+save2600 Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Pretty label, but the dremel cutout could have been a little sexier :-) Oh well, wanted to be sure I snagged one up quick before they ran out of parts, someone died, price goes up or the project gets cancelled for whatever reason! lol Joking aside; having missed out on every_single_mass_storage_solution EVER released for the 2600, this product seemed too good to be true and I'm glad it's here. Okay... looks like this puppy wants to see a few items in the root directory (not just directories or folders) before doing anything. In other words, I threw a directory called 'ROMS' with about two thousand roms in the SD Card and all I get is the spinning ying-yang icon. Been spinning like that for over 5 mins now. Once you throw a bunch of .bins in the root directory, the cart boots right up and I can navigate the other directory as well as the individual .bin files. A bunch of files need to be on the card though, not just one. So... is there a rule of thumb here or should I keep fiddling around until I strike bonanza? Looks like creating several directories representing the alphabet is going to be the way to go... Edited September 30, 2009 by save2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Sorry about the cutout - we're getting better at it. As for the issue you had with the single directory, that could be a bug in the BIOS. We will look into that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted September 30, 2009 Author Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Sorry about the cutout - we're getting better at it. As for the issue you had with the single directory, that could be a bug in the BIOS. We will look into that! Yeah... after writing, I reformatted the SD card as FAT of course, threw a directory called ROMS on it as well as a handful of .bins on now I get the spinning ball. Any suggestions or am I doing everything right? I have only tried this on my 7800 so far. Will try it with my heavy sixer next... No change using a 2600. BTW: I'm totally PeeCee free over here. Main computer is a G5 Mac with OS10.5 if that helps. Edited September 30, 2009 by save2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiggw Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Sorry about the cutout - we're getting better at it. As for the issue you had with the single directory, that could be a bug in the BIOS. We will look into that! Is it ok to use FAT32? Or do I somehow have to make it FAT? Can I use folders to separate the roms? Or does it all have to be in the root directory? Edited September 30, 2009 by thebiggw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted September 30, 2009 Author Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Okay - I got to the "root" of my problem (Unix geek pun)... OS10.5, whatever they call 'FAT' is not what the Harmony is looking for. It's probably FAT32, when Harmony wants the least common denominator. I formatted my card using my digital camera (LOL!) and the chucked all my ROMS in tidy alphabetical folders and now all is good. Well, Harmony does not display the folders alphabetically, but whatever. Oh and I wish the Mac didn't through extraneous folders in everything though (.trashes, etc.). Maybe Tinkertool will be able to remove those. Oh, but wait... Looks like the only way I can access my 'B' folder is by clicking on the .trashes directory in Harmony and then there's all my 'B' .bins. Weird! Ever since "upgrading" to 10.5, my Mac pisses me off on a daily bases. PPC users upgrading, caveat emptor! I wish I would have stuck with 10.4 :-( Edited September 30, 2009 by save2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Yeah... after writing, I reformatted the SD card as FAT of course, threw a directory called ROMS on it as well as a handful of .bins on now I get the spinning ball. Any suggestions or am I doing everything right? I have only tried this on my 7800 so far. Will try it with my heavy sixer next... No change using a 2600. BTW: I'm totally PeeCee free over here. Main computer is a G5 Mac with OS10.5 if that helps. Can you confirm that: With the files in the root directory, it works fine? With the files in a single directory, you just get the spinner? If this is the case, try putting a few files in the root directory also, and see if this helps? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Is it ok to use FAT32? Or do I somehow have to make it FAT? Can I use folders to separate the roms? Or does it all have to be in the root directory? FAT32 should be fine, and subdirectories are fully supported. Chris 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Ever since "upgrading" to 10.5, my Mac pisses me off on a daily bases. PPC users upgrading,caveat emptor! I wish I would have stuck with 10.4 :-( You could try upgrading to Snow Leopard (10.6), especially given how inexpensive it is. I've had some issues with it myself in terms of stability versus 10.5, but many nice improvements (performance and otherwise) have been made. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Okay - I got to the "root" of my problem (Unix geek pun)... OS10.5, whatever they call 'FAT' is not what the Harmony is looking for. It's probably FAT32, when Harmony wants the least common denominator. I formatted my card using my digital camera (LOL!) and the chucked all my ROMS in tidy alphabetised folders and now all is good. Wish the Mac didn't through extraneous folders in everything though (.trashes, etc.). Maybe Tinkertool will be able to remove those. OK, I'm glad you managed to fix it. FAT32 is actually supported better than FAT16/12 on the Harmony. I suspect there was something odd about the initial format of the card. If anyone else has this problem, let me know as I'd like to get to the bottom of this. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted September 30, 2009 Author Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Can you confirm that: With the files in the root directory, it works fine? With the files in a single directory, you just get the spinner? If this is the case, try putting a few files in the root directory also, and see if this helps? Chris My main problem was that the card, formatted under 10.5 FAT, did not work at all. That's when I observed the spinning ball. Formatted it in my camera and now it works. Before I did that though, and before I formatted the card using 10.5, I needed a ton of files in the root before anything would pop up. Thanks for the tip Al, I'll look into Snow Leopard here in a bit... Edited September 30, 2009 by save2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Thanks for the tip Al, I'll look into Snow Leopard here in a bit... Per your prior post, your system's a G5. Snow Leopard requires an Intel CPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 My main problem was that the card, formatted under 10.5 FAT, did not work at all. That's when I observed the spinning ball. Formatted it in my camera and now it works. Before I did that though, and before I formatted the card using 10.5, I needed a ton of files in the root before anything would pop up. I'll have to try this myself in OS X 10.6 to see what happens. I have a few different SD cards I can try. Will do that a bit later today. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiggw Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Is it ok to use FAT32? Or do I somehow have to make it FAT? Can I use folders to separate the roms? Or does it all have to be in the root directory? FAT32 should be fine, and subdirectories are fully supported. Chris Mine is still just spinning....I am going to try a different SD card, the first card I tried is a Kingston 4GB micro SD with a SD adapter. Ok I have tried 2 different SD cards to no avail? I guess maybe the question should be how long should the spinner spin before loading harmony? Should the SD card be locked or unlocked? (I have tried it both ways) Edited September 30, 2009 by thebiggw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Thanks for the tip Al, I'll look into Snow Leopard here in a bit... Per your prior post, your system's a G5. Snow Leopard requires an Intel CPU. Ahh, I didn't see that.. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted September 30, 2009 Author Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Thanks for the tip Al, I'll look into Snow Leopard here in a bit... Per your prior post, your system's a G5. Snow Leopard requires an Intel CPU. DOH! lol Really wish I wouldn't have upgraded to 10.5 now :-( BTW: why does Harmony not alphabetise directory letters? It's not a terribly big deal, just kinda strange since it does the individual titles. And I've noticed too, might be a bonus, I dunno - but the cartridge seems to be PAL friendly. Wrong colours and slower gameplay naturally, but the screen doesn't roll and I'm using a modern Panasonic CRT with no vertical adjustment. Edited September 30, 2009 by save2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchman2000 Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Ever since "upgrading" to 10.5, my Mac pisses me off on a daily bases. PPC users upgrading,caveat emptor! I wish I would have stuck with 10.4 :-( You could try upgrading to Snow Leopard (10.6), especially given how inexpensive it is. I've had some issues with it myself in terms of stability versus 10.5, but many nice improvements (performance and otherwise) have been made. ..Al Snow Leopard will NOT run on PowerPC machines, Intel only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Mine is still just spinning....I am going to try a different SD card, the first card I tried is a Kingston 4GB micro SD with a SD adapter. Ok I have tried 2 different SD cards to no avail? I guess maybe the question should be how long should the spinner spin before loading harmony? Should the SD card be locked or unlocked? (I have tried it both ways) It is probably the card format - try reformatting as FAT32 (or FAT16 if it is already FAT32). The spinner should only show for a few seconds at most. The card lock makes no difference as the Harmony is read-only. Chris 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaxda Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 If you have a Mac but no PC and a Wii, you can stick it in that slot and the Wii will reformat as FAT. Just a handy tip I picked up--it's how I formatted mine for Harmony use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 I have already had a few private reports about problems with formatting. While I could not replicate thier problems, going to FAT32, and formatting under the Windows command prompt with something like format z: /u /fs:fat32 (assuming z: is the drive letter - that may vary) fixed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyx Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 What file extensions are allowable. .bin? .a26? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red 5 Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Is it ok to use FAT32? Or do I somehow have to make it FAT? Can I use folders to separate the roms? Or does it all have to be in the root directory? FAT32 should be fine, and subdirectories are fully supported. Chris Mine is still just spinning....I am going to try a different SD card, the first card I tried is a Kingston 4GB micro SD with a SD adapter. Ok I have tried 2 different SD cards to no avail? I guess maybe the question should be how long should the spinner spin before loading harmony? Should the SD card be locked or unlocked? (I have tried it both ways) 32MB is the biggest card you can use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiggw Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Mine is still just spinning....I am going to try a different SD card, the first card I tried is a Kingston 4GB micro SD with a SD adapter. Ok I have tried 2 different SD cards to no avail? I guess maybe the question should be how long should the spinner spin before loading harmony? Should the SD card be locked or unlocked? (I have tried it both ways) It is probably the card format - try reformatting as FAT32 (or FAT16 if it is already FAT32). The spinner should only show for a few seconds at most. The card lock makes no difference as the Harmony is read-only. Chris It still just spins....I have tried 2 different SD cards locked, unlocked, quick format, regular format, folders, folders with roms on the root directory, roms by themselves, still nothing I guess I missed the 32MB card thing......I guess I am off to shopping on ebay Up next hammer? anyone got one they are not using? Edited September 30, 2009 by thebiggw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 What file extensions are allowable. .bin? .a26? Harmony tries to load everything. Special extensions can be used if autodetecting the bankswitching type should fail Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 It still just spins....I have tried 2 different SD cards locked, unlocked, quick format, regular format, folders, folders with roms on the root directory, roms by themselves, still nothing I guess I missed the 32MB card thing......I guess I am off to shopping on ebay Up next hammer? anyone got one they are not using? Are both your cards micro-SD cards (in an adaptor)? These kinds of cards may not work reliably with the Harmony. Also, see post #19 by batari for the formatting command to use under Windows. The limit for the Harmony is 32GB, not 32MB. Chris 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 32MB is the biggest card you can use. You can use SD cards up to 32GB in size, although that's extreme overkill for this particular application. ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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