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X-MASS, a mass-storage expansion for all CPC.

Started by TotO, 18:32, 14 December 14

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Ast

So first sector is named 00 ?
what is the name of the last sector for an x-Mass 128mb ?
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Ast/iMP4CT. "By the power of Grayskull, i've the power"

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Prodatron

Probably something like
128*1024*1024/512=262144  :)
or if it's only 108MB around 220000

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

HAL6128

#402
Yes.
223.200 Sector exactly.

The reason why it's only 108 MB is that I formatted the DOM from Windows with a tool called "CF Card Recover". It formatted the DOM with a single FAT16 file-system without a MBR, but the application left 8 MB free at the end. I don't know why.

Then I extracted an image with a tool called "Odin File Recovery". So I have an Image which could be attached to WinApe (last version), for testing purposes within the emulator.

At the end you will find txt-files from the different sectors in hex-format (without any delimiter). Anything else on the DOM is filled with &00.

The results from WinApe with an "Identify Device" command show the whole sector size of the DOM but not the true "model number or name" (still "WinApe IDE") of the device: (&3E) 62 x (&10) 16 x (&FF) x 255 = 252.960 (123MB).
The results from a real hardware show only random number at the provided addresses (weird), but the true "model number or name". That's the reason why I'm asking.

The boot sector not always tell you the whole truth of the whole sectors. The "Identify Device" does.

HAL6128
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

Prodatron

Thank you very much!
I will put together a small app for writing these few sectors.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

Ast

Where Will acmedos have to be put ? Before rom 7 ? Between rom 8-15 ? Etc....
Have you some good News about AcmeDos ?
Is SyX still working on it ?
_____________________

Ast/iMP4CT. "By the power of Grayskull, i've the power"

http://amstradplus.forumforever.com/index.php
http://impdos.wikidot.com/
http://impdraw.wikidot.com/

All friends are welcome !

TotO

#405
Quote from: Ast on 13:33, 23 February 16
Where Will acmedos have to be put ? Before rom 7 ? Between rom 8-15 ? Etc....
Have you some good News about AcmeDos ?
Is SyX still working on it ?
Under ROM 7, because it patch AMSDOS to work together. Some peoples with the required skill are beta-testing it.
SyX doesn't have the free time required to do it fast... Else, it will be finished since 6 months.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Audronic

#406
@TotO


Some Thoughts about X-Mass.


****The actual format tool is expected to initialise the X-MASS to be used as "unparted FAT".
        But... It not properly work for me, so it was not actually released.

What did you use ?? and can that be released Please.


****The best will be that each OS allow to format their drives.

I Politely disagree. All I want is for an appropriate Rom Or Driver to be installed Regardless of Operating system, so i can use the X-Mass as bulk storage to be used as a Hard Drive (DOM)

In one of your earlier videos you demonstrated the DOM being used as a Hard drive with what looked like Various folders to demonstrate a Game.

Please supply the tools to make my X-Mass work like yours,  Or the Method that was used to make it work.

I have tried BDos, Symbos and cannot get the DOM to respond (the light flashes for a very short time after the commands are sent)

I would like to get a copy of the BETA rom Please

Frustrated ? YES

Politely Thanks   Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

TotO

#407
Quote from: Audronic on 22:33, 23 February 16I Politely disagree. All I want is for an appropriate Rom Or Driver to be installed Regardless of Operating system, so i can use the X-Mass as bulk storage to be used as a Hard Drive (DOM)
It is what BDOS does and ACMEDOS will do. By the way, the X-MASS is a IDE storage and any OS have to be able to initialise it with its own format (like OSX, Linux, Windows... And now SymbOS does).

If you are frustrated, I'm too... And?
We have to wait for a FAT/AMSDOS compatible DOS.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Prodatron

#408
We just finished the little formatting tool for the standard X-MASS 128MB DOM storages!
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]
I am currently not home, but HAL6128 was able to test it successfully.
Boot SymbOS, start this little tool ("xmass.exe"), press the button and the DOM is formatted in FAT16. You shouldn't use this for other IDE storages devices as it's fixed to the 128MB standard X-MASS DOMs.
After the formatting you should be able to add the X-MASS as a new IDE device (not partitioned) with the "control panel"/"mass storage".
Thanks a lot again to HAL6128 for the idea, sector dumps and testing!

Application is attached (source codes included).

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

TotO

Great tool!  8)
Thank you for your work. I will not forget.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

Audronic

Quote from: Prodatron on 23:08, 23 February 16
We just finished the little formatting tool for the standard X-MASS 128MB DOM storages!
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]
I am currently not home, but HAL6128 was able to test it successfully.
Boot SymbOS, start this little tool ("xmass.exe"), press the button and the DOM is formatted in FAT16. You shouldn't use this for other IDE storages devices as it's fixed to the 128MB standard X-MASS DOMs.
After the formatting you should be able to add the X-MASS as a new IDE device (not partitioned) with the "control panel"/"mass storage".
Thanks a lot again to HAL6128 for the idea, sector dumps and testing!

Application is attached (source codes included).


Hi Prodatron


It all goes well up to the point where we write to the drive.and then it just falls back to the top Picture and then locks up .


Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

robcfg

Silly question, does the DOM have a write-protection switch by any chance?


Like the one on SD cards...

TotO

#412
No. It is an IDE flash drive, not a removable card.
If his X-MASS work with BDOS and can't be formated with SymbOS, that mean something may goes wrong about the software.
Because all the DOM don't have exactly the same "128MB" size, depending the flash used, it sould be interresting to test with a bit lower capacity?

EDIT:
Reading the other topic, it look that you can't access it from BDOS too.
Your board worked fine for me. May be, a power supply issue? Or something goes wrong with the DOM...
I should replace your full board and do extra-test if you want.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

HAL6128

Quote from: Audronic on 05:47, 24 February 16

Hi Prodatron


It all goes well up to the point where we write to the drive.and then it just falls back to the top Picture and then locks up .


Ray
It's a little bit misleading that the window pop up again or stays, but it's ok. Your DOM should be formatted and you should have access via SymCommander.
Just a little question: Have configured your XMASS with ControlPanel before formatting?
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

Audronic

#414
Quote from: HAL 6128 on 10:03, 24 February 16
It's a little bit misleading that the window pop up again or stays, but it's ok. Your DOM should be formatted and you should have access via SymCommander.
Just a little question: Have configured your XMASS with ControlPanel before formatting?


Hi Hal 6128

I have only the SymbOS Roms fitted,  I have removed The FW3.15 Roms as well, I have tried with another Working DOM that was used in an Other Project (TRS-80).
I am beginning to believe that the X-Mass card is Unwell.

Yes I have tried to configure the XMASS with the control panel.


Have started SymbOS with |sym  from Rom and Run"sym" from Floppy

And the problem still persists.

I will keep on trying


Thanks   Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

Prodatron

Hi Ray, it's probably a hardware issue, if BDOS fails as well.
The formatting tool should be finished after about 5 seconds, and then you should see the confirmation message. But in your case the whole system is hanging or only the tool itself isn't responding anymore? (which means that it's waiting for "data request" forever)

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

Audronic

Hi Prodaton


A complete lockup.
It locks up as soon as i hit the button.


Drats.


Thanks   Ray

Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

Ast

Just to understand, what is precisely :

-cylinder low
-cylinder high
-sector count (number of sector we want to count?)
-sector number (1st sector ?)

How many cylinders ? How many sectors (256 ?)

where can we find the directory (sector/cylinder?)

Thanks to reply these questions very important for a lot of people (like me!)
_____________________

Ast/iMP4CT. "By the power of Grayskull, i've the power"

http://amstradplus.forumforever.com/index.php
http://impdos.wikidot.com/
http://impdraw.wikidot.com/

All friends are welcome !

Prodatron

When using CHS (cylinder/head/sector) addressing you have still sectors, tracks (=cylinders) and heads (for a floppy this would be disc side 1 and side 2). The track number (cylinder) is 16bit, the sector number is 8bit and the head number is 4bit (so a hard disc could have 16 different "sides").
It depends on the harddisc how many sectors, tracks and heads are available, there is a special command for reading these information.

Today CHS isn't used anymore and had been replaced by LBA (logical block addressing). Here you only have sectors 0-xxxxx, and they can have 28 (128GB) or even 48bit (128PB) addresses, which makes it easier and faster to address a cluster/sector. LBA "misuses" the sector (bit 0-7), cylinder (bit8-23) and head (bit24-27) bits of the IDE registers for setting the LBA28 address.

GRAPHICAL Z80 MULTITASKING OPERATING SYSTEM

HAL6128

Quote from: Ast on 15:18, 24 February 16
Just to understand, what is precisely :
...
How many cylinders ? How many sectors (256 ?)

where can we find the directory (sector/cylinder?)

Thanks to reply these questions very important for a lot of people (like me!)
You will find any information in the FAT16/32 Specification from Microsoft.
For example: if there is no partition then the first physical sector (LBA 0 or CHS 0/0/1) provide a standard boot sector with 512 Bytes of information.
Here you can read:
at Byte 11&12 the number of Bytes per Sector (default=512 Bytes with FAT16/32), so Byte 11 holds &00 and Byte 12 hold &02.
at Byte 13 there's the number of Sectors per Cluster. If you format a harddrive from Windows you can change the cluster size (e.g. 2K = 4 Sectors / 4K = 8 Sectors and so on.)
at Byte 16 the number of FAT table (default = 2)
and so on.
FAT16 and FAT32 differs from Byte 32 where they have different standards until the boot code.
With all the information you can calculate the Filesystem, FAT table and the Start Sector of the Root-Directory.
If you are in the Root Directory you are able to seek after filenames, attributes, starting cluster ("almost" similar to the CP/M ) in a 32 Byte information block. Ok CP/M has no FAT table, but it is in principle integrated in the 32 Byte block or split into more then one entry.

Look for Spec. of MS. It's very clear, but you will need to read it more than one times before understanding...(ok, this counts only for me). :)
...proudly supported Schnapps Demo, Pentomino and NQ-Music-Disc with GFX

Ast

For those who are interested... Just click Here to download Microsft's fat 12/16/32's doc.
_____________________

Ast/iMP4CT. "By the power of Grayskull, i've the power"

http://amstradplus.forumforever.com/index.php
http://impdos.wikidot.com/
http://impdraw.wikidot.com/

All friends are welcome !

Audronic


FirmWare 3.16 (Unofficial Installer ) Caveat Emptor.

A Copy of the Disc that i used to Install Firmware 3.16.
As SyX said Use it to test your system it is NOT an Official release.


Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

Ast

and what about x-Mass ? I don't really understand why you post fw316 here ?
_____________________

Ast/iMP4CT. "By the power of Grayskull, i've the power"

http://amstradplus.forumforever.com/index.php
http://impdos.wikidot.com/
http://impdraw.wikidot.com/

All friends are welcome !

Audronic

#423
@ast


Because it was used in my testing of the X-Mass.
SyX referred to it earlier in this thread.Reply #322

Ray
Procrastinators Unite,
If it Ain't Broke PLEASE Don't Fix it.
I keep telling you I am Not Pedantic.
As I Live " Down Under " I Take my Gravity Tablets and Wear my Magnetic Boots to Keep me from Falling off.

Kris

@Ast: The Fw 3.16 disabled the RAM disk at boot so as to launch the X-Mass ;)

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