Using 2 SD cards with an Ultrasatan

[+DarkLord]

Okay, is there a very clear, well defined guide for setting up

-2- SD cards for the Ultrasatan.

 

I've been playing around with my internal US and have failed

to get 2 working correctly together.

 

I've successfully setup a handful of 2 and 4 gig SD cards by

themselves, using HDDriver v11.01.

 

With my Mega STe's hard drive bay open, and the internal US

sitting with Lothareks' emblem *up*, I've been using the left

hand slot. Works fine, as I said no problems with any single

card. When I put another card into the right hand slot though,

I can't ever get HDDriver to recognize it. The US does flash

the right hand red LED once when I put the card in. 

 

I tried just booting up from floppy with HDDriver and the 2

gig card in the left hand slot, then set it up with 4 >500 meg

partitions, then restarted with the 4 gig card in the left slot

and the 2 gig card in the right slot but it still wasn't shown.

 

Putting that 2 gig card in the left slot and booting up without

the 4 gig card does show up. Booting up with the 2 gig card

in the left slot and the 4 gig card in the right slot gives 3-4

bombs, requiring a physical reset.

 

Any and all help appreciated. As I mentioned at the start, if

there is a guide somewhere online, please point me to it and

I'll go from there.

 

Thanks all.

 

[swatcop]

@DarkLord this is probably a dumb question but did you select "Options" > Install Devices with both SD cards in the US?

 

The other partitions should show up after selecting that.

[+DarkLord]

There are no dumb questions. 

 

Seriously, yep, I did that.

 

Some more (probably) dumb questions:

 

Did you prep both cards with your driver software?

 

If you're using HDDriver, is hddriver.sys on both cards?

 

What do you have checked for bus/devices to be read?

 

Do you keep the primary (boot) card in the left slot or right?

 

Thanks.

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

With older UltraSatan - black case, horizontal slot order   left one is primary.

It should work with autoboot driver installed only on first card - actually TOS 2.06 prevents multiple autoboots from hard disks, and hard disk driver SW normally prevents it in case of older TOS versions.

Possible that UltraSatan is faulty. More common failure is SD card slot self - should look are all contacts OK, not bent and like.

 

 

[+DarkLord]

Well, this is an internal US, and I used the left slot as primary

when I prepped the 4 gig card. This is with the symbol on the

US board facing up. (it's actually turned the other way when

you install it in the Mega STe's hard drive bay).

 

Wonder which is primary on the US I used in my STacy? They

are stacked vertically, on top of each other and I used the top

slot.

 

I guess I should try the STacy later and see if 2 cards work with

it.

 

It's probably some settings that I've messed with (these things are

almost always my fault). 

 

[+remowilliams]

I use two cards on mine with ICD 6.5.5

 

First card has a 16MB TOS boot partition, and two ~256MB TOS partitions.  Second card has two ~500MB FAT partitions.  

 

 

[+DarkLord]

So FAT only on the 2nd card and not TOS?

 

Thanks.

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

9 hours ago, DarkLord said:

So FAT only on the 2nd card and not TOS?

 

Thanks.

 

That of course makes no sense.  And really, really, there is so much confusion in many people's head about all this.

TOS partitions are FAT partitions too. Precisely FAT16 . But they are not same as DOS (aka Windows) FAT16 partitions - logical sector sizes are different.

What remowilliams said really helps not. ICD can not handle non-TOS partitions, so unless using program BigDOS partitions on second card are TOS too, and yes, FAT too, but saying so just makes confusion.

 

Why would second card have different partition type ?  TOS can handle only TOS type (aka AHDI type) FAT16 partitions - this is proper terminology.

Up to 512 MB size in TOS 1.04-2.06 .1.00-1.02 max 256 MB.  And max 14 of them, so C-P . Stays for total count of partitions on all medias, drives.

So, if you have for instance 14 partitions on first card, second will be not accessible with regular TOS.

Please folks, read little about subject before posting here.

[+remowilliams]

9 hours ago, DarkLord said:

So FAT only on the 2nd card and not TOS?

It's not any kind of requirement, it's simply how I have it set up to use the second card as an easy windows based transfer type of thing.

 

8 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

What remowilliams said really helps not. ICD can not handle non-TOS partitions, so unless using program BigDOS partitions on second card are TOS too, and yes, FAT too, but saying so just makes confusion.

Uhm, it works just fine - no bigdos or anything else.

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Some people just wont learn ... Maybe it works fine, but your description is wrong and confusing, I say it again. Of course, will not change the World. so I finished with this thread.

[+DarkLord]

Okay, I think I've got a 2 gig card working as secondary now.

 

I thought I had already prepped the first 2 gig card that I was

using but when I went back to it and tried to re-partition it, it

gave me this, "Administrative Error" and would not finish.

 

I grabbed a different 2 gig card (these are all Sandisk brand, btw)

and it partitioned out fine with no errors.

 

I got the physical manual in today from Uwe Seimet (handy things,

manuals  ), and made a couple of changes. I turned on ACSI

performance, which I'm sure has nothing to do with this.

 

I also clicked 'Preserve Existing Partitions".

 

Not sure what did what, but with the new/2nd card and these

changes, when I hit "Install Devices" all partitions now pop up

on my desktop and I can also use it with my Win7 box for transfer.

 

Gonna label this card "File Taxi". 

 

Thanks everyone, for all the help and information!

 

 

 

[+DarkLord]

Some last minute questions about using 2 cards.

 

If you boot up with only your primary card, then

insert a card into the 2nd slot, you can see the US

flash and recognize it. Do you have to run anything

to get TOS to know about it before you hit "Install

Devices"?

 

Also, lets say you boot up with your primary card

and your 2nd card in the 2nd slot. Everything is

recognized and working but if you take the 2nd

card out, use it with Win7, Kubuntu, whatever to

transfer files, then re-insert it into your US's 2nd

slot, do you have to do anything to get TOS to

acknowledge the media change?

 

Typically, in the past, "ESC" with something like

an open floppy window would update a disk change.

 

Thanks all.