KPeter

Yes, this works what I expected. Thank you, Peter

Tried, does not work. Thank you Peter

I have been trying (without success) to load CONFIG.SYS from D1: APT drive in Altirra, even though I have set the parameters correctly in the BIOS, It works without issue on real hardware, U1MB+SIDE3, so looks like some sort of issue/setting is there in Altirra. No matter I define D1: as a Boot drive or not a Boot drive. What is the solution? I am using Altirra 4.10 . Thank you, Peter

You are right. I already tried it. The response was: "SIDE Driver is already loaded" (or similar message). I got same message when I ran MYIDE2.sys before IDEDIAG. Probably it will be possible (what you advise), if I replace in CAR:CONFIG.SYS the DEVICE SIDE command with a MERGE FILE command, calling a FILE.CFG on boot drive (SIO2XX). (By the way. I can see a very confusing thing, related to DEVICE SIDE as the last command after all drivers specified in the CAR:CONFIG.SYS. It is making impossible to fully utilize features of CONFIG.SYS and *.CFG files in SPARTA.DOS folder, if that files are on the APT boot partition of CF cards, not on external SIO2XX drives. This "issue" is present not only on SIDE2, but on SIDE3 and MyIDE-II cartridges. Finally, it is not the smart way to rewrite CAR:CONFIG.SYS how it is mentioned in documentation. My imagination is something like a special SIDE.SYS, MyIDE.SYS driver, running on CAR: drive prior to any CONFIG.SYS and *.CFG files defined on APT Partition or SIDE2XX drives). Peter

OK, I flashed to SIDE2 the SpartaDOS X 4.49c 13-07-2019 with SIDE Driver v3.6 (c)2019 FJC / Plugged In One of 8GB SanDisk CF card, after that the Kingston 1GB card. The result is on the picture. I started ATARI with with Switch OFF/ON, the SanDisk card was in the SIDE2 slot. The boot stopped after "SIDE Driver v.3.6 ... for more than half minute, after that the 2.0.1: No media came up ... Peter

Hmm, the issue is, for first two MyIDE SDXs I could find only the SDX 4.49c. additionally, I do not know, how to update that MyIDE bin files. What I tried with the Imager software from SDX Projects page, it was not working - went to the SELFTEST window. Of course I can go back for 4.49c on SIDE2. I suspect something differences between SIDE Driver on SIDE2 and MYIDE2 Driver on MyIDE-II cartridge. Peter

Excellent, now FDISK is working. Peter

Just for information I made some tests using MyIDE-II cartridge and SIDE2 (tested both my SIDE2) with IDEDIAG v1.1 software. Here are the results: 1. IDEDIAG v.1.1 by FJC 2. ATARI at stabilized temperature state, at least 30 minutes ON ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SpartaDOS 4.49c 26-12-2019 / MyIDE2 Driver v.3.6 (c)2019 FJC (M65,ACT,BXL,BXE,INT,PLT,ASM,SYN,ATB) Rev Size S/N ATA Reset: ACKed in ======================================================= HDX13.04 (7647 MB) DAZ07111714 540ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s HDX13.04 (7647 MB) NAZ07111714 560ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s HDX13.04 (15279 MB) MAZ04141711 520ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s ra03.00f (31 MB) ICFA100004274 440ms GBDriver PQI CO.LTD Ver7.04 (3811 MB) 5B74130E0 340ms Kingston Technology 20071116 (967 MB) CF 1GB 2003 380ms Kingston Technology ======================================================= ATA Reset: ACKed in: in avarage +/-10-15% Slight Temperature dependency seen on MyIDE ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SpartaDOS 4.49c 22-03-2020 / MyIDE2 Driver v.4.0 (c)2020 FJC Rev Size S/N ATA Reset: ACKed in ======================================================= HDX13.04 (7647 MB) DAZ07111714 540ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s HDX13.04 (7647 MB) NAZ07111714 560ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s HDX13.04 (15279 MB) MAZ04141711 520ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s ra03.00f (31 MB) ICFA100004274 440ms GBDriver PQI CO.LTD Ver7.04 (3811 MB) 5B74130E0 340ms Kingston Technology 20071116 (967 MB) CF 1GB 2003 380ms Kingston Technology ======================================================= ATA Reset: ACKed in: in avarage +/-10-15% Slight Temperature dependency seen on MyIDE-II ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SpartaDOS 4.49e 6-06-2021 / SIDE Driver v.4.03 (c)2020 FJC Rev Size S/N ATA Reset: ACKed in ================================================================= Rev 1.5 (7580 MB) 0799A1AF 60ms FC-1307 SD to CF Adapter V1.5 SanDisk 95MB/s HC I ================================================================= HDX13.04* (7647 MB)* DAZ07111714* 60ms-5100ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s HDX13.04* (7647 MB)* NAZ07111714* 140ms-5100ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s HDX13.04* (15279 MB)* MAZ04141711* 140ms-5100ms SanDisk Ultra 50MB/s ra03.00f (31 MB) ICFA100004274 20-100ms GBDriver PQI CO.LTD Ver7.04 (3811 MB) 5B74130E0 20-60ms Kingston Technology 20071116 (967 MB) CF 1GB 2003 20-120ms Kingston Technology ================================================================= *) ATA Reset & Disk1 PIO: Timeout 5100ms ($00 or $6F) --> "Not responsive Devices" or/and No information (0 all) but "Test passed" / "Not accessable partitions" / FDISK is failing on all *) not failing on others. IDEDIAG looks unstable (a few time: ATA command failed to complete!) with SIDE2 Instablity of IDEDIAG is present using any CF card. Hot-Swap is not really working on SIDE2, but no issue found with MyIDE-II Peter

Hi, I flashed your nice software into MyIDE-2. I found, the FDISK is not working, probably, because the OVL files (FDISK0,1,2) are not flagged "hidden". I tried to set that flags using Imager from SDX, but the product is not working, despite I could flash it into the MyIDE-II. I am just inquiring about some updates on the Image. The other thing is, activating BXE is not working with Rapidus ON. Thank you, Peter

Peri, Maybe I answered, maybe not. I do not need that much space, of course. I just asked the forum who experienced the issue, what I found with my CF cards and what can be the reason? I actually found ebiguy's software what is working in MyIDE-II cartridge and no issue with partitioning of named CF cards. What I wanted too ask, who can explain the functional differences, between SIDE2 and MyIDE-II. In my opinion it is a R/W timing, what could be different between two products. Is it right? The used ATARIs are different ... behaving equally with cartridges. Peter

Hi, I just would like to show result of my investigation about the unsuccessful partitioning my 8-16GB SanDisk CF card with SIDE2. I went over my folders to find the tools/software, how I could partition CF cards before. I used my MyIDE-II cartridge (!) I found one of the ROM Image, what allowed to do make APT partitioning. I formatted al my suspicious CF cards on PC for FAT32 and copied SDXm2ram.rom into this partition. And see the steps on attached pictures, from Image1 to Image16. Of course, when I tried to use that cards with SIDE2 cartridge I was not able to access to the partitions, but going back to MyIDE-II and running SDX 4.49c with MyIDE driver, everything works correctly, no glitches, no errors. I am now wondering, what is the explanation for it? Peter p.s.: I t works on both NTSC and PAL ATARIs with MyIDE cartridge. The question, what happens between ATARI ... and CF card, what is not allowing partitioning on SIDE2, but on MyIDE it is working? MyIDE-FDISK.zip

Ok, Jon, I am not able to help you with your problems. ... Have a good day (evening). Peter

Jon, with all respects to your professionalism I would like to ask you to concentrate on the issue, not on your feelings against me. The people are not interested to read rhetorical exchanges between us. Please, cool down. First of all I was not saying "of professional experience will allow you to get to the bottom of the problem without my help". Do not misinterpret my worlds. If you think so, I never contact you, never turn to the AtariAge forum for help. I just said, some people suggesting, it is the ATARI issue, before I went to modify and after this process, I went over to see signal integrity, clean HW on my two ATARIs. The field, where someone is an expert are YOU and all of them, who created these very helpful things for ATARI. I do not want to interfere in your job, software, products, for that reason I am asking for explanations, no matter I am able to do thinks or do not. So, the other thing is the fact, almost all your documents on your website on their bottom include "contact me" words (link). So, you directly suggest to communicate with you that way. You can avoid it, if you remove this misleading part of your documentations and this story ends for forever. So, accepting this fact I do not think you can complain about my or others inquiries directly sent to you. What is related to the SanDisk issue if everything seemingly looks good around the ATARI's HW and around your great software in SIDE2, what else can left if not a timing issue, maybe in the HW of SIDE2 or the CF card's HW. What I just want to find, the possible reason, experiences of others ... I would like to read here just about the things, related to the question, set aside overreacted personal issues between us. Thank yo for your understanding Best regards, Peter

"I don't believe the issue is the CF carts at all, so I wouldn't throw any of them away." Of course, if not for SIDE2 I am able to use them for MyIDE-II. I believe there is another issue at play, be it the cartridge or the computer. My PAL ATARI800XL+128kB RAM I bought before 1990 in East-Central European Country. The NTSC ATARI800XL stock I bought from Argentina around 2017-18. By their PCBs, there are significant differences and in used ICs also (Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan ...) The keyboards are completely different. On NTSC I have more robust keyboard, on PAL very simple foil based one. On NTSC all IC in sockets, on PAL all ICs was soldered to the PCB. For NTSC, where I installed U1MB I am using PS from Lotharek, for PAL, medical grade switching PS. So, both are very good quality sources. How I mentioned I used signal analyzer to verify quality of signals on the board and applied all advised modifications. So, both should be OK. I have from Lotharek two SIDE2 cartridges, probably from same production series. I used both ATARIs and both cartridges to test partitioning exchanging cartridges between them, turning on/off U1MB, turning on/off Rapidus. No differences between results. ... assuming significant differences between ATARIs but maybe SIDE2 cartridges from same production series, you are maybe right, some issue can be with cartridges, if the tests producing same errors. no matter, where I plug in the cartridges. The only way to rule the parts of the equation out are to test each on a known good machine and in a known good cartridge. Yes, I fully agree with this method, frequently used in my job in past also. By the fact, I worked like electronic design and HW engineer I practiced always strict methods for prototyping our products, so I have some modest experience with tests and measurements on industrial level. I retired after 25 years from the same business. So, I am not an amateur on the field of electronics (especially PWM motion controls, PLDs ... digital electronics).

Yes, on the very beginnings, when I started to deal with U1MB and Rapidus, I changed that IC immediately and made modifications, advised by the guys from Lotharek and others who reported and solved issues. So, everything is up to date.

Hello, can you obtain my e-mail address from this forum to contact me? But, what I rather would like, it is to learn where I am doing something wrong to setup the card if someone says it is possible. Of course, your offer is great, but if someone is doing it for me I still do not learn for it, what was wrong. Finally, how you can see from my pictures I have many correctly partitioned CF cards of different physical size, where I could go over the whole process of partitioning from formatting on PC to the setup by FDISK. ... I had today live Chat with the Technical Support from Western Digital. The guy went through on the things, how I am trying to do Initialization. He did not see issue how I am doing the things. He finally directed me to use DISKPART ... we got same wrong result. So, he ended up, did not have clue, what is wrong. If it happens with one CF card I can assume, it is bad I can throw it to the trash, but to see it on all of them including a 16GB card also, it seems to be not accidental ... I guess, you also will have problem to setup it, but maybe there are some tools, using different way for initialization. Peter

It happens to me on SIDE3 on ATARI800XL with U1MB, updated both, U1MB and SIDE3 with latest versions ... following installation guide. I was not able to recognize correctly which SETUP of U1MB or/and SIDE3 is doing it. Many times happens, the SDX is starting from SIDE3 and after while despite of no changes on SETUP it starts from U1MB. I can recognize the difference, because on SIDE3 I installed SDX 4.49g version (intentionally to see that behavior), but in U1MB I have SDX 4.49e version. between that two situation sometimes the window is black, mostly, if I run CAR file and start to SDX. ... One thing, what I can see on SIDE3 Loader, a few shortcuts are not working from keyboard, just using highlight and RETURN. Concretely, Shift|Ctrl|X and Ctrl|R is not working from Keyboard I should move to the page where it is shown on second line on the monitor. I highlight that line and hit RETURN. By the manual it should work from any window of Loader i if I well understood the meaning of shortcuts.

Ok Jon, I am not able to understand your very unfriendly behavior, and all the reasons How you can see, I did not ask you to join to this communication, so, it is a little strange ... sorry! I never tried to be offensive against you. Hmm! Peter

Hello, Yes I went over on all things, what you mention. I am using PSs ordered from Lotharek, (verified noise issues by scope, signal analyzer), mentioned by other users on these pages or in other forums. Everything is looks correct, very clean. If you would like I can send you for try those CF cards . Thank you for offer. But my effort is just go to the root of this or similar issues, to see, how to solve it. I suspect, it is the issue of the CF card, so, if you can somewhere obtain correctly the same cards, maybe it is easier to verify it independently on me. By the way, I am familiar with differences on systems from W'95 to W'10 ... tried already initialization, the results and how the menus looks like are contradicting to all examples what I could find on Microsoft or other pages on the Internet. Peter

Hi, I can ensure you, both my ATARIs are professionally upgraded (NTSC with U1MB; PAL with Rapidus). Of course I could do it myself also, because I have some (more than 25 years experience with HW), but I gave both to the professional person at our electronic manufacturing company's production line to be sure with quality, especially, because the PCBs are old (me too, already retired). So, they are perfect. Additionally, using both ATARIs years with upgrades I never experienced any glitches, what I could read from articles, published by authors of HW and SW. Specially, when I decided to install Rapidus, JON expected I will use it with U1MB (I communicated with him by e-mail that time, he was really friendly o me). Reading issues related to co-working with U1MB, I finally decided to install Rapidus on my PAL ATARI. So, I do not experienced using these two ATARIs any issues. Now I should accept, it some special issue with the SanDisks what I tried to use. How I mentioned, in past Lotharek wrote somewhere, some of SanDisk are not accepted by SIDE cartridges. Peter

Ok, Thanks for all, who honestly would like to help me on this issue. Of course, I am apologizing from those, who felt be touched with my "offensive" asking for solution. Nothing is personal, nothing is offensive, nothing is about the doubt of professionalism of SIDE2, SIDE3 cartridges and there's software designers. The products are great without doubt. So, again, how to initialize 8GB SanDisk [showing error messages on first two pictures[ (if it is possible. I do not see that possibility on any PC with OS from XP to W'10 under Computer Management/Disk Management). Or it is not possible? To show, the FDISK is working correctly with other cards, just I show example I freshly prepared 16GB SanDisk card on my ATARI using SIDE2 cartridge. Thank you for your patience, Peter p.s.: On the last picture (upside-down) I show all my cards, what I tried. The cards on the top work only with MyIDE-II, but cannot be prepared with FDISK for EIDE2.

Yes, I did read all manuals, setups many times, trying all things which are written there. I watched Videos also, but there are not all of the steps shown, how to work with FDISK with combination of Windows PC. I remember something, what Lotharek mentioned in past, not all CF cards are accepted by FDISK, or SIDE2. I do not remember, where was it. Maybe my only 8GB SanDisk ULTRA 50MB/s are those? I have 6 of them, before used for MyIDE-II, where they worked perfectly. I took 2 of them to use for SIDE2, but resulting this error from the beginning, despite of re-partitioning, formatting of them on PC. Something I should do wrongly. ... Now I should go somewhere, so I won't be at my PC for next day. ... Thank you for your time to try to help me. I will watch and try things, what you advised. Peter

I forgot to mention. I have two ATARI800XLs (NTSC and PAL). On NTSC is a stock ATARI where I have U1MB installed with the latest updates, on PAL I have 192MB RAM + Rapidus installed. I have 2 SIDE2 cartridges updated with the latest software. I went over with all updates from 2018, the results are totally the same. I have 4 8GB CF cards, same issue. So, I suspect, something is not right in SIDE2 software (?) of its limitations in relation with CF cards' capacity (assuming, both SIDE2 cartridges behave totally equally, no issue with batteries, other 1GB CF card before sat up for FAT and APT). Peter

The card is F: . How you can see on the first post's pictures from ATARI, if I start FDISK and I try to initialize the CF card, it starts with error, not showing the capacity of the card, what information is overwritten by a string from Sparta DOS. So, FDISK is not able to read base information from the MBR card. So, the next steps are irrelevant, whatever I am doing (for example, I try to define the size of FAT partition). The most significant indicator, there is not the right size information is the wrong, very big number in APT (MB) section (2095151.969 MB = 209.5 GB, what is a nonsense if I use 8GB card. It is originated probably from wrongly recognized CF cards capacity. I suspect, the FDISK is not able to correctly read CF cards capacity above some size (4GB ?, 2GB?, 1GB?) Peter

Hi Peri, Thank you for prompt reply. Of course, I do not need it, but I do not have any smaller CF cards. How you can see on the pictures, FDISK is not able to recognize the Card's size. Whatever I try to do on PC I am not able to make the desired format or make smaller partitions. I do not have clues how to do it. Peter