MyIDE-II CompactFlash question that will probably get answered quicker here

[ryanmercer]

So I bought a MyIDE-II CompactFlash Cartridge, it came today (day early woo!). I can't find any instructions on Steve's site, none came with it... just the CF card and the cartridge..

 

 

how do I put stuff on it? The CF card is one of his so it's formatted...

 

Folder: Example ATR Images

Folder; Example XES files

mathpack.bin

osb.bin

 

 

Do i just toss ATR's in the images folder?

[+SoulBuster]

http://www.atarimax.com/myide/documentation/ Edited November 19, 2014 by SoulBuster

[ryanmercer]

http://www.atarimax.com/myide_old/documentation/

 

at the bottom of the page

 

 

I assumed it wasn't valid

 

"Please Note:

 

The "MyIDE+Flash" has been supersceded by the new MyIDE-II CompactFlash Cartridge."

 

He also links to 'Maxflash Studio Software for Windows' at the bottom fo the page which is a different product (and not actually a valid link) heh. Such a confusing site.

 

 

Edit: that manual still doesn't help me, this is a pre-setup card from him. The manual tells me how to partiition it 'by using the FDISK program included with your cartridge' (nothing came with the cartridge)... but as he's already done that... it says "If you have set up the 'image space' on your IDE device, you can copy whole floppy disks or disk images to this area and boot them from the IDE device." well I don't know if he's set up an 'image space' as nothing says 'image space'... but there is a sample atr folder with an atr in it.

Edited November 19, 2014 by ryanmercer

[+SoulBuster]

I amended my link to point to the MyIDE II. some of the docs are near the bottom of the page.

[brenski]

Ryan

this link should answer every question - it'll take you thru setup

step by step

http://www.atarimax.com/myide_old/documentation/chapter1.html

 

any other problems pm me - got mine working nicely

 

[+SoulBuster]

Apparently some of the documentation is located in the forums. Link also on that page.

[ryanmercer]

Ryan

this link should answer every question - it'll take you thru setup

step by step

http://www.atarimax.com/myide_old/documentation/chapter1.html

 

any other problems pm me - got mine working nicely

 

 

I'm just trying to slap some ATR's on it, that's the only reason I bought it for so I don't have to loge a notebook around too when I take an atari to someone's house. That documentation talks about formatting with included software (none was included) and then 'If you have set up the 'image space' on your IDE device, you can copy whole floppy disks or disk images to this area and boot them from the IDE device.' but how do I know if his included one has an image space or not.. or what folder it is.

 

That documentation doesn't even mention compact flash as it's for the older generation hardware "Connect your Hard Disk, IDE Flash Module or Compact Flash adapter to the IDE port on your MyIDE+Flash interface. Power up Atari first, allowing the system to reach the built in MyIDE boot menu." yeah well this is a compact flash cart... it's a cartridge on one end and a CF card slot on the other end... so how do I hook it up simultaneously to my atari AND my computer heh.

Edited November 19, 2014 by ryanmercer

[_The Doctor__]

It will vary by MyBios versions, When you boot up try press the help key or the start key, from there you should be able to get to all the menus

MyIDE Menu

Image Menu (floppy on hd)

Reset Menu

partition menu etc etc.

Explanantions are in the Atarimax forum.... I will see If I can find it again...

 

Look at the pictures and read along for 4.9.whatever beta although everything seems to be a beta since the very beginning

http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585

 

and here is 4.8.whatever beta

http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1310

and

http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1318

which has some instructions in the thread ^^^^

 

this is the MyIDE (windows) tool but it doesn't work with all versions

http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1592

 

it makes it hard to figure out how to use the thing both old and new but if you read the threads and then watch the video of him setting stuff up you will suddenly make sense of it all and then you can actually use it. Don't forget to save stuff and also don't forget you have to press the Y key after things you normally would expect to happen instantly. Like copy and image into a slot ... go to image menu press > type a namefordiskimage and press enter then press Y. I usually already have the disk loaded but I guess pressing Y would let you go and put the atr into ape or a disk into a drive then go..

Edited November 20, 2014 by _The Doctor__

[mr-atari]

I just answered your question on the atarimax-forum.

 

I'm not 24/7 online.....

[flashjazzcat]

It would make sense to have some documentation up on the front page, then, rather than expecting users to poke around the forum.

 

http://www.atarimax.com/myide/documentation/

 

The above page ("documentation") is no more than a feature-list with a demo video on the right hand side, and a bunch of adverts for other stuff below. This is in common with many "click here for documentation" links on the site, which often take you to another page with a big PayPal button you can click. There's also a link which implies "Looking for the manual? Go look round the forums!". One simple clickable link pointing to a manual/quick-start guide would be a real time-saver, IMO. The SIDE people took a lot of flak about documentation, and now Lotharek has some very clear links to PDF documentation right on the same page you order the item. Just a suggestion.

[+Larry]

Hi Ryan-

 

Since you got the cartridge + CF cart from Steve, wasn't it pre-programmed with a hard drive partition set up? If so, what version of MyBios did it come with? That is important. If you have 4.8.06, that is OK, but I would download the 4.9.8 Beta .bin file and copy it to your CF card. If you do this, then you can select the new beta with the up/down arrow keys, then press Cntl-F to pre-load the new MyBios version. Follow the prompts to flash the cartridge with the new software. Do not interrupt the flashing process!

 

Download the 4.9.x manual too, but it has a few points that have not been updated for the new betas.

 

I'm not an expert with using ATR's, so I always copy them using my PC to the CF card. What you do to load the ATR varies a bit depending on what version of MyBios you are running, so you really need to tell us what version you are using. Then we can go step-by-step to get things going. There is a bit of a learning curve, but nothing really difficult.

 

-Larry

[ryanmercer]

Methinks I'll just be slapping this up on eBay and sticking with my sio2... I bought it because it appeared to be something just hey I an slap a bunch of ATR's on the card and bam I'm ready to go... I just wanted something that made it so when I take an Atari to someone's house I only have to lug around an 800xl and a monitor... so I wouldn't have to also lug around a notebook/sio2pc/another power brick etc.

 

sio2 is nice, yup see that atr ok go ahead and load that one heh. This seems like "well to get an ATR playable, you need to first retain the services of Buckaroo Banzai to interpret the documentation for you..." heh I paid for the formatted CF card assuming it would be simple like sio2 haha. Oh well you win some you lose some.

[Mr SQL]

Methinks I'll just be slapping this up on eBay and sticking with my sio2... I bought it because it appeared to be something just hey I an slap a bunch of ATR's on the card and bam I'm ready to go... I just wanted something that made it so when I take an Atari to someone's house I only have to lug around an 800xl and a monitor... so I wouldn't have to also lug around a notebook/sio2pc/another power brick etc.

 

sio2 is nice, yup see that atr ok go ahead and load that one heh. This seems like "well to get an ATR playable, you need to first retain the services of Buckaroo Banzai to interpret the documentation for you..." heh I paid for the formatted CF card assuming it would be simple like sio2 haha. Oh well you win some you lose some.

 

I also got the formatted CF card for that reason but apparently it ships with an outdated version of the MyIDE BIOS; thought it would be easy to click into the atr images but no dice; still can't play Archon but some of the smaller cart images are click and go so it's still pretty cool and it has nice dev tools on it too that I plan to use

 

Has anyone been able to play Archon via this device? If so, what did you do to get it to load? I've tried the XEGS fat cart image and the atr image on my 800XL.

[flashjazzcat]

I bought it because it appeared to be something just hey I an slap a bunch of ATR's on the card and bam I'm ready to go...

To paraphrase Sean Bean, "one does not simply slap an ATR onto a MYIDE II". As you've learned, additional software is required to get the ATRs into the "image slots". The only PIO combo which allows you to run ATRs straight out of a FAT partition in a similar way to SIO2xxx is SIDE/Ultimate 1MB: that's drag/drop/mount/go, but it requires you to fit an Ultimate inside the machine. IDE Plus does it stand-alone, but you currently need to put the the ATR inside an SDFS formatted partition.

[+Larry]

As you've learned, additional software is required to get the ATRs into the "image slots".

 

Do you mean that MyBios software must be present to use the feature?

 

-Larry

[flashjazzcat]

Do you mean that MyBios software must be present to use the feature?

I believe so. It certainly won't work with a stock OS, but beyond that my insight into MyIDE is limited.

[+Larry]

Yes, that is true -- you must have the MyBios (rom or ram) for images to work. I thought you might have meant some other software needed to be present, so I didn't understand what you meant.

 

It is pretty cool though -- just a couple of keystrokes and the ATR loads at HD speed.

 

-Larry

[flashjazzcat]

I thought you might have meant some other software needed to be present, so I didn't understand what you meant.

I did. I was referring to the software required to get ATR disk images into MyIDE image slots. Am I not correct in saying one needs the MyIDE image tool to do this? I'm comparing it to solutions which allow you to copy an ATR to the CF card on the PC using a normal copy operation, put the card in the Atari, and mount the ATR for read/write directly from the FAT.

[+Larry]

I don't know. I always just copy the ATR to the CF card (FAT32). AFAIK nothing else is required that way.

 

Once it is there, you just press/hold HELP to go to the Main Menu, press START (for the image manager), use the arrow keys to the ATR you want, press RETURN to select it.

That takes you back to the Reset/Main Menu. Press C for Cold Start, and the ATR boots.

 

-Larry

[flashjazzcat]

I must be thinking of the method necessary to get ATR write support.

[ryanmercer]

Mine shipped with 4.5.3 and when you try to go to the mydos screen it shows you the damn options on that first screen for all of 3 seconds, which gives me about enough time to read two lines of text, let alone look for the multi-button combinations it lists before it dumps me to a screen with two columns of a bunch of options

[ryanmercer]

Ugh if I post a link it's making every bit of text after the link... even if I hit enter, part of the link

Edited November 20, 2014 by ryanmercer

[+Larry]

Yes, I didn't like those that just gave you a very short time to decide. Even 4.8.06 (release version) has a short time. Newer ones are much nicer.

 

Do you want to re-flash it with 4.9.8? 4.9.8 gives you over a minute to decide before it boots. OTOH, if you're going to sell it, it probably doesn't matter.

 

-Larry

[ryanmercer]

Yeah so watching the video tutorials... I'm even more confused... http://www.atarimax.com/myide/documentation/ shows a screenshot of a list of game names to select... I assumed I'd easily slap ATR's on and be able to select them like that to load.

 

Then http://www.atarimax.com/myide_old/documentation/images/myide_image_space.avi makes it appear as I have to memorize every file on the cf card by I assume alphabetical order then select that number to load it to a virtual drive, then remember the numbers of the virtual drives to load one of the games...

 

As far as changing my version of mydos, since mine shipped with 4.5.3... windows ONLY sees

 

Folder: Example ATR Images

Folder: Example XEX Images

mathpack.bin

osb.bin

 

Watching him set up the card in the first tutorial video... shows me needing either an sio2pc or a floppy drive with the files on it to be able to install them onto the flash card... *headdesk* I bought this to get away from my sio2pc and floppy drives.

 

The product page is so deceptive

[IndusGT]

Methinks I'll just be slapping this up on eBay and sticking with my sio2... I bought it because it appeared to be something just hey I an slap a bunch of ATR's on the card and bam I'm ready to go... I just wanted something that made it so when I take an Atari to someone's house I only have to lug around an 800xl and a monitor... so I wouldn't have to also lug around a notebook/sio2pc/another power brick etc.

 

sio2 is nice, yup see that atr ok go ahead and load that one heh. This seems like "well to get an ATR playable, you need to first retain the services of Buckaroo Banzai to interpret the documentation for you..." heh I paid for the formatted CF card assuming it would be simple like sio2 haha. Oh well you win some you lose some.

Give it a chance, there is a learning curve but it is worth it, I'm by no means a technical person, Mr. atari is very good at answering questions:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/228959-mybios-49b6-released-for-myide-altirra-and-stand-a-lone/?p=3104078

 

Keep asking questions and before you know it you'll be a pro using the My IDE

Edited November 21, 2014 by IndusGT