening and a dump of the same block read by the Amiga before it was overwritten. Now it is too late.

04 September 2014, 00:20	#16
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,604	Yes, if that's the only variable. Well, according to you the first block inside partitions should not be touched just by partitioning. Either that is false, or WB (or ACA500) does but HDTools in WinUAE doesn't, or there is another variable that also causes "No disk in drive", besides first block inside partitions. I have a distinct memory that I have even used Faaastprep under kick 1.3 to install "1.3 FFS" when I have not been able to under WinUAE. This would have been at the time I did my SCSI Interface performance tests several years ago. I have not changed card reader since then, so it's out of the equation. The WinUAE version would have been old of course, so that's a variable for this claim.

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