Falcon install from scratch using CF cards

[Robson]

Hello,

I'm trying to install a falcon with CF card(s) from zero but I run into all sorts of problems.
Basically I'd like to be able to copy files between the PC and falcon using a CF card.

1. I read on the atari forum that it is possible to partition a CF card with 1 TOS part and another which is visible under Windows. I have no idea how to do this. What sort of parameters should I set.
I have 4-5 2GB cf cards on me.

From Simbo:
"the solution i used at first was to use a 2GB CF and partition it in two
the first partition i made as 1GB 1023MB this is always pure tos
the first partition must be pure tos for the falcon to see it correctly

the second i just made to dos {using hddriver not the pc}
when you place the cf card into the pc you can only see the 1GB dos type
and i use the falcon version of https://sites.google.com/site/stnonesse ... edirects=0
big dos
to copy stuff over from the dos to tos etc"

2. Using a 3way Ide cable and 2 card readers + cards I set one up (master) and formatted/partitioned, this is able to boot. I wanted the second card to be the transfer card, so made it to 1 single Windows/Tos compatible partition with byte swap (63/255). After reboot the drive shows up on the atari but can only click on it, won't open the content (which should be empty). Also when I put this card into a PC (usb card reader, Win10) it doesn't recognize it so I'm stuck again.

I'd like to install mint or try other systems but I'm stuck right at the beginning when I want to transfer the files between the PC and atari in an effective way.

What steps am I missing?

Thanks.

[uweseimet]

Hi,

Regarding 1.: This information is not correct. You cannot have pure TOS and pure DOS partitions on the same medium. The root sector will always reflect the real situation, i.e. pure TOS, pure DOS or TOS/Windows compatible.

Regarding 2.: Using two cards (two readers) is the best approach. Note that the TOS/Windows compatible partition on the transfer card cannot be bigger than the biggest partition supported by your version of TOS. For the Falcon this means that the maximum is just below the 1 GB limit. Also see "System Limits" in HDDRUTIL or the HDDRIVER FAQ on the HDDRIVER website for details on the maximum partitions sizes. HDDRUTIL displays a warning if you try to create partitions that are bigger than what your version of TOS supports. Additionally, it is usually better not to enter the geometry data manually, but let HDDRUTIL calculcate them.

Note that with Big-DOS or MagiC it is possible to use pure Windows partitions with up to 2 GB for the data transfer. With MagiC and MiNT you can use Windows-compatible FAT32 partitions, which can be even bigger.

Best regards

Uwe

[Robson]

2. Works now with a smaller partition on the card, both Win and Tos can see the content, however I get an error when try to copy files from that card to drive C: Illegal operation. I also tried installing a program from the card directly and I got an error message saying the xxx file can't be created.
Drive C boots ok.

Maybe it's down to the card and/or adapter type I'm using. All cards are branded.

I know there is a compatibility list somewhere but do you have any specific suggestions? It will be used with CT60 later as well.

Thanks.

[uweseimet]

Illegal operation? I cannot remember ever having seen an error like this. This is not reported by the desktop but by some other application? What does HDDRUTIL, or even better HDDRCONF.CPX, report as "Last Error" right after this message was displayed?

I would not care too much about compatibility lists. I've seen too many of these lists (for hard disk drives) with drives listed that were claimed not to work with the Atari, but where I knew that they definitely work. My opinion: If such a list says that something does not work, this is often wrong. If it says that something works this is usually right.

But a card/adapter incompatibility is not impossible, of course. Since memory cards are cheap nowadays it may make sense to try a different card.

[Robson]

Getting somewhere now. The illegal operation pops up when there are long file names in the directories I want to copy.

Copying also stops in these cases.

And also found that if I copy multiple folders the copying stops at some files doesn't even exist (short file names, like "AP" or "b") so I need to hit skip to continue. This is from windows card to atari tos partition.
I'm not sure where are those came from and how to avoid them, I only copied AUTO and MINT folders from windows to the card There shouldn't be anything else but the system files.

[uweseimet]

OK, so this is no hardware problem, which is good.

Indeed, it looks like a problem caused by Windows creating long filenames. Names like "AP" or "b" are most likely also parts of the additional directory entries for the long filenames created by Windows.

Please check whether there were really no long filenames involved in any of the operations executed by Windows. I suggest that you re-partition your memory card (to wipe everything out), then again copy some files from Windows to this card and ensure that no long names are involved anywhere. If after that there are still problems on the Atari side you should ask in a different forum how other users (there are plenty Atari users exchanging data this way) handle this. Personally I have not encountered this problem so far, but I usually exchange data with Linux systems, not with Windows.

Note that with MagiC or MiNT you should not have any problems with long filenames.