UltraSatan + HDDriver question

[simonsunnyboy]

I want to make use of the second SD slot in my UltraSatan for data exchange purposes. The main card is not formatted for PC compatibility.

How must I format a card on the PC and what driver options do I need to tick inside HDDriver for data exchange with the ST?

The exchange card should not use byte swap or special partitions. I want to be able to mount it on my PC without troubles, drivers or enabling AHDI support.

It is ok if the second card is not bootable on the Atari or only has a small, say < 128MB, partition.

[AdamK]

Should work out of the box. Just do not use NTFS.

[AtariCrypt]

Hi Simon, isn't PP's driver the way to go for this?
I put in an 8GB card in mine and formatted with 512mb partitions. So i'm kinda all used up from C-P now! But formatting another card with a compatible partition on the second card should work fine?

[Dal]

Use the TOS/DOS option in HDDRIVER to create an SD card that's swappable between Atari and PC / Mac

[simonsunnyboy]

My last 512MB card did exactly this but it is only Windows compatible. I cannot mount it in Linux but it is Atari bootable. I would like to trade bootability for easy mounting on Linux as I can boot on the UltraSatan with an Atari-only card anyway.

[DarkLord]

Hmm, using the TOS/DOS option with my SD cards I read them fine under kubuntu
linux using mtools.

Works awesome.

PS command line though...seems to bother some people.

[1st1]

Hi Sunnboy, we have almost the same discussion in atari-home forum where you are moderator as well... To summarize:

1. Byteswap is not necessary on ACSI/SCSI-I+II solutions, only on IDE. (IDE is a AT-BUS ISA extension, so it's little endian while Motorola 68000 is big endian. So on 16 Bit ISA bus byteswap is needed for compatibility of medias between PC and ST) ACSI/SCSI-drive-controllers lile UltraSatan, CosmosEx, Gigafile do the 8-Bit to 16 Bit conversion internally correctly.

2. TOS has partition size limits and on the other side PC can only support one partition per memory card. So it's recommended to have only one partition on a memory card which does not exceed TOS partition size limit. Example: TOS 2.06/3.06 max 512 MB

3. TOS 2.06/3.06 supported partition size can be doubled to 1 GB by using BIGDOS.PRG in auto folder. (I tryed it also with Falcon, but seems not to work, BIGDOS limit?)

4. Use HDDRIVER, format DOS/TOS compatible. Create one primary partition - or no partition schema, that is the so called "superfloppy" format, which is also supported well by PC.

5. If you format the memory card on your PC, don't forget to avoid NTFS file system or ext2/3/... Linux file systems (except if you use MiNT, Debian or NetBSD on your ATARI, then Ext2 should work as well.

[Symoon]

Could this help?
http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=15764

I'm using old 512MB SD Cards, IIRC formatted using this helpful guide (thanks to it author!) and have no problem exchanging data with PCs, at least up to WinXP.

[simonsunnyboy]

Hmm, using the TOS/DOS option with my SD cards I read them fine under kubuntu
linux using mtools.

Works awesome.

PS command line though...seems to bother some people.

Mtools did work me too but it is pretty awkward. I believe in direct mounting and full file system transparency just as all other systems do work.

I must experiment. Last time my old bootable card for Satandisk (without proper Linux mounting) worked ok in the UltraSatan slot 1 but it didn't recognize anythingin slot 2 (which would have been only PC FAT formatted)

I'll have to retry. I wanted to reinitialize a fresh Atari only card anyway.

[DarkLord]

2. TOS has partition size limits and on the other side PC can only support one partition per memory card. So it's recommended to have only one partition on a memory card which does not exceed TOS partition size limit. Example: TOS 2.06/3.06 max 512 MB.

Just thought I'd point out that's not *exactly* right. It depends on what OS you're using on the PC. For example, using the previously mentioned mtools under kubuntu linux, you can easily access more than one partition on each SD card. It's just a matter of setting it up in a config file for mtools. You basically "swap" letters. So, for example, I type in "mdir s:" and it shows the listing for the C partition on my Atari SD card. "mdir t:" shows the D partition, etc, etc...

Use it here all the time to transfer stuff between my STacy and my linux box.

[1st1]

By default, when I talk about "PC", then it's any kind of Windows.

[DarkLord]

Sure thing, but probably everyone doesn't know that. I didn't.