+DrVenkman Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 So I know I've done this before but it's been a couple years and I can't for the life of me remember how I did it, and worse, a search of the forum just brings up a mishmash of confused questions, off-topic asides and answers I don't quite grok. In any event, I've dug up another old Sandisk CF card I found around the house and I'd like to allocate about half of it to FAT32 for the Loader (.ATR and .XEX files), and I'd like to allocate the rest to use as hard disk partitions with SpartaDOS X. I tried putting the card into a PC card reader and formatting half of it as FAT32, and those files do show up in the Loader. But when I boot to SDX in my SIDE2 cart and type the FDISK command, I get an error that tells me, "Error Loading FDISK0.OVL" I'm using SDX version 4.49c on both my SIDE2 cart, if it makes a difference. So ... what am I doing wrong? And answer, please, as if speaking to a mildly-challenged 10 year old. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 FDISK is supposedly built into the latest SDX ROMs, so the easiest way to fix it is to grab an update. The OVL files are either missing or don't have the hidden attribute set. Easiest way to set up the card is to run FDISK, pick "Initialise", split the card between FAT and APT, add some APT partitions, then format the FAT on the PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 21, 2018 Author Share Posted January 21, 2018 FDISK is supposedly built into the latest SDX ROMs, so the easiest way to fix it is to grab an update. The OVL files are either missing or don't have the hidden attribute set. Easiest way to set up the card is to run FDISK, pick "Initialise", split the card between FAT and APT, add some APT partitions, then format the FAT on the PC. Hmm, that's what I'm trying. I guess the 4.49c beta is borked. I'll flash my SIDE2 back to the 4.48 release version and see if that works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 (edited) Type DIR +H CAR:FDISK*.OVL. Perhaps they forgot to set the attributes. Edited January 21, 2018 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 I was planning to revisit 4.49 as I've had a number of issues... I rolled back to 4.47, but that didn't handle pass through 100%.... some of the 4.49 issues were addressed but I'm not sure he rolled any changes to the server, had issues with SpartaDos I/O within the flasher, some of that was addressed and became work-able, I didn't have a need to FDISK but I'll take a peek and see tonight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 21, 2018 Author Share Posted January 21, 2018 Got it sorted out. So here's what I did. Before I posted, I had tried running FDISK from the 4.49c beta, which I had previously flashed to my SIDE2 cart (and my U1MB but that's irrelevant to this discussion). With SDX disabled in my U1MB (of course) but booting to SDX on the SIDE2, I get the error I mentioned above related to the "HIDDEN" attribute not being set. Trying to run FDISK from Jon's APT Toolkit .ATR gave me an error as well, though I neglected to write down the details I'm sorry to say. However, after flashing my SIDE2 back to SDX version 4.48, I found that FDISK is *not* included in that version. However, running FDISK from Jon's APT Toolkit worked great. This ancient 512MB Sandisk Ultra card now has 4 APT partitions of 50-odd megabytes each, and 256MB set aside for a FAT32 partition for the loader. This disk will "live" in the SIDE2 cart in my 1200XL eventually. My usual 8GB Sandisk Ultra will now be free to move to my 1088XEL once that build is finished. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 Don't forget that CAR: is first in the PATH, so even with the toolkit ATR on drive 1, the incomplete FDISK on CAR: will still try to run unless you include the drive specifier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 22, 2018 Author Share Posted January 22, 2018 Don't forget that CAR: is first in the PATH, so even with the toolkit ATR on drive 1, the incomplete FDISK on CAR: will still try to run unless you include the drive specifier. I think I tried it that way but at this point I'm not sure if I did. But thanks very much for that reminder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Isn't an APT partition limited to 32MB? Or can you technically make larger partitions even though SDX is limited to 32MB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Isn't an APT partition limited to 32MB? Or can you technically make larger partitions even though SDX is limited to 32MB. APT partitions can conceivably be 128GB in size, although - as you say - SDFS will only see the first 32MB. In fact I never attempted to format a partition larger than 32MB from the SDX formatter, so I'm not entirely sure how it would react. One way to use much larger partitions is via the aforementioned "external" partitions: APT entries which are actually links to FATs outside of the APT. When the SDX FAT drivers are R/W, this will be a great way to move data back and forth between the A8 and the PC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 Don't forget that CAR: is first in the PATH, so even with the toolkit ATR on drive 1, the incomplete FDISK on CAR: will still try to run unless you include the drive specifier. So following up on this: I reflashed my SIDE2 to SDX 4.49c and tried again. Even with the drive spec, it fails to run FDISK from the APT Tools .atr with the error about the .OVL file. Like it’s just ignoring the drive spec in front of the command. Tried D1:FDISK with and without the extension. VERY weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Not so weird, but my bad for not telling you that you need to specify the path as well. So A:>FDISK.COM will load the partition editor from drive 1. This is just the way SDX works. You can fix the SDX ROMs by setting the hidden attributes on the three FDISK*.OVL files. The native SDX OVL files on CAR: all have the hidden attribute set (to avoid cluttering up the directory listing, I guess) and I merely followed suit, but it caused more trouble than it was worth by the looks of it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 are those files in the user area? I don't remember, if they are it's cake for everyone... if they are not... then it's out of reach for the common user. Anybody wanna supply the the tools to mess with the main area to the common folk? Just speaking out of hand as I don't remember and won't be in front of this for a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 They were in the user are when I made the images myself but you'd have to ask DLT where they're putting FDISK now. i doubt they'll be positioned where they can't be changed or removed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 To that end, can someone explain how to set or change attributes of files in the CAR: device? Do I need to modify the .ROM image on my computer with a specific tool and then reflash the SIDE2 with the modified .ROM file? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 To that end, can someone explain how to set or change attributes of files in the CAR: device? Do I need to modify the .ROM image on my computer with a specific tool and then reflash the SIDE2 with the modified .ROM file? First, download the imaging tool ("SDX Imager") here: http://sdx.atari8.info/index.php?show=en_addons Then open the ROM image in the tool, and set the +H attribute on the three OVL files. Save and flash. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 Ah, thanks for that reminder Jon! I’ve done that in the past to change something in the default CONFIG.SYS file but it’s been a couple years ago and I’ve forgotten how it was done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 29, 2018 Author Share Posted January 29, 2018 I meant to follow up with this yesterday and totally forgot in the midst of the weekend activities, but I successfully corrected the three OVL files in the SDX 4.49c rom image, then flashed it to both my 1200XL and today my 1088XEL. I verified FDISK now loads and runs as expected. Thanks again, Jon! (And I hope the SDX guys see this and get it fixed for the next release of SDX!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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