SIDE2/U1MB Fun

[polbit]

This might be a basic question (or a set of questions), however I've done a fair amount of reading and can't find answers...

 

I have SIDE2 and U1MB with FJC firmware. I've prepared a 512Mb CF card with 256Mb FAT16 partition and 5 APT partitions, starting at D3:. I have a bunch of ATRs on the FAT partition, and they load great with SIDE Loader. SDX side works great as well with APT partitions, and sees the FAT partition ("Unknown file system"). Here's what I want to do:

 

- read files from FAT partition in SDX. I do not see FATFS.SYS anywhere.

- mount ATR images in SDX from the FAT partition. I do not see MOUNT.COM anywhere

 

All this to basically:

 

- copy files from PC to APT partitions. Any other way?

 

I don't have any SIO drives, physical or otherwise, right now, and can't find my SIO2PC...

 

Thanks for any clarifications/explanations/ideas!

[+skr]

Did you check, what´s on your SDX installation? (> DIR CAR: )

At least FATFS.SYS can be found on the toolkit (It´s compressed with ARC) : http://sdx.atari8.info/index.php?show=en_download_special

 

Anyway: I would also be interested in learning how to mount files on a FAT partition with SDX. 

[flashjazzcat]

30 minutes ago, polbit said:

I do not see MOUNT.COM anywhere

You will see it in the TOOLS>SDX folder of the APT toolkit disk:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/apt/toolkit/

 

However, it's the other tool (ATRMNT) in that folder which you should use for mounting ATRs in a FAT16 folder (after first installing FATFS.SYS).

 

Here's the manual:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/APT-Software-Manual-5th-Edition.pdf

[polbit]

22 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

You will see it in the TOOLS>SDX folder of the APT toolkit disk:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/apt/toolkit/

 

However, it's the other tool (ATRMNT) in that folder which you should use for mounting ATRs in a FAT16 folder (after first installing FATFS.SYS).

 

Here's the manual:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/APT-Software-Manual-5th-Edition.pdf

I guess it’s a catch 22 then. I have no means of getting files onto the APT partition, until I install FATFS.SYS... 

[flashjazzcat]

Why not place the files you want in an ATR, copy the ATR to the FAT partition, and mount it using the loader? You'll then have R/W access to all the files on the ATR right at the SDX prompt. If you make a 32MB 512bps SDFS-formatted ATR, it will hold an entire partition's worth of data.

 

Launch the loader, navigate to the ATR, mount it with CTRL+SPACE or TAB/ARROWs/RETURN to set the drive, then jump back into the BIOS, and press C to restart. SDX will boot and your ATR will be on drive 1. I usually keep my APT partitions at drive 3 and beyond; this way, I can mount ATRs on drives 1 and 2 and freely copy data between disk images and partitions.

 

In the forthcoming update, you can just press CTRL+X in the loader to go directly back to SDX.

 

Edited July 1, 2019 by flashjazzcat

[polbit]

15 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

Why not place the files you want in an ATR, copy the ATR to the FAT partition, and mount it using the loader? You'll then have R/W access to all the files on the ATR right at the SDX prompt. If you make a 32MB 512bps SDFS-formatted ATR, it will hold an entire partition's worth of data.

 

Launch the loader, navigate to the ATR, mount it with CTRL+SPACE or TAB/ARROWs/RETURN to set the drive, then jump back into the BIOS, and press C to restart. SDX will boot and your ATR will be on drive 1.

 

In the forthcoming update, you can just press CTRL+X in the loader to go directly back to SDX.

 

Ah, thank you! I kept trying to reboot from loader which kept booting the ATR, didn't think about switching back to BIOS. Works like a charm

[flashjazzcat]

1 hour ago, polbit said:

Ah, thank you! I kept trying to reboot from loader which kept booting the ATR, didn't think about switching back to BIOS. Works like a charm

This is the exact reason I added the 'Boot SDX' option to the latest loader; quite a few people were being caught out by SDX being (necessarily) suppressed when booting an ATR in the usual manner.