Brian

Got my card earlier this week and had time to set it up today. Simply
amazing. Love the ease of use. One question. Majority of my USB
drives (especially the new ones) are not supported by the card. It
tells me "must format as MBR + FAT16/FAT32". I've tried formatting
them as both 16 and 32, but regardless, the CFFA won't read them. How
do I format them correctly for use with this card? Note: I'm using a
PC.

Wholly Mindless

Brian wrote:
> Got my card earlier this week and had time to set it up today. Simply
> amazing. Love the ease of use. One question. Majority of my USB
> drives (especially the new ones) are not supported by the card. It
> tells me "must format as MBR + FAT16/FAT32". I've tried formatting
> them as both 16 and 32, but regardless, the CFFA won't read them. How
> do I format them correctly for use with this card? Note: I'm using a
> PC.
>

Make sure you update your firmware. Unfortunately you need do do that from
a CF card. (This message was common before some USB/FAT issues were worked
out before full release).

http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforA.../downloads.php

--
Wholly

Brian

Spoke to Rich. I guess some USB devices don't have an MBR included
and windows has no easy way of putting one onto one. It looks like
there may be some third party tools which you can buy, but eh, I'll
just bug a friend that has a Mac since you can format using them to
include an MBR. Strange windows doesn't allow this?

thom

On Dec 10, 3:18*am, Brian <bpic...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Spoke to Rich. *I guess some USB devices don't have an MBR included
> and windows has no easy way of putting one onto one. *It looks like
> there may be some third party tools which you can buy, but eh, I'll
> just bug a friend that has a Mac since you can format using them to
> include an MBR. *Strange windows doesn't allow this?

I can't believe I've been away from Windows so long that I can't offer
a decent recommendation...

That said, grab a VM solution (I'm a VMWare guy myself, other options
exist as well), install Linux on as a guest OS (I'm a Debian guy
myself, but Ubuntu is about as uncomplicated a procedure as you can
get -- especially in VMWare) and then follow the guide below.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install...-flash-device/

The whole process will take you about forty five minutes from
beginning to end, depending on your internet connection; of course.

Wholly Mindless

thom wrote:
> On Dec 10, 3:18�am, Brian <bpic...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install...-flash-device/
>
> The whole process will take you about forty five minutes from
> beginning to end, depending on your internet connection; of course.
>

Ianstalling VMware just to put an mbr on a flash drive is pretty Rube
Goldberg. There are a lot of solutions to write an mbr. A quick google
search showed up this free tool:

http://mbrwizard.com/

--
Wholly

Brian

On Dec 12, 6:28*am, who...@whollymindless.com (Wholly Mindless) wrote:
> thom wrote:
> > On Dec 10, 3:18 am, Brian <bpic...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install...-flash-device/
>
> > The whole process will take you about forty five minutes from
> > beginning to end, depending on your internet connection; of course.
>
> Ianstalling VMware just to put an mbr on a flash drive is pretty Rube
> Goldberg. *There are a lot of solutions to write an mbr. *A quick google
> search showed up this free tool:
>
> http://mbrwizard.com/
>
> --
> Wholly

Yup, I used the command line version of MBRWizard. Unfortunately it
only allows you to create/repair an MBR in XP or Windows 7 modes
(which both proved unsuccessful in allowing the USB device to be read
by the card). It all worked out though because I ended up getting a
USB extension off craigslist anyways so I don't have to be so picky
with which USB device I'm using (since the only one I had available
that worked with the CFFA was quite large and bulky for USB stick-
standards. So all is well If any of you do find a 3rd party tool
with windows that actually works, I think it would be beneficial to
add that information to the R & D Automation website for other windows
users ( I know, we're a dying breed).

Wholly Mindless

Brian wrote:
> Yup, I used the command line version of MBRWizard. Unfortunately it
> only allows you to create/repair an MBR in XP or Windows 7 modes
> (which both proved unsuccessful in allowing the USB device to be read
> by the card). It all worked out though because I ended up getting a
> USB extension off craigslist anyways so I don't have to be so picky
> with which USB device I'm using (since the only one I had available
> that worked with the CFFA was quite large and bulky for USB stick-
> standards. So all is well If any of you do find a 3rd party tool
> with windows that actually works, I think it would be beneficial to
> add that information to the R & D Automation website for other windows
> users ( I know, we're a dying breed).
>

I don't remember having a whole lot of trouble with any of my probably 8-10
keys (because of the early issues we had with the 3000, I bought a selection
for testing) Generally, if it could be formatted in windows it was
recognized by the CFFA 3000. I think I even used diskpart (win 7 command
line tool) to try to break things at one point. Generally, if it formatted
it worked (after the timing issues in the library were fixed up.)

--
Wholly

David Schmidt

On 12/13/2011 11:35 AM, Wholly Mindless wrote:
> Brian wrote:
>> Yup, I used the command line version of MBRWizard. Unfortunately it
>> only allows you to create/repair an MBR in XP or Windows 7 modes
>> (which both proved unsuccessful in allowing the USB device to be read
>> by the card). It all worked out though because I ended up getting a
>> USB extension off craigslist anyways so I don't have to be so picky
>> with which USB device I'm using (since the only one I had available
>> that worked with the CFFA was quite large and bulky for USB stick-
>> standards. So all is well If any of you do find a 3rd party tool
>> with windows that actually works, I think it would be beneficial to
>> add that information to the R& D Automation website for other windows
>> users ( I know, we're a dying breed).
>>
>
> I don't remember having a whole lot of trouble with any of my probably 8-10
> keys (because of the early issues we had with the 3000, I bought a selection
> for testing) Generally, if it could be formatted in windows it was
> recognized by the CFFA 3000. I think I even used diskpart (win 7 command
> line tool) to try to break things at one point. Generally, if it formatted
> it worked (after the timing issues in the library were fixed up.)

The only trouble I had were with some really _old_ keys. Brian is
talking about trouble with _new_ ones... I wonder: is it because they're
too big? Would partitioning them up help?

magnusfalkirk

On Dec 13, 12:51*pm, David Schmidt <schmi...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>
> The only trouble I had were with some really _old_ keys. *Brian is
> talking about trouble with _new_ ones... I wonder: is it because they're
> too big? *Would partitioning them up help?

One thing I've noticed, and I don't know if it's just my problem or
what, some .2mg files will not mount. When you press return the card
will say it has mounted but it doesn't show up in the list on the
right hand side as mounted. If you press return a second time the card
will tell you it's already mounted but it isn't. I"ve had this happen
with 32mb images but also with some smaller images. Any ideas?

Dean

David Schmidt

On 12/14/2011 12:04 PM, magnusfalkirk wrote:
> One thing I've noticed, and I don't know if it's just my problem or
> what, some .2mg files will not mount.

Are they available on the 'net to others to try out? Also - check out
the debug log. Any interesting complaints in there? (From the main
menu, hit Ctrl-D to get to the debug menu.)