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The IDE+2 and APT/FDISK2 Compatibility?


Larry

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I've used the APT for a couple of years now, but I seem to recall that at some point, using APT was mandatory.  It was either with Rev E or something like bios 1.5?  A related question -- will the old FDISK2 work with E and F, assuming an older bios can be used?

 

Thanks,

Larry

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14 minutes ago, Larry said:

will the old FDISK2 work with E and F, assuming an older bios can be used?

I've just tried FDISK2 from the old KMK/JZ toolkit disk and it won't recognize the IDE Plus 2.0 when using a recent revision BIOS. It would follow that the newer BIOS probably doesn't recognise the older partition table format.

 

My question is: what can be gained by using an older BIOS, older partitioning tools, and the deprecated partition table format?

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If you want to use the old partition format, you would have to downgrade to bios 1.2 or lower iirc. I am not sure whether these older bios versions do support the rev. E and up IDE+

 

But like FJC said... why would you want it? In my opinion apt should be supported by myide (mybios) too, but unfortunately it is not compatible.

 

APT is a very good and complete standard. And with all the choices in a8 land I wished all devices followed the same standard. 

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8 minutes ago, Marius said:

And with all the choices in a8 land I wished all devices followed the same standard

We are about as close to total compatibility as we can be. Nearly all the major players (SIDE, SIDE2, U1MB/SIDE, U1MB/AVG, Incognito, 1088XEL/XLD) are totally HDD media compatible now. The only outliers I know of which don't support APT are MYIDE/MYBIOS (as you point out) and older devices such as MIO and BlackBox. Sure there are others but with one conspicuous aforementioned exception, I think every new device which provided PBI mass storage during the last decade supports the exact same partitioning format. :)

 

Don't forget that APT FDISK does NOT require SpartaDOS X, just in case that's a perceived motivation to downgrade.

Edited by flashjazzcat
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Well, some progress with EclaireXL and IDE+2.  I received a new Rev F from Simius this week.  Works perfectly with my Antonia-600XL. And it also works with ECXL!  Does not work with Rev D.  E (that foft now has) did not work here with ECXL.  It behaved just like the D -- DOA.  Maybe the timing is just enough different that it works on Mark's ECXL?  

 

Can anyone tell me offhand what the "SWAP" button refers to on Revs. E and F?  Also, D has a rotary selector switch that chooses the PBI#.  E&F have no way to change the PBI?

 

-Larry 

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54 minutes ago, Larry said:

Can anyone tell me offhand what the "SWAP" button refers to on Revs. E and F

It's supposed to 'swap' or rotate mounted disk image assignments, although I'm not sure how the implementation works in practice (largely owing to the lack of documentation). @Marius may be able to tell us.

55 minutes ago, Larry said:

Also, D has a rotary selector switch that chooses the PBI#.  E&F have no way to change the PBI?

You can change the PBI ID on the earlier boards by moving the 0 ohm resistor which shorts one of eight jumpers on the board. You'll see 2 x 8 gold pads, with a resistor joining one pair.

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I do not own rev. E. Only rev. C and D (my favourite). 

 

The SWAP button on rev. D (IIRC it is not on rev. C) indeed swaps, or better rotates/cycles through all the mounted ATR's. 

 

You can (using a tool, ATRM) mount under SDX ATR's to misc Dx: ... (the ATR files needs to be stored ON a SpartaDos Formatted partition). 

So if you have the Summer Games (which is a game that is a TWO ATR-files game (an A, and B side)). You mount SUMGAM_A.ATR to D1: and SUMGAM_B.ATR to D2: ... during the game pressing the SWAP button will swap D1: and D2: (in case the game asks you to flip disk)

 

I guess this has same purpose on other revisions of IDE+ 

 

Important is to remember that the ATR files needs to be ON a spartados partition. In my case I have a 32MB apt partition loaded with all kind of ATR's (from TURBOBAS.ATR, DOS25.ATR to GOONIES.ATR etc.)

 

 

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