Can't change MaxTransfer, Checksum error CF card in WinUAE KS2.05 WB2.1

[e5frog]

Hi there.

I've read some tips but I can't change the MaxTransfer setting when using the CF card in the PC running WinUAE. It's set to 0xffffff and if I change it to 0x1fe00, 0xffff, 0xfe00, 0x01fe00 or whatever it changes back again even after reset, reformat or anything I do...

Have I attached it the wrong way or something, I'm using "IDE0" in WinUAE, it's either that or "UAE" - or it won't boot on the CF-card.

It's a 4GB takeMS HyperSpeed 120x card
MIP6J4GS091028 Made in Taiwan

Anyway, I started to install some stuff and also WHDLoad, and when copying some WHDLoad games I encounter checksum errors at block -2086305921 that I am usually able to get past using the Retry-button and also block -1325354752 that I can't get past without Cancelling and also 4247558. Strange that it rolls over to negative blocks, I thought it was able to handle 4GB...

CF card is recognized as:
Cyl: 31272
Head: 4
BPT: 63
PBC: 252

I downloaded abtools, haven't tried it yet though.

Using HDToolbox, running the "Verify Data On Drive" didn't result in any errors.

I thought I should add these blocks as bad blocks but that tool asks for Cylinder, Head and Sector - what are those values for my bad blocks:
4247558
-1325354752
-2086305921

-1325354752 in hex is:
FFFFFFFFB100B100
If changed to a Dword ($B100B100) and converted back to decimal it's
2969612544

and the other is
FFFFFFFF83A57F7F same procedure:
2208661375

Maybe if I changed the size of the blocks and reformat they wouldn't overflow to a negative number? What settings should I change?
BPC? BPT? Both?
WinUAE says it's blocksize is 512 and size 3.8GB when I "Add Hard Drive".

I'm planning to run this card as the system disk in my real A600 later on.
Hope you can help!


EDIT: Damn... I tried mounting it as SCSRAM - just to be certain that I have tried everything and now it won't boot. :-(

Now running Ami-Back Tools - if it doesn't help I'll have to do it all over again.

[Cammy]

Did you press Enter after you typed in 0x1FE00 ? It's not like Windows, you must press Enter to make sure the value is entered, or else it will just discard the changes.

[e5frog]

Yes, I have tried both Enter-buttons and it stays there until I close the window. If I then quit and reset and then open HDToolbox again and check it - the value is 0xffffff again. :-(

So, as I messed up the card by mounting it as SCSRAM - I'm back to the beginning. Any setting I can make in "Define a New Drive Type" that still uses the full 4GB card but makes it not appear as

Size: -254158K (-248Meg)

Default when "Read Configuration From Drive" is as below.

Do I have to split it in half or more parts to get non-negative results on size?

[e5frog]

I don't know what I did now, but now it seems to stay there, I tried shutting the numeric keyboard joystick off - perhaps that was enough.

I'll try setting the entire disk to a single partition again then...

[e5frog]

So, after actually being able to set the MTU I also tested the normal installation routine - just for fun. PrepHD, FormatHD and the automatic installation.

I get a WB_2.x: partition and a Work: partition...

The Work:-partition starts complaining about not being validated... How do I fix that, I can't seem to remember where the validation-program is...

Anyway, I started abtools and it says, when connecting it as a SCSI-device that there are 7,880,543 blocks... Seems like it could be a correct number!!

If the blocksize is correct with 512 bytes that makes it 4034838016 bytes which is 3.7577 GiB - yup - seems correct yes. So I get the right size when it's handled like a SCSI-device but as an IDE-device I get negative sizes...

EDIT: When doing a "info work:" command it says "Validating" I'm guessing it takes some time to validate almost 4GB...

[Allen1]

I had a similar problem with a much smaller sized card 32MB or 48MB, it was either called Viking or Memory Gold, I'm not sure which as I have a few cards. Anyway no matter what I did the same problems would happen as you have mentioned, the card was very unstable on a real Amiga and kept losing information, it worked flawlessly on a PC though. The chances are that the card is not a fully compatible one and doesn't have all the circuitry inside like that used in say a Sandisk card, I think it was mentioned elsewhere about some cards not being fully ATA compatible or something along those lines. Realistically the best thing to do is to try a known brand such as Sandisk to see if that sorts out the problem and maybe use the card you have (if still working) with a PC as a transfer device between PC's etc.

[Hewitson]

Much better to use HDInstTools. Supports large drives.

[e5frog]

I'll give it a go when abtools is ready.

20 partitions!? Really?

[e5frog]

So, I'm trying out HDInstTools - I only managed to find the German version though... :-(

Couldn't find any MTU setting there - so I set it to 0x1fe00 in HDToolBox and did the rest in the former mentioned software - now waiting for format... excruciatingly slow. But the blue bar ticks up once in a while and the LED of the built in Generic USB CF Reader interface (in a HP Pavilion) flashes happily - I really need to get something faster I think - it's not really fast that interface... Connecting my USB harddrive only gives about 10-15 MB/s. :-(
The card is rated 120x (when I hooked it to the PCMCIA-port Workbench 2.05 said that it was a 120ns card) that's 20MegaByte/s...

Perhaps it would have been faster if I had emulated an accelerator card and more memory than 2MB chipmem and 68000... It's easy to be "after-wise" as we say here in Sweden.

[Retro-Nerd]

You do a full format with your CF card? Why? A quick-format is enough.

[e5frog]

I just want to make sure the card is OK, as I have had checksum error problems before - I had MTU at 0xffffff though as my edit wouldn't stick...

It was not very fun going through the whole process and then get a bunch of errors after transferring all the WHDLoad games.

[Retro-Nerd]

With some bad luck you destroy your partition with a full format, or the card isn't recognized properly. Do always a quick-format.

[e5frog]

I finally decided to dump my original Kick 3.1, use my original WB3.1 disks and install on original hardware and THEN move the CF card into WinUAE.

So I can hard-kick 1.3, 2.05 (I dumped mine as well, it was the same as the one I already had) and 3.1 - but I guess I will need a seperate CF-card if I want to boot with KS2.05...

I set MTU to 0xffff - and no errors yet.

[Matt020]

Originally Posted by e5frog

I just want to make sure the card is OK, as I have had checksum error problems before - I had MTU at 0xffffff though as my edit wouldn't stick...

It was not very fun going through the whole process and then get a bunch of errors after transferring all the WHDLoad games.

A CF card has a limited amount of write cycles. A full format may just be wasting away the life of the card. Until you fix the problems on the surface, consider a quick format to get you through the testing phase.

There is a post, somewhere, about certain CF cards working on WinUAE but not working when plugged into the Amiga and it was concluded that those CF cards work as memory cards, and not mass storage cards.

I may be stating the obvious, however the compatable cards just seem to work, plug and play almost, and if a card is giving you grief it may just be unusable.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by e5frog

So I can hard-kick 1.3, 2.05 (I dumped mine as well, it was the same as the one I already had) and 3.1 - but I guess I will need a seperate CF-card if I want to boot with KS2.05...

Not really.

Make a 1MB large boot partition in the beginning of the drive and create a startup-sequence in there that checks the version of for example exec.library, then checks the error code of the version command.

Based on what you got there, you can assign the default assigns to where-ever your WB files are located and execute the real startup-sequence from there.

[e5frog]

Ah...

But does it have to be a separate partition?

Is there really anything 2.x related that won't run on 3.1?

If I run into trouble I now know how to do it, I now remember I made something similar with my A2000 once in a while - with an ST-506 drive I had different startup sequences depending if 1.3 or 3.1 was active - but then I upgraded to 5 SCSI disks and I think I only used 1.3 with 3,5" disks after that - don't remember exactly.


I managed to figure out the HDInstTool language problem, the language was set to "locale" in the icon-settings and I don't think any such setting was done in the backed up WB2.1 installation I copied over, when I changed it to english instead it was understandable.

[Jope]

It doesn't have to be in a separate partition if you don't want it to, you can have it in a directory.

It is all quite pointless really. I originally had my A3000 dual booting into 1.3 and 3.1, but soon realized I'd never use anything else than 3.1 anyway. :-)

Basically if you have some software that requires 2.04, it will run on 3.1 just fine in 99% of the cases. (number pulled out of a hat)

[e5frog]

That's what I decided also after changing to SCSI-disks. I just kept the 1.3 for software that didn't run on 3.1 - like DigiView (I also have a joystick-port-controlled RGB-splitter). As I had space for it I copied the entire installation off the ST-506 disk though.

A WHDLoad driver for DigiView Gold would be nice...

[e5frog]

Is there any way to test the optimal MTU for a CF card harddrive? Other than trial and error?

[thomas]

There is only one value: 0x1fe00. No need to trial and error.

Explanation here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=637345#post637345