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D64-Reader - Problems, ideas and possibilities.
http://retrohackers.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=182		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Twoflower [ Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:20 pm ]
Post subject:  D64-Reader - Problems, ideas and possibilities.
On Doc's suggestion, i'd think that i'd rather bring the topic here, instead of whining on about this on CSDb. I (aswell as Tao and Dalezy) have had some troubles getting the D64-reader to work as it should. The problem which have surfaced are 1) Corrupted first track. The image appears ok, but files occupying the first track fuck up. The rest works like a charm. 2) The MMC-64 needs and hard-restart to be able to read more than one diskside. 3) The plugin produces empty images.

Since the plugin works nice for Doc Bacardi, my idea is that it either have to do with the revisions of the MMC, the current bios flashed or the fact that we all uses different SD/MMC-cards. My bet is on the last one. This, save for Dreamload, is the only program which actually saves using MMC64. Concidering the problems we had to get certain cards working using the first bios, this seems quite plausible. When i'm able test writing the same image to different cards, i'll report the results.

Save for the above mentioned problems, I believe that the idea of backupping disks directly to your SD/MMC card might be a nice idea. Possibly very fast too, since writing to the card hardly takes any time at all. I've been disassembling the reader, and have been fiddling with the idea to implement Dreamload and its track/sector routines to be able to backup d64/d71/d81's using Olivers routines to store it on the MMC-card.

What do you guys think? Any bad experiences with the D64-reader from any of you?
Author:  Sdw [ Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:22 am ]
Post subject: 
Could anyone who owns a MMC64 confirm these problems?
I've been on the fence for a long time whether to buy a MMC64 or not, but I really need to know if D64 reading works or not.
Author:  RaveGuru [ Sat Dec 02, 2006 4:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
Any progress on this issue?
Author:  Sdw [ Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:44 pm ]
Post subject: 
Argh, can't a couple guys who has a MMC64 just do some simple tests to verify the presence of this bug or not? It should be simple enough ,take a disk which has content on all tracks, including track one. Transfer it to MMC64, then either transfer back to another disk or check it in VICE or something.
I still don't dare to buy a MMC64 until I know if it works or not.
Author:  RaveGuru [ Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:08 pm ]
Post subject: 
Unfortunately I don't own a MMC64. Otherwise I'd be happy to check it. Anyone else? Please?
Author:  Doc Bacardi [ Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sdw wrote:
Argh, can't a couple guys who has a MMC64 just do some simple tests to verify the presence of this bug or not?


I tried it again with the latest bios (v1.03) and it still works. Here's what I did:

* copy a full d64 image to my mmc (I used the tac version of california games, only 7 blocks free on the disk)
* write the d64 to a real disk with kratznagel's d64writer
* read back the disk with D64Reader V06 from http://www.ami.ga
* read back the disk again right after the first round finished
* compare both read-back images with the d64 on my hd

All images are exactly the same. Uh... yay! :)


Sdw wrote:
I still don't dare to buy a MMC64 until I know if it works or not.

If there is a bug with reading d64 images, then I'm sure it's a software problem. There has been too much successful writes for a hardware bug. This means it is safe to buy one. It is also good for the plugin to buy one: The more people use it, report bugs and ask for improvements the better it will get. :)
Author:  Devia [ Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:55 pm ]
Post subject: 
Doc Bacardi wrote:
The more people use it, report bugs and ask for improvements the better it will get. :)

Uhm.. so does that mean that the more bugs you introduce to a product, the more popular it will get? ..that would definately explain a thing or two about certain major coorporations ;-)
Author:  Sdw [ Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:57 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks for testing it Doc! Guess I can finally order a MMC64 now when my local supplier gets them in stock again.
Author:  Twoflower [ Wed Feb 28, 2007 2:32 pm ]
Post subject: 
I still have the same problem with the D64 reader. Not minding the reader taking a hell of a long time, it also produces the same results on my 64M card as on my Kingston 128M card. It seem to add strings of 8 FF's and 8 zeroes instead of the valid data where the file is overlapping track 1.

Might this be a problem concerning the first revision MMC64's? Shall check this out if Jackasser (or someone else) brings his MMC to the S:t Lars.
Author:  ZZAP69 [ Thu Apr 26, 2007 10:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
I don't know if we're discussing the same problem here, I just read Twoflowers post quickly.

Today I got the message "Error - Can't read file" when I tried to read a disc into a .d64-image. It has never occured before, so I first thought it could have been some plug-in I installed that made the reader unstable. I removed all other plug-ins but with the same result. I even updated the BIOS, but same agaín. :(

Can it be so bad that the MMC64, or any other hardware is damaged?

Tobias

EDIT: (It says "Error - can't WRITE file".)
Author:  ZZAP69 [ Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:10 am ]
Post subject: 
Now it works again!
And all I had to do was to reformat the card...
Author:  Devia [ Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:56 am ]
Post subject: 
ZZAP69: How big is the card? Did you use the card with Windows or Linux? And did you originally format it under Windows or Linux? ..or some other OS ;-)
Author:  ZZAP69 [ Wed May 02, 2007 12:12 am ]
Post subject: 
Devia: The card is the MMC-card I got with my MMC64. It's 256 MB and I used it and formatted it with Win XP. I heard there are some problems with larger cards, like 2 GB or bigger, isn't that right?
Author:  Devia [ Wed May 02, 2007 9:53 am ]
Post subject: 
Right.. The problem is afaik related to the way that Windows handles long filenames. I don't think the size of the card matters, but rather the number of files/dirs. I have never encountered this problem when using only Linux to format and copy files to/from the card. Another added bonus of using Linux for that is that it's like a 100 times faster than Windows.
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