Trouble with Arc 3000

[Panther]

Looking at !ArcFS (Why do they insist on the exclamation marks with the file names !), it appears to be an archiving/compression tool, I already have !Sparkplug which appears to do a similar thing !

Will see how I get on with that.

If this all works then what's the recommended biggest drive size to use ? and what's the best way to get files from the PC onto the Arc HD ?

[Phu]

They have exclamation marks because thats how Risc OS identifies a folder as being an application

!SparkPlug and !ArcFS handle different archive formats. !SparkPlug might not handle .arcs.

Early Risc OS generally farts on anything over 2GB. A 1Gb drive or a 512Mb drive will do nicely.

One of the easiest ways is put the files on a DOS disk, copy them to HD on the Arc, then set-type them as appropriate.

If you've got a Risc OS ZIP file, you'll need to extract these on the Arc to preserve type, stamp and load/exec addresses. !ZipEE is available to do this

-- Richard

[Panther]

One of the easiest ways is put the files on a DOS disk, copy them to HD on the Arc, then set-type them as appropriate.

If you've got a Risc OS ZIP file, you'll need to extract these on the Arc to preserve type, stamp and load/exec addresses. !ZipEE is available to do this

WTF ?? 

Got the bit about putting the files on a disk and copying to the arc, but what's this set type thing ?

How do you know it's a RISC OS zip file as opposed to a windows zip file ?

[Phu]

Generally speaking, it'll be a ZIP on a page with "Risc OS" on it

Files in Risc OS have a type, BASIC, Text, DrawFile, etc. When you copy a file from a DOS disk, it has no type (DOS disk do not support types).

So you have to middle-click on the file, go to "File" then go to "Set Type" and enter the hex or plaintext type of the file.

Then you can double-click it to open it with the right app.

-- Richard

[Panther]

Can I create a DOS disk in XP or only from true DOS ?

[Phu]

You can create DOS disks in XP, but you need to ensure they are 720K. The A3000 only has a double density controller and can't read 1.44Mb disks.

Alternatively, your A3000 can format DOS disks. And usually quicker and more reliably

(Note all this DOS disk support requires you have Risc OS 3.0 or later (with the Acorn icon in the bottom right corner of the desktop) - if you have an un-upgraded machine with Risc OS 2 (with the Archimedes A icon instead) then you won't have DOS disk support).

-- Richard

[Panther]

Arc soon to be launched out of nearest window !!

You can create DOS disks in XP, but you need to ensure they are 720K. The A3000 only has a double density controller and can't read 1.44Mb disks.

-- Richard

I thought the Arc used 800kb and 1600kb disk types (which I assumed was equivalent to 720kb and 1.44Mb)

When I'm using Omniflop should I write disk images using Acorn ADFS D, D+, E, E+ 800kB or Acorn ADFS F, F+ 1600kB or something else ?

Also with regards to the HCCS IDE Podule I have if I use the command *Devices will this tell me whether the Arc recognises it's there ?

I've cuirrently got a 128meg CF card rigged to the podule, but when I try and add this using the commands from the HCCS manual on reboot I get a 'Filecore Error' message not sure if this is because the drive isn't formatted, if this is the case !Hform isn't wanting to play, so I need to get the HCCS !IDEMgr software on there which is whats causing me some issues !!!

[Phu]

The native formats on an A3000 are ADFS L (640K) and ADFS D & E (800K). On the later machines (A3010 and higher) they have a high-density floppy controller so they also have ADFS F (1600K).

However, Risc OS 3 and later are able to handle DOS formats (and Atari formats too oddly). It will happily read 720K and 360K DOS floppies. On the A3010 and higher it will also read 1.44Mb floppies.

While you can read DOS disks on your Arc, you can't read 800K ADFS disks on the PC (except with Omniflop). So if you're using Windows to get files onto the Arc, you'll want to format as 720K DOS and copy the files using Windows Explorer or a Command Prompt.

If you have an ADFS disk image, or you are manipulating one e.g. with ADFS Explorer, then you will want to use OmniFlop to format it to ADFS 800K E then write the image. This will produce an Arc ADFS disk that you can read in your A3000 but not in the Windows machine, except via OmniFlop.


The Podule should show up in the list of *PODULES . FileCore (aside from being big steve's handle) is the component of Risc OS that manages all file interactions and works out which filesystem module handles it. From the desktop, the hierachy of management is as follows:

Filer -> ADFS_Filer -> FileCore -> ADFS. The Filers are the desktop components. So "FileCore Error" means that the FileCore tried to get details regarding a drive, and the filesystem module told it to f'off.

-- Richard

[Panther]

Right here's the latest update.......

*Podules lists the IDE interface 

Formatted floppies on the Arc both DOS 720Kb and also ADFS 'E' 800Kb managed to get !IDEMgr onto the Arc and recognises 128Meg CF card (well shows up as CF 125Mb) formatted this drive but it doesn't like to read from it or right to it (gives an error which I'll note down next time), could be the cable, card or possible the CF adapter. 

Tring to write an .adf disk image to floppy using Omniflop (Image is showing as 800kb in explorer) writes but then gives and error saying image is too large for the disk and some data has been missed off, I've tried more than one image file with the same results (so far Fevour, Flashback-Demo and Mr Doo), surprsingly the Arc won't open these 

Not sure if it's something I'm missing or doing wrong, I feel I'm so damn close to cracking this beastie 

Next to tackle is replacing the CMOS battery so I don't have to keep setting the HD up everytime I power on !! I'll make sure I charge it this time after replacing it. 

Any tips much appreciated as always.

[Phu]

After you've !IDEMgr'd it, can you !HForm it?

!IDEMgr might only do the "low level format" and the card still needs !HForm running on it to install a filesystem.

Did you replace the floppy driver driver and the floppy controller driver with the ones from OmniFlop?

The 128/125 thing is the result of the HD size scam. Manufacturers lie about their hard drive (and memory card) sizes to make them look bigger than they are are. Your CF card is NOT 128MB. Its a 122 MB card.

Specifically, it holds 128,000,000 bytes which is actually 122 MB. (1MB = 1024 * 1024 bytes).

This was less of a problem when sizes were pitiful (do you really care about a missing 6 MB?) but now we have 2 TB drives that missing 138 GB due to the size scam starts to look more significant...

-- Richard

[Panther]

Changed CMOS battery, but the Arc still looses all of it's settings when powered off for any time, is it easy to check if the charging circuit is working (and if so how)?

If the charging circuit is FUBAR'd then I've looked at using a standard AA battery and it looks simple enough, but what diode do I need if I go this route ?