800XL startup RAM test fail options

[flashjazzcat]

What exactly was done to this 'hacked' SDX image in order to allow the partition editor to run on a 64K system under SDX? Unless one proposes to use said SDX ROM on a permament basis, it's likely that MEMLO will be way too high to run other software too. I was under the impression AVG provided extended memory anyway; the presence of same would allow SDX to place most of its drivers in extended memory and FDISK on the original 'stock' SDX image to work unimpeded.

 

In any case: the SIDE.SYS driver (necessary for FDISK to even detect the card on non-U1MB systems) presents a list of the drive numbers of mounted partitions when the machine boots up, so if that doesn't appear, no partitions are mounted.

 

A video of your partitioning workflow would be helpful, as mentioned above.

 

Note that the desciption of 'external' FAT partitions in the APT user guide does not imply that the creation of such partitions is essential to successful partitioning. Unless you propose to use the SDX FATFS.SYS driver (which requires extended memory anyway) for read-only access to an external FAT16-formatted APT partition, you can skip the external partition step entirely.

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

18 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

I seem to recall a similar situation with side3. What i would do is video your whole  process and post it here. It's likely you are missing a step and the penny will drop at some stage. 

@Beeblebrox thanks, I'll keep side3 in mind as I learn more, and good idea posting a vid - I'm reading up on SDX/atari HD/floppy/APT so that I don't waste folks time on something simple I just didn't understand. 

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

5 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

What exactly was done to this 'hacked' SDX image in order to allow the partition editor to run on a 64K system under SDX? Unless one proposes to use said SDX ROM on a permament basis, it's likely that MEMLO will be way too high to run other software too. I was under the impression AVG provided extended memory anyway; the presence of same would allow SDX to place most of its drivers in extended memory and FDISK on the original 'stock' SDX image to work unimpeded.

 

In any case: the SIDE.SYS driver (necessary for FDISK to even detect the card on non-U1MB systems) presents a list of the drive numbers of mounted partitions when the machine boots up, so if that doesn't appear, no partitions are mounted.

 

A video of your partitioning workflow would be helpful, as mentioned above.

 

Note that the desciption of 'external' FAT partitions in the APT user guide does not imply that the creation of such partitions is essential to successful partitioning. Unless you propose to use the SDX FATFS.SYS driver (which requires extended memory anyway) for read-only access to an external FAT16-formatted APT partition, you can skip the external partition step entirely.

@flashjazzcat the 'hacked' (their term) SDX-fdisk version is the one referenced on the De Re Avgcart guide (Atari8bit.net) to use instead of your version when for initial setup on 64K RAM systems (I assume for the reasons you mention?). Using that version I am able to invoke FDISK and use the APT editor to partition, but I fail at the FORMAT step (where I can't select any drives/partitions). I did have a MEMLO error when trying to use FDISK from a normal SDX-fdisk version IIRC. I've replaced my (faulty) RAM with some 256k but have no memory mods (yet?) and I'm doing this on a SUBCART.

 

I'm not seeing a list of drives at boot (only files in the FAT partition), but I assume the partitions have no dir structure since FORMAT failed - would they still populate that list if not formatted?

 

That's VERY helpful re: FAT16 partition - I really wasn't sure why I'd need to add an external FAT part via APT when I could just format that space in laptop and would be visible to (SUB)AVGCART/SIDE (I don't have a need for Fat16 but the guide mentions you can also do Fat32..so..) - this was/is the confusing part of that for me: the purpose/advantage of adding EXT FAT*32* part via APT - but I see that's more (only?) for FAT16 being visible to DOS (bc it's within an APT part) - is that correct? 

As I don't (yet?) foresee needing FAT16 for anything, I can just skip adding that partition, and the De Re guide makes better sense now. 

 

Apologies, I'm reading but it's still early days and I still feel mostly unfamiliar w/the software(s) and guides/manuals/disciplines - they seem to multiply daily (no complaints, I enjoy the learning as much as anything). I also don't want to waste anyones time on anything trivial. Thanks so much for the help

 

[flashjazzcat]

8 minutes ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

the 'hacked' (their term) SDX-fdisk version is the one referenced on the De Re Avgcart guide (Atari8bit.net) to use instead of your version when for initial setup on 64K RAM systems (I assume for the reasons you mention?).

I understand that, yes. What I was asking is what has been 'hacked' or what drivers have been removed to accomplish an SDX memlo at or below $2000 on a system without extended RAM and the SIDE.SYS driver installed.

10 minutes ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

I'm not seeing a list of drives at boot (only files in the FAT partition), but I assume the partitions have no dir structure since FORMAT failed - would they still populate that list if not formatted?

I mean when you boot into SpartaDOS X and the SIDE driver notification apppears, not when you boot into the loader menu. Partitions need not be formatted in order for the partition table to be recognised by the SIDE driver (which has no knowledge whatsoever of disk formats, being responsible only for redirecting SIO requests to the appropriate areas of the hard disk).

12 minutes ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

this was/is the confusing part of that for me: the purpose/advantage of adding EXT FAT*32* part via APT - but I see that's more (only?) for FAT16 being visible to DOS (bc it's within an APT part) - is that correct?

Yes. Currently SDX only support FAT16 in read-only format, although it wasn't incocievable when the documentation was written that external FAT32 partitions could be exploited by SDX or some other DOS in the future (just as it was expected that the SDX FAT driver might have attained R/W capability during the ensuing decade). For instance: I wrote a DOS two years ago which is capable of reading and writing FAT16/32, so the 'external' FAT partitions may become useful in that context too.

15 minutes ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

Apologies, I'm reading but it's still early days and I still feel mostly unfamiliar w/the software(s) and guides/manuals/disciplines - they seem to multiply daily (no complaints, I enjoy the learning as much as anything). I also don't want to waste anyones time on anything trivial. Thanks so much for the help

It's no problem. When I suggested SIDE emulation mode to the creator of AVG some years ago, I never imagined how much labrynthine confusion might ensue in the future as the hardware gained more functionality and users wanted to use proprietary features and SIDE emulation in parallel with one another. It becomes confusing for me too, since the firmware I maintain runs on SIDE and U1MB, period, and one is sometimes unsure when 'The Loader' etc is referenced whether the user is referring to the SIDE loader, AVG loader, or what.

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

7 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

I understand that, yes. What I was asking is what has been 'hacked' or what drivers have been removed to accomplish an SDX memlo at or below $2000 on a system without extended RAM and the SIDE.SYS driver installed.

Right, I'm not sure how it was altered - I had no PBI/SIO cables connected (during this) - just SUBCART (and I'm not knowledgeable enough to know how it may/not function differently than AVGCART). If you think something about my particular mainboard/hardware (I'm sure mine is a typical late version) might elucidate anything, happy to run a test/provide info/photos.

 

7 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

I mean when you boot into SpartaDOS X and the SIDE driver notification apppears, not when you boot into the loader menu. Partitions need not be formatted in order for the partition table to be recognised by the SIDE driver (which has no knowledge whatsoever of disk formats, being responsible only for redirecting SIO requests to the appropriate areas of the hard disk).

Got it - do you mean what pops up literally after just launching SDX? I'll bring it up tonight and observe and get a photo. 

7 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Yes. Currently SDX only support FAT16 in read-only format, although it wasn't incocievable when the documentation was written that external FAT32 partitions could be exploited by SDX or some other DOS in the future (just as it was expected that the SDX FAT driver might have attained R/W capability during the ensuing decade). For instance: I wrote a DOS two years ago which is capable of reading and writing FAT16/32, so the 'external' FAT partitions may become useful in that context too.

Ok, yeah it seems pretty easy to mis-infer that part, but I can see why it was included. What does your DOS work with? (are you still maintaining/using it?). 

7 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

It's no problem. When I suggested SIDE emulation mode to the creator of AVG some years ago, I never imagined how much labrynthine confusion might ensue in the future as the hardware gained more functionality and users wanted to use proprietary features and SIDE emulation in parallel with one another. It becomes confusing for me too, since the firmware I maintain runs on SIDE and U1MB, period, and one is sometimes unsure when 'The Loader' etc is referenced whether the user is referring to the SIDE loader, AVG loader, or what

Thanks for the patience, I'm at the tip of this and can only imagine having to hold those technical threads together to create or troubleshoot. But it's motivating to see what people do/have done. Which firmware? (I should know by now)

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

2 hours ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

I mean when you boot into SpartaDOS X and the SIDE driver notification apppears, not when you boot into the loader menu. Partitions need not be formatted in order for the partition table to be recognised by the SIDE driver (which has no knowledge whatsoever of disk formats, being responsible only for redirecting SIO requests to the appropriate areas of the hard disk).

Here are the screens at SDX launch, first the normal SDX and then the 'hacked' SDX: 

norm 

'hacked' 

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

4.49g has been fixed, it resolved mostly all strange issues I had with PBI devices. I don't know what the hack would have been, other than simply using the sdx imager utility to add items to the sdx rom/cart image

[chevymad]

5 hours ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

Right, I'm not sure how it was altered - I had no PBI/SIO cables connected (during this) - just SUBCART

I don't know anything about sub/avg carts, but how much functionality does the cart have without the cables? Seems like you'd need the cables to do anything besides cart files. 

[flashjazzcat]

10 hours ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

What does your DOS work with? (are you still maintaining/using it?). 

It's built into the SIDE3 loader, ans installs itself whenever an executable is launched. Said executable can therefore behave just as if it were launched from a 'regular' DOS, using CIO calls to the disk handler, etc, but it's working with the FAT partition from which it was launched (which is mapped to "D1:"). There's also a command processor which can be launched directly from the loader, which results in an environment not unlike SpartaDOS 3.x, but working entirely with FAT. It's actively maintained but it's difficult to know how far to take it, given SDX already exists and will purportedly - eventually - be able to write to FAT16, at least. The Atari bootstrap design is completely incompatible with the FAT boot record, so sadly no disk-bootable version of the DOS is possible (at least not without convoluted steps).

 

See chapters 3 and 4 of the manual for more information.

10 hours ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

Which firmware? (I should know by now)

I wrote the SIDE.SYS and SIDE3.SYS drivers, the original PBI BIOS for the U1MB and Incognito, the 'FJC' firmware (which appears to be more or less ubiquitous now) for the U1MB, Incognito and SIDE/SIDE2, and the SIDE3 Loader.

7 hours ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

Here are the screens at SDX launch, first the normal SDX and then the 'hacked' SDX

Thanks. So we can see from this that no APT partitions have been recognised and mounted in either case, since no drive letters have been listed.

7 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I don't know what the hack would have been, other than simply using the sdx imager utility to add items to the sdx rom/cart image

One imagines that's all that was done, but De Re AVG interchangeably describes the ROM as 'modified' and 'hacked' without going into any detail about what was done. Perhaps the word 'hacked' is being used as per 'my Facebook was hacked' in order to obfuscate the simplicity of what actually occurred.

Edited May 12 by flashjazzcat

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

On 5/12/2024 at 12:22 AM, chevymad said:

I don't know anything about sub/avg carts, but how much functionality does the cart have without the cables? Seems like you'd need the cables to do anything besides cart files. 

A lot (though adding cables for SIO + PBI *does* open that up). You should give them a read (and ask the experts on here and are very helpful).
I chose SUBCART bc it fit the path I had in mind for this machine and leaves open many other options for further expansion/modding. Of course standard disclaimer that everyone will have their own wants/needs and so there are as many diff paths to take (if you're considering this kind of thing).

 

Edited May 13 by WOPRpwJOSHUA

[chevymad]

I was just wondering if some of your issues were from not having the pbi cable hooked up. 

Edited May 13 by chevymad
grammar

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

Not that i'm aware of. 

[TZJB]

18 hours ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

Not that i'm aware of. 

 

The SUBCART PBI cable connection gives access to the SUBCART expanded memory, which would possibly allow SpartaDOS X to run better?

 

[_The Doctor__]

It will allow SDX to move enough stuff out of commonly used memory and into the expansion, thus allowing more software to work in the SDX environment

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

On 5/14/2024 at 9:50 AM, TZJB said:

 

The SUBCART PBI cable connection gives access to the SUBCART expanded memory, which would possibly allow SpartaDOS X to run better?

 

 

On 5/14/2024 at 12:29 PM, _The Doctor__ said:

It will allow SDX to move enough stuff out of commonly used memory and into the expansion, thus allowing more software to work in the SDX environment

Yes I'm aware it's used for non-mod memory expansion, but I'm not aware (cable) it's *required* for setting up partitions using the De Re Avg version of SDX-FDISK...mainly bc I thought that's the (stated) point for the existence of that version (to overcome the 64K mem limit of 800XL's). All attempts thus far to partition have *seemed* to run smoothly to completion from within that SDX, and the issue(s) seem to arise at the attempt to FORMAT (following both/either De Re Avg and official guides, as well as a mix of both). I'm not saying it's NOT bc of memory - I just haven't had reason to assume it was, after reading threads and guides. I'll connect the cable in a bit and see if that results in getting further and report back. I'm also reading through general Atari design/os and DOS/SDX to understand it all better. 

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

On 5/12/2024 at 5:06 AM, flashjazzcat said:

It's built into the SIDE3 loader, ans installs itself whenever an executable is launched. Said executable can therefore behave just as if it were launched from a 'regular' DOS, using CIO calls to the disk handler, etc, but it's working with the FAT partition from which it was launched (which is mapped to "D1:"). There's also a command processor which can be launched directly from the loader, which results in an environment not unlike SpartaDOS 3.x, but working entirely with FAT. It's actively maintained but it's difficult to know how far to take it, given SDX already exists and will purportedly - eventually - be able to write to FAT16, at least. The Atari bootstrap design is completely incompatible with the FAT boot record, so sadly no disk-bootable version of the DOS is possible (at least not without convoluted steps).

 

See chapters 3 and 4 of the manual for more information.

 

On 5/12/2024 at 5:06 AM, flashjazzcat said:

I wrote the SIDE.SYS and SIDE3.SYS drivers, the original PBI BIOS for the U1MB and Incognito, the 'FJC' firmware (which appears to be more or less ubiquitous now) for the U1MB, Incognito and SIDE/SIDE2, and the SIDE3 Loader.

Interesting so much working from the loader-out (not that I would understand most of it). That's a lot of fingers in a lot of pies! Would I benefit by familiarizing w/SIDE3? (I assume yes to SIDE/SIDE2 bc of the AVG functionality?)

 

On 5/11/2024 at 4:14 AM, flashjazzcat said:

In any case: the SIDE.SYS driver (necessary for FDISK to even detect the card on non-U1MB systems) presents a list of the drive numbers of mounted partitions when the machine boots up, so if that doesn't appear, no partitions are mounted.

On 5/11/2024 at 6:57 PM, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

What I was asking is what has been 'hacked' or what drivers have been removed to accomplish an SDX memlo at or below $2000 on a system without extended RAM and the SIDE.SYS driver installed.

On 5/12/2024 at 5:06 AM, flashjazzcat said:

Thanks. So we can see from this that no APT partitions have been recognised and mounted in either case, since no drive letters have been listed.

I was able to partition via FDISK then format the FAT space via (Win) Command Prompt using DISKPART (but have not attempted FORMAT via a DOS yet). I'm able to use SIDE Loader and see the disks/partitions, but I couldn't find SIDE.SYS file (in any of the tools/downloads), and so to make sure I've done this correctly thus far, maybe you/someone can give these images a look?:

(should this also show drives?)

Here's what SubCart sees vs what PC sees (on FAT space):

 

 

I'll wait for a reply(s) to attempt FORMAT (w/SDX). Apologies for the lag - the kid and I have caught a bug.

[flashjazzcat]

1 hour ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

Would I benefit by familiarizing w/SIDE3?

Not really. The partition editor is hardware abstracted and works the same on all APT devices. What you would benefit from is Ultimate 1MB since that gives you a PBI-based HDD driver.

1 hour ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

should this also show drives?

No, because you lack PBI HDD support. The SIDE.SYS driver (clearly present since it's shown listing partitions in the green screenshot) is a SpartaDOS X driver and thus only works in SpartaDOS X (not while you're in the SIDE Loader, for instance, which has no recollection of anything SDX mounted via drivers which vanished when you entered the loader). The PBI (U1MB) solution, meanwhile, essentially provides system-wide OS HDD support, and thus the loader (in the fourth menu, which lists all drives as 'SIO' in your photo) is able to display mounted ATRs, APT partitions, etc, having queried the OS regarding what's mounted on each drive number.

 

I think among other things we're encountering the copious confusion caused by two loaders, etc. AVG's native firmware does not deal with APT, period.

Edited May 16 by flashjazzcat

[_The Doctor__]

The loader issue has always been a thing, in the early days, using one or the other allowed software to run that had issues on one or the other. Certain demos might not run on side loader but ran on avg loader and the converse things that might not run on avg loader ran on on side loader. It was fine as I simply put problem children in folders that said SIDELOAD and AVGLOAD. Both are light year better now and might not need those folders anymore but anytime you use a software based loader you might have some conflicts.

There wouldn't be a reason that AVG/SubAVG with PBI/ECI cord could not have a PBI based solution these days either.

Edited May 17 by _The Doctor__

[flashjazzcat]

5 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

There wouldn't be a reason that AVG/SubAVG with PBI/ECI cord could not have a PBI based solution these days either.

Software is the obstacle, as usual, and such generalisations and duplicated functionality appear profoundly confusing to the end user of the hybrid solution.

 

The user is simply trying to get his SDX hard disk partitions working as far as I can tell, and neither loader has any bearing on that whatsoever when using SIDE SYS (which is what I'm trying to explain to him amid noise about loader compatibility)..

Edited May 17 by flashjazzcat

[_The Doctor__]

Is the only thing at play at the moment a worry about formatting the partitions? There is nothing to lose by trying. I think videos and step by step order of operations messages are in the wild.

PC side

When setting mine up, it was down to using partitioning software on the PC to set up the first SD card as Windows would clobber it otherwise. Later versions of Windows would allow the partitioning without issue when using them.

That was followed by the Atari side software that would allow making the APT sections within those areas we set up earlier on the PC.

There was an order of operations issue at that time with APT tools / FDISK that was noted and then FIXED so that this was no longer an issue.

There was another issue someone had that Windows would set up .inf files and try to create 'READYBOOST' memory on the card. The solution being telling Windows not to readyboost the SD card before during and after set up.

The only thing left is to try using the APT tools/FDISK versions starting with the latest and greatest. If there is still a problem, work back through a version or two and see if one of the earlier versions works.

The only other thing I remember being a hurdle was a metadata setting being on or off.

I haven't had to touch any of this in years, since once set up and working there isn't a reason to do so again.

After collecting the wife and settling back in from Barcelona trip, I suppose starting a non PBI standard AVG with SIDE driver SD anew might be the only way to see what current experience would be.

I do know the first time setting up was on a plain old no upgrade 800XL, but all later setups were on 130XE and greater memory machines.

I hope that outline jostles something helpful with folks and it is resolved in the meantime.

I still think there were videos and outlines produced to cover this but how many years back to find them might be at issue.

Edited May 17 by _The Doctor__

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

15 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

17 hours ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

Would I benefit by familiarizing w/SIDE3?

Not really. The partition editor is hardware abstracted and works the same on all APT devices. What you would benefit from is Ultimate 1MB since that gives you a PBI-based HDD driver.

Very good, that's what I was thinking re: APT (and/also in case SIDE3 ever comes into the picture down the line).

16 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

The SIDE.SYS driver (clearly present since it's shown listing partitions in the green screenshot) is a SpartaDOS X driver and thus only works in SpartaDOS X (not while you're in the SIDE Loader, for instance

Oh, right I see it now - sorry, I was looking for some standalone file (..culprit..) of that name to dump into the SD root (..to possibly solve why I was never able to see APT partitions populated at the SDX launch screen. You've explained that/why well, I just had some dissonance bc of (I think) not understanding their (SLoader/SDX/SubLoader) domains. And then:

17 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

18 hours ago, WOPRpwJOSHUA said:

should this also show drives?

No, because you lack PBI HDD support. The SIDE.SYS driver (clearly present since it's shown listing partitions in the green screenshot) is a SpartaDOS X driver and thus only works in SpartaDOS X (not while you're in the SIDE Loader, for instance, which has no recollection of anything SDX mounted via drivers which vanished when you entered the loader). The PBI (U1MB) solution, meanwhile, essentially provides system-wide OS HDD support, and thus the loader (in the fourth menu, which lists all drives as 'SIO' in your photo) is able to display mounted ATRs, APT partitions, etc, having queried the OS regarding what's mounted on each drive number.

 

I think among other things we're encountering the copious confusion caused by two loaders, etc. AVG's native firmware does not deal with APT, period.

This helps. And i'm included to explore U1MB (it was already on my list from early days) though I don't want to use it as a crutch for glossing over how the pieces fit/work (like how these loaders/multicarts work to extend Atari functionality). Thanks again

 

 

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

14 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

The loader issue has always been a thing, in the early days, using one or the other allowed software to run that had issues on one or the other. Certain demos might not run on side loader but ran on avg loader and the converse things that might not run on avg loader ran on on side loader. It was fine as I simply put problem children in folders that said SIDELOAD and AVGLOAD. Both are light year better now and might not need those folders anymore but anytime you use a software based loader you might have some conflicts.

There wouldn't be a reason that AVG/SubAVG with PBI/ECI cord could not have a PBI based solution these days either.

I'm glad then we have both/competition, they all seem to be evolving into rich functionality.

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

9 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Software is the obstacle, as usual, and such generalisations and duplicated functionality appear profoundly confusing to the end user of the hybrid solution.

 

The user is simply trying to get his SDX hard disk partitions working as far as I can tell, and neither loader has any bearing on that whatsoever when using SIDE SYS (which is what I'm trying to explain to him amid noise about loader compatibility)..

I'll just add, I'm possibly atypical, arriving w/basically zero Atari computer design/innards/paradigm knowledge (other than owning a 2600 and having a typing+BASIC class in the 80's..) so my context is modern computers/design/OS (and a bit of languages like python). So there's some inference that I've leapt through that I obviously didn't have right - apologies for that. 

 

Yes correct - and you explained well - and have helped me set them up!

 

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

2 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Is the only thing at play at the moment a worry about formatting the partitions? There is nothing to lose by trying. I think videos and step by step order of operations messages are in the wild.

PC side

When setting mine up, it was down to using partitioning software on the PC to set up the first SD card as Windows would clobber it otherwise. Later versions of Windows would allow the partitioning without issue when using them.

That was followed by the Atari side software that would allow making the APT sections within those areas we set up earlier on the PC.

There was an order of operations issue at that time with APT tools / FDISK that was noted and then FIXED so that this was no longer an issue.

There was another issue someone had that Windows would set up .inf files and try to create 'READYBOOST' memory on the card. The solution being telling Windows not to readyboost the SD card before during and after set up.

The only thing left is to try using the APT tools/FDISK versions starting with the latest and greatest. If there is still a problem, work back through a version or two and see if one of the earlier versions works.

The only other thing I remember being a hurdle was a metadata setting being on or off.

I haven't had to touch any of this in years, since once set up and working there isn't a reason to do so again.

After collecting the wife and settling back in from Barcelona trip, I suppose starting a non PBI standard AVG with SIDE driver SD anew might be the only way to see what current experience would be.

I do know the first time setting up was on a plain old no upgrade 800XL, but all later setups were on 130XE and greater memory machines.

I hope that outline jostles something helpful with folks and it is resolved in the meantime.

I still think there were videos and outlines produced to cover this but how many years back to find them might be at issue.

@_The Doctor__ yes, now to FORMATting. Using the s2sdx3.car version, was able to format the (7 named out of 15 partitioned) HD's, and explore a bit the volumes. I still need to get used to the terminology and structure (at D1: was a bit confusing when I couldn't invoke things like CHDSK or DIR). The drives are all empty so I guess next session I'll explore adding/copying etc. To speed that (UI/software/OS/DOS) side up, I set up Altirra on a laptop and am playing in that.  

 

PC's: definitely had similar issues from recognizing partitions/spaces to  disk operations like formatting - both on Win and Mac. Mostly (not always), falling back on CP/Terminal (and maybe Sysinternals/Nirsoft on PC) tools has worked out (for me). Certainly, as USB has evolved along w/new storage types, devices, 'online' networks/libraries, native and 3rd party connected drives for sync, backup, RT co-authoring etc. etc., ensure these/similar issues keep popping up (but I can understand why they would). It sounds like you've had a full treatment to some of these issues..! Barcelona sounds perfect right about now..I hope you had a ball. I'll do a small vacay but later in Fall.

Thanks for your help!

 

 

[WOPRpwJOSHUA]

I might wait on the video-out mods...just came into this unexpectedly this weekend: