d8b Forum

Something strange going on here, I format a memory stick and load in the 100 partitions via the app, when inserted into the CPU and I click on the floppy icon in the D8b, I either get a message "Insert a formatted floppy" or the screen freezes and I have to boot up again, if I try to drag a file from the HD to the floppy it freezes, any ideas?

Phil.c wrote:Something strange going on here, I format a memory stick and load in the 100 partitions via the app, when inserted into the CPU and I click on the floppy icon in the D8b, I either get a message "Insert a formatted floppy" or the screen freezes and I have to boot up again, if I try to drag a file from the HD to the floppy it freezes, any ideas?

Is the selected floppy image (#0-99) formatted so the operating system 'sees' it? That's the first thing I'd verify, Phil...

When I put the stick straight into my pc, it says Folder empty, when I have the app running and I insert the stick the #0-99 files are there, is there something elso to do so the OS sees the files?

(EDIT) I've just tried another format and notice that there's an unticked "DOS Bootable disk" box with DOS 6.22 and 7.1, I ticked the 6.22, after formatting I don't have "Empty folder" anymore but two system files, is that OK, if so is 6.22 correct or 7.1?

(EDIT) Just tried the stick again in the CPU, when I click on either the HD or floppy icon the screen freezes?

Phil.c wrote:When I put the stick straight into my pc, it says Folder empty, when I have the app running and I insert the stick the #0-99 files are there, is there something elso to do so the OS sees the files?

(EDIT) I've just tried another format and notice that there's an unticked "DOS Bootable disk" box with DOS 6.22 and 7.1, I ticked the 6.22, after formatting I don't have "Empty folder" anymore but two system files, is that OK, if so is 6.22 correct or 7.1?

(EDIT) Just tried the stick again in the CPU, when I click on either the HD or floppy icon the screen freezes?

Been a while (3-4 yrs), coincidentally I just booted my HDR up this afternoon - it and my D8B both have updated emulators I installed, too. I don't know if I've ever attempted to access the floppy drive from within the D8B, either the 3 1/2" or the emulator. It stands to reason it has something to do with read access, and a floppy is a 'hot swap-able' drive. What I'm not getting is which floppy image (#0-99) are you trying to access? What file(s)? Is it something with an .EXE extension, .DLL or similar? We're dealing with a Windoze operating system, and an older one at that. Now you're saying it also 'freezes' the display too? That sounds like an interrupt issue of some sort, check the BIOS maybe? Do you have any funky settings in the configs there? I don't have my D8B up n available to test this right now, Phil... still packed up, otherwise I'd verify things here for us - this sux. Format one of the floppy images for WIN95 (remembering the image partition #0-99), re-run the same steps... but before you access the floppy, switch to the WIN95 partition on the little buttons on the emulator to the appropriate image number, and try that. If that still freezes things up, everything from me would be conjecture until I could reproduce this myself - again, BIOS maybe? Maybe someone else with the same h/w that's up running will contribute to the cause here...

Apologies for the assumptions, and generally asking all the questions. This all does, however, make me fairly curious. I'll be watching this thread...

I'll check the BIOS tomorrow, I haven't used a stick for a long time but last time I used it it worked.
All I want to do is copy the D8B projects from the HD to it as. Backup, the D8B settings are the same as always, nothing different or extreme

Phil.c wrote:I'll check the BIOS tomorrow, I haven't used a stick for a long time but last time I used it it worked.
All I want to do is copy the D8B projects from the HD to it as. Backup, the D8B settings are the same as always, nothing different or extreme

It should work, as long as the image partition is writable and the D8B's operating system recognizes the file system on the usb drive. That's what's so puzzling... if everything is r/w, essentially that should do it. Frustrating not to be there to see it in action or the ability at the moment to reproduce it here. Stay with it man, this has to be something silly and/or overlooked...

When formatting the stick I ticked the box that said make bootable, I don't know if that's correct, but after the format there are two OS files and all the partitions there, anyway, I checked the D8b BIOS and it's correct, when I click on the floppy or the HD icon the screen freezes?

Phil.c wrote:When formatting the stick I ticked the box that said make bootable, I don't know if that's correct, but after the format there are two OS files and all the partitions there, anyway, I checked the D8b BIOS and it's correct, when I click on the floppy or the HD icon the screen freezes?

Wow, Phil... this is starting to get into possible video driver or some other driver type issue(s). It could even be a bad RAM module... but it's inside that cpu, that much is certain. One thing I never did ask, maybe even overlooked, is have you ever successfully performed this r/w operation? What hardware was involved? The video subsystem seems to work until this drive access operation is attempted, and then hangs... that's what I'm hearing. So based on that, me thinks it's either the video subsystem (card, driver, etc), even the drive itself (drive settings, file system & drivers, etc) or some mix of the two. Shame there's no debug file snippets left of the crash dump on your system, that would at least leave some vestige of a clue. I've always done everything via ftp in a shell console on Linux as it is...

Before I installed the new sim floppy drive I was getting problems with real floppies, i.e. Putting a floppy in with projects on it would bring up a message "Insert a formatted disc" I assumed the floppies had past their sell by date?
After installing the new floppy sim, it worked fine, I could copy projects to it from the HD but not any more? The desk itself works perfectly, I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong when formatting the stick, I mean, all I'm doing is opening the floppy app, putting in the stick, ticking "Make bootable" box and format, the partitions are there automatically...is that right?

Phil.c wrote:Before I installed the new sim floppy drive I was getting problems with real floppies, i.e. Putting a floppy in with projects on it would bring up a message "Insert a formatted disc" I assumed the floppies had past their sell by date?
After installing the new floppy sim, it worked fine, I could copy projects to it from the HD but not any more? The desk itself works perfectly, I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong when formatting the stick, I mean, all I'm doing is opening the floppy app, putting in the stick, ticking "Make bootable" box and format, the partitions are there automatically...is that right?

Nah, you don't need to make it bootable - in fact, I wouldn't - that's probably gonna be the issue itself. If you're not installing a bootable image (like the install software) you just need a partition that the OS can mount and then read. Like I previously mentioned, I would just pick an image number, say like #10, and just format it for WIN95. I forget the particular image type, most likely FAT16 or FAT32... either should work - just roll with FAT32. When it's thru formatting, put the stick back into the floppy emulator, select #10 on the front panel and have at it...

Share the results here, I think you should be Golden...