Best way to format large devices

[jimh54]

Hi,
I'm new to Apple ][ GS and new to CFA3000. Lots of experience with original Apple ][,+,e though.
Question is I have an 8GB Sandisk flash drive and a 4GB Transcend CF card to use in the CFA3K.
I can't find any specific instructions on how to format these for the CFA3K and A2GS to read them
except for the disk image in the flash drive, CFA3K can't "see" any of the rest of the space.
I read somewhere that drkenb was able to format his 2GB CF card to >32MB but those instructions
did not cover the block conversion issue very well.
Does someone know of a detailed procedure to format these large capacity cards so they become more useful?
My hope is to load them up with nearly all of the disk images I have so i never have to load them up from a computer.
Thanks for the help

[jimh54]

I figured out how to make a 2GB HFS partition on the USB drive. I put a lot of disk images on there but they don't run because they are not mounted. It's a start. I need to do more reading I guess.

[dlyons]

The CFFA3000 looks at the first (or only) partition of your CF or USB device, and it requires that partition to be FAT16 or FAT32. If you add an HFS partition to the flash device, the CFFA3000 won't use that partition for anything.

Disk Image files are the solution to everything: Copy your disk images onto the FAT-formatted media, and use "SmartPort Assignments" from the main menu to choose which ones the CFFA3000 mounts for the Apple II to see.

To use the rest of the space, create one or more large blank disk image files. You can do this with New Blank Disk Image from the CFFA3000 main menu, for images up to 128MiB. The size limit is because it takes too long on the CFFA3000 -- larger files are fine, just create them on a Mac or PC and make sure they are a multiple of 512 bytes in size.

Cheers,

--Dave The Firmware Guy

[david__schmidt]

I figured out how to make a 2GB HFS partition on the USB drive.

You don't really want to do that. Dave has some good, detailed advice for you. I'll zoom out a little and give a broader overview:

You want to leave your USB drive "formatted" the way it came from the store. You shouldn't have to mess with that at all. If you want to have a 32MB "partition" (or two), then all you have to do is copy a blank 32MB disk image to the USB drive and tell the CFFA3000 to mount it. And I think your real question is just that: how do you create one of these 32MB files in the first place?

1) Use CiderPress on a PC to create a blank 32MB image (File->New->Disk Image... 32MB), then copy that to your USB
2) Use the CFFA3000 itself (New Blank Disk Image->32M)

An image prepared by CiderPress will be ready to use. The image created by the CFFA3000 will need to be initialized by ProDOS coming from some other disk/image, since it is entirely zeroes and doesn't have ProDOS file structures on it yet.

[jimh54]

Thanks for all the info.
So, It seems to be a pretty big waste of space to use 8GB CF or Thumb drives, right? At least until the new update that lets us use folders.
Or can I put as many 32MB drives on there as I want and only assign the ones I need at any given time?
My hopes were to put all of the Apple II and GS Programs I have ( lots and lots ) and have them readily accessible.

[jimh54]

Also, I had a lot of images on a thumb drive. Along with the System image on a 32 MB drive image. The only one that would boot up was the first one in alphabetical order, Asteroids in this case. The System image was called System 6.0.1 so it was far down on the list. Is there a way to have several images on the root of the drive and have them selectable as to which one I can use? Sorry for all the noob questions I haven't used an Apple II in Twenty five years or so. And the CFFA300 adds to the confusion but in a very positive way.

[david__schmidt]

So, It seems to be a pretty big waste of space to use 8GB CF or Thumb drives, right?

Well, 8GB would probably store every piece of software ever written for the Apple II series, yes.

At least until the new update that lets us use folders.

Folders will help you keep your stuff organized without having to copy programs into a larger container like a virtual hard drive, yes.

Or can I put as many 32MB drives on there as I want and only assign the ones I need at any given time?

Yes you can.

My hopes were to put all of the Apple II and GS Programs I have ( lots and lots ) and have them readily accessible.

That will be easiest once you get directory support, for sure.

Also, I had a lot of images on a thumb drive. Along with the System image on a 32 MB drive image. The only one that would boot up was the first one in alphabetical order, Asteroids in this case. The System image was called System 6.0.1 so it was far down on the list. Is there a way to have several images on the root of the drive and have them selectable as to which one I can use?

I'm not sure what "level" of selectability you're talking about... if you mean you mounted a ton of images in the SmartPort, or if you are talking about something within the image itself...

[jimh54]

David Thanks for making things clearer. I need to study the GSOS more so I will know how to mount disks and do other basic things. Like I said, It's been awhile since I've used a system this old.

[david__schmidt]

David Thanks for making things clearer. I need to study the GSOS more so I will know how to mount disks and do other basic things. Like I said, It's been awhile since I've used a system this old.

No problem. Take your time. The CFFA3000 has added one more layer to the onion - one more "wrapper" that can contain files/images. It can take a while to get a good mental model going in your head... there's no substitute for just playing with it.