The Sinclair QL Forum

Morning Ladies and Gents

Please could someone with more knowledge and experience possibly give me a steer on a very annoying problem I've encountered?

I have a repeatable issue with both a Miracle Systems Gold Card and a QubIDE I obtained from Tetroid. Both cards power up perfectly, command sets are visible but when I try to access the media be it a FDD with the Gold Card or DOM or CF card with the QubIDE things aren't working.

I've attached two screen shots so you can see what's happening.

With the QubIDE at boot the media is detected but I get a Linking Win1_ failed! error.

Initially I thought this was because the media hadn't been formatted and it would clear once that step had been completed.

When I try to format the media with a FORMAT WIN1_, I get "read only". This is the same with every media type attempted with the QubIDE

I then had a nagging doubt as to what was going on so fired up the Gold Card with a QL/BBC FDD unit which arrived last week. I know that works perfectly as I've been using it with a Plus D card on one of my Spectrums.

No boot errors but again when I run a TK2_EXT command and try and access the drive I get the same "read only" error.

This leaves me with a suspicion that I am either being incredibly dense or there's something wrong which is preventing any form of external I/O with the QL.

Please can you advise as this is driving me nuts and I've got that sinking feeling that this QL, despite being in fantastic condition may have issues.

KRs

John

The startup message from the QubIDE indeed means that the ROM couldn't find a valid partition on the media.

You might need to enable CF formatting first with WIN_FORMAT 1.

After you've enabled that, you should proceed with the WIN_DISK command that creates partitions, then mount the partitions using the WIN_DRIVE commands. Only then will you be able to FORMAT the newly created WIN drives. (A manual describing this process is here)

This is a safety net built into the ROM to prevent you from accidentally formatting your drives.

The floppy read-only message very probably has another, different reason.

A lot of CF cards don't work at all with QubIDE, I think because there have been slightly different standards over the years. There's no way of knowing just from the manufacturer, size/specs. You may have to try a few different ones with the WIN_FORMAT, WIN_DISK etc procedure as described above before you find one that works.

Have you tried a different FDD and cable?

Hi,

Please read page 12 in the QubATA Driver manual (link above).

The error message indicates that there is no QubATA partion, so the automatic mounting WIN1 to partition 1 fails.

A partion can be created a partion, then format it.

Referring to the QubATA Driver manual:

QubATA Driver Manual, page 14 wrote: Examples:
WIN_DRIVE -1 : REMark unlink all WIN drives
WIN_FORMAT 1,4 : REMark allow change partitions and set Block Size to 4 Sectors
WIN_DISK “REMOVE”,1,3 : REMark remove part 3 on device 1
WIN_DISK “CREATE”,1,3,128 : REMark create a new part 3 on device 1 with 128MBytes of total size
WIN_DRIVE 3,1,3 : load the new partition as WIN3_
FORMAT “WIN3_NewName” : REMark format WIN3_ and give it this new name

Typical sequences
1) Allow partitioning and formatting Media WIN_FORMAT 1
2) Initialize the disk for a new Media WIN_DISK INIT,<dev>
3) Create a new partition on new or existing Media WIN_DISK CREATE,<dev>,<part>,<size>
4) Load the new created partition WIN_DRIVE <n>,<dev>,<part>
5) Format the new loaded partition FORMAT WIN<n>_Name
6) Reset protection WIN_FORMAT 0

Gentlemen!

Thank you. With a degree of irony the guide I'm looking at isn't the one you've signposted me to!
All points noted. When I can get to my desk (redecorating and stuff is now stacked infront of the QL / Spectrum shrine) I'll have another concerted effort.

Cheers again

John

Ok, not sure if you fixed this, but it's a case of read the manual! firstly the drive is locked against formatting (read only error) to bypass this type 'win_format 1' next you may need to initialise the disk. reboot then format , remember to run win_format 1 again when rebooted.