Re: Using CiderPress to copy a volume image to a card formatted for Windows...

[David Schmenk <dschmenk@gmail.com>]

On Feb 16, 6:58 am, David Schmenk <dschm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 15, 9:33 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
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> > fadden wrote:
> > > On Feb 14, 6:34 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > >>I'm doing this on a Vista laptop, and it doesn't want to allow
> > >>CiderPress to overwrite block 128.
>
> > > Interesting... some sort of partition map protection?
>
> > > Reformatting the card in a digital camera may or may not be useful.
>
> > That's a good point.
>
> > Although I've formatted other cards, I didn't try reformatting this
> > one in a camera first.
>
> > But I don't expect the card to enforce the protection.  I think it
> > was Vista that was the policeman.  I know that it takes a dim view
> > of any attempt to modify the MBR--perhaps even for a non-bootable
> > volume.
>
> > -michael
>
> > NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
> > Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/
>
> > "The wastebasket is our most important design
> > tool--and it's seriously underused."
>
> It's possible Vista/Win7 is thinks Ciderpress is a virus, attacking
> the "system-only" tracks of a disk.
>
> A question concerning the LBA mapping of an SD card on a PC vs the
> CFFA would be "are they consistent?"  I'm unfamiliar with how SD cards
> "look" to the system compared to a CF card.  Presumably they would
> both look like IDE drives, but possibly with additional modes that the
> system can put them into for more efficient access.  Since you've been
> able to write to physical block 0 on the SD (not the partitioned
> logical drive block 0) through CiderPress, you've overcome the first
> hurdle (the PRODOS NOT FOUND message).
>
> Another problem could be timing of the SD card vs a CF card - earlier
> CFFA cards were less tolerant of certain CF cards.  I know Rich made
> some changes over the course of the CFFA, but maybe SD cards are more
> like the problem cards.
>
> Since you've made it clear that you have no other storage options on
> the Apple II, you can always employ the old school system monitor and
> hand assemble some SmartPort code to access certain critical sectors
> (like the directory) to see if they are where they are supposed to
> be.  If they are, it could suggest a timing issue.  If not, an LBA
> translation difference.
>
> Dave...

After a quick Google search, you may have a little more uphill battle
than originally thought.  SD card do NOT implement the ATA (IDE)
interface; that is implemented in the CF->SD adapter.  That probably
comes with many caveats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#Embedded_systems

My advice to have the best chance of success would be to use a name
brand SDSC (not HC).  Use the CF->SD adapter in the laptop (do laptops
still come with CardBus slots?) while transferring data with
CiderPress.  You may also need to try out different CF->SD adapters to
find one that works reliably in the CFFA given it's timing
constraints.  Try Googleing "sd cf adapter" to see what issues people
have had in other devices.  Good luck and let us know what works.

Dave...