idiots guide for reading atari formatted drives on PC needed

[spiny]

Hi All,

I've been playing with my shiny new satandisk now for a while and I currently have a 512meg SD Card partitioned into two 256 partitions.

Initially I tried formatting it in some sort of DOS compatable FAT16 format, but to be honest I got confused and went back to the bog standard HDDriver settings and it works a treat on my atari.

my next task is to somehow get my PC to see the card.

HHDriver says both partitions are 'BGM' - I would like to somehow mount these - or even just the first one as a drive letter in windows, or as a device in Linux.

so:

whats the best way to do this ?


drimg132 can 'see' the partitions no problem, but cannot copy directories to it (unless i'm missing something) so mounting the card would be the best method for me.

A windows solution would be best, but I'm not afraid of installing linux

cheers

[jens]

Try to set the second partition win-compatible, but not TOS/ Win combined.
I'm not too certain if you'd need MiNT or MagiC to be able to use it, but this should be the proper setting in HdDriver.

[Mug UK]

Use ppera's tools to read in the partitions and extract the files. This is the main reason why i went for the whole card as one Tos/Windows partition.

The 1 Gig card I've got partitioned into 5 ST partitions is for when I get a 2nd SatanDisk for the TT and it'll be purely for proper use - not just a PASTI/MSA dumping drive

[spiny]

Use ppera's tools to read in the partitions and extract the files. This is the main reason why i went for the whole card as one Tos/Windows partition.

The 1 Gig card I've got partitioned into 5 ST partitions is for when I get a 2nd SatanDisk for the TT and it'll be purely for proper use - not just a PASTI/MSA dumping drive

it's a shame that pperas utility doesn't seem to support dragging a folder of files accross though - I have about forty disks of grfx backed up and sorted into folders that i'd like to move across with as little fuss as possible.


p.s. you won my ebay auction for the boxed 'easy draw 2'

[ppera]

it's a shame that pperas utility doesn't seem to support dragging a folder of files accross though - I have about forty disks of grfx backed up and sorted into folders that i'd like to move across with as little fuss as possible.

I agree. But I have not so much time now for programming, so Imaging programs are put little aside.

But, even better solution is in preparation: full-cross compatible partitions for easy ST-PC transfer. So, you attach card or drive to PC and do all in DOS or Windows (Explorer, TOtal Commander). On ST, with same drive you can have even autoboot, and no need for BigDOS. Max partition sizes are as big as much TOS allows - 511MB for 1.04 and 2.0x, 255MB for 1.02. Whole concept is tested with IDE drives, and now I make ACSI driver, which will hopefully work well with Satandisk.

[spiny]

it's a shame that pperas utility doesn't seem to support dragging a folder of files accross though - I have about forty disks of grfx backed up and sorted into folders that i'd like to move across with as little fuss as possible.

I agree. But I have not so much time now for programming, so Imaging programs are put little aside.

But, even better solution is in preparation: full-cross compatible partitions for easy ST-PC transfer. So, you attach card or drive to PC and do all in DOS or Windows (Explorer, TOtal Commander). On ST, with same drive you can have even autoboot, and no need for BigDOS. Max partition sizes are as big as much TOS allows - 511MB for 1.04 and 2.0x, 255MB for 1.02. Whole concept is tested with IDE drives, and now I make ACSI driver, which will hopefully work well with Satandisk.

what hddriver formatting settings do you recommend ?

I tried various different options with a 16meg card I have, but couldn't get windows to 'see' the partition correctly, it would either complain that the disk was not formatted, or just show an empty partition, even when I had transferred files to it using my ST.

[ppera]

what hddriver formatting settings do you recommend ?

I tried various different options with a 16meg card I have, but couldn't get windows to 'see' the partition correctly, it would either complain that the disk was not formatted, or just show an empty partition, even when I had transferred files to it using my ST.

I recommend to do formatting/partitioning on PC, not with Hddriver.
But in case of Win XP it may be problem. By removable cards XP likes to put just single partition on card, without partition table. I don't know can Hddriver access such partitions (Dive Image can).
More secure way is to make partitioning under DOS. with Fdisk or Partition Magic. However, as your card is only 16MB there will be probably some problems. You should partition it as FAT16, non-Bigdos partition - then no need for BigDOS on Atari for it. And must assure that cluster size is 2 sectors (Atari needs it). All in all, this is not so simple, and you need Bios with good USB support to access SD card via card reader in DOS.

But there is a solution: after making 1 partition in DOS, go in XP, and then can assure compatible partition for ST:

Control panel, Computer Management, Disk manager: there will see your card, now with 1 partition and partition table (not visible, but it is on, since Fdisk makes so it). Right click, and Format - then select FAT and allocation unit size of 1024. It will then be usable on ST via Hddriver.

[spiny]

what hddriver formatting settings do you recommend ?

I tried various different options with a 16meg card I have, but couldn't get windows to 'see' the partition correctly, it would either complain that the disk was not formatted, or just show an empty partition, even when I had transferred files to it using my ST.

I recommend to do formatting/partitioning on PC, not with Hddriver.
But in case of Win XP it may be problem. By removable cards XP likes to put just single partition on card, without partition table. I don't know can Hddriver access such partitions (Dive Image can).
More secure way is to make partitioning under DOS. with Fdisk or Partition Magic. However, as your card is only 16MB there will be probably some problems. You should partition it as FAT16, non-Bigdos partition - then no need for BigDOS on Atari for it. And must assure that cluster size is 2 sectors (Atari needs it). All in all, this is not so simple, and you need Bios with good USB support to access SD card via card reader in DOS.

But there is a solution: after making 1 partition in DOS, go in XP, and then can assure compatible partition for ST:

Control panel, Computer Management, Disk manager: there will see your card, now with 1 partition and partition table (not visible, but it is on, since Fdisk makes so it). Right click, and Format - then select FAT and allocation unit size of 1024. It will then be usable on ST via Hddriver.

I also have a 512meg card, it did occur to me that the 16meg card may have limitations.

would your advice be different for the 512meg card ?

[ppera]

In case of 512 make 1 or more BigDOS partitions (FAT16 over 32MB).

Under XP can make only 1, and worst: can access only 1 (first) partition.
If 1 is enough to you then do all as above, except that you will need BigDOS on Atari (From AUTO folder), and no need for assuring allocation unit size - BigDOS will care about it.

In case of more partitions you may do partitioning in DOS with Fdisk (without FAT 32 of course), and access partitions under DOS (Norton Commander for instance is good for file/DIR copy).

[spiny]

In case of 512 make 1 or more BigDOS partitions (FAT16 over 32MB).

Under XP can make only 1, and worst: can access only 1 (first) partition.
If 1 is enough to you then do all as above, except that you will need BigDOS on Atari (From AUTO folder), and no need for assuring allocation unit size - BigDOS will care about it.

In case of more partitions you may do partitioning in DOS with Fdisk (without FAT 32 of course), and access partitions under DOS (Norton Commander for instance is good for file/DIR copy).

i'll have a go making two partitions

it took me a few minutes to find bigdos, so to save others a bit of time, it's available here:

http://rainer-seitel.onlinehome.de/bigdos.html

and I mirrored it here in case it goes away:

http://www.spiny.org/utilities.html