Formatting NXT compact flash cards

[beko]

I am uuuummm trying to make backups of my NXT game software. I have the correct compact flash cards but they have been formatted in a RAW or FAT16 format. As far as I know the game data is written in Linux and the card needs to be formatted so. It tries to write the backup file to the card but states that the size of the card is too small. I have tried formatting the card in a Linux enviroment but keep getting partition errors.

Anybody had more fun than me? 

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Try a program named "selfimage".

I was lucky using that one!

Cheers

[brichter]

Have you tried using dd?

[rickhunter]

You do not need to format the CF cards if you are using any kind of imaging program.  If you use linux, you can use dd to copy the whole card.  If you use windows, you can use any imaging program like winimage or the aforementioned selfimage.

[beko]

Hi guys,
Thanks for your replies. Still no luck though.
This is happening only on the 128MB (original SanDisk) compact flash cards. Jade Elephant and Lucky Lemmings games. Also on all the games that need 128MB operating system cards.

No matter what I try, it cant copy over the software to the card as it says out of space etc...
Under windows most software recognises the card  as 122 MB. The software under explorer says 125.440KB, however it also reports it at 122,500KB on some software.

Done a low level format in Linux and read 132MB. wtf??, but still dont work. Dont know enough about Linux and the dd command.

Anybody else have luck??

NOTE: Sandisk advertise 128MB which in reality is 128/1,024kb = 125MB........still not enough ????

[rickhunter]

My guess is that the images you have and are trying to restore to the blank cards have headers or other information appended by the program that originally created the image, what is the file extension on the images you have?  BTW 125,440 is the correct size for a 128MB card used in WMS Systems.

[brichter]

man dd

[beko]

I have two backups. One in *.vhd uses WinImage and one in *.fmb uses Vaiosoft recovery manager. I also borrowed a working Jade E compact  flash and used the duplicate instruction, but same out of space error.

I downloaded bootable cd linux knoppix? but they omitted the dd command. I will try ubuntu I think ("humba bepa lo inja")

[Hokiehog]

Real 128MB Sandisk cards are extremely difficult to find.  You likely have a knock off that was sold as sandisk.  My guess is you have a bad CF disk. 

These are real precise, as if you dont have a real one... it will not work. period...

you are wasting your time if you think formatting in Linux will help...

[rickhunter]

I have two backups. One in *.vhd uses WinImage and one in *.fmb uses Vaiosoft recovery manager. I also borrowed a working Jade E compact  flash and used the duplicate instruction, but same out of space error.

I downloaded bootable cd linux knoppix? but they omitted the dd command. I will try ubuntu I think ("humba bepa lo inja")

If you cannot restore them using winimage for vhd's or vaisoft recovery for fmb's then it's your cf cards, they are probably counterfeits.  Formatting the cards does absolutely nothing when you are trying to write back an image using the sector copy method (which is the only way it's going to work).

I agree with Hokiehog, the 128MB cf's are hard to find, and most of the ones offered on e-bay are either too slow to work, or they are counterfeits.  Since you cannot even backup a known working cf card to one of your blanks, then the likelyhood of bad cards is pretty high.

This thread is bordering on "piracy enabling". 

[Hokiehog]

My vote is to lock the thread.  I agree with Rick. 

[beko]

Yea lock it. I guess I got duped. 10 cards down the drain.

Thanks anyway to you guys for trying to help.

[tacman]

beko, that wouldn't have been an Ebay purchase from Canada, would it?

 Dan (tacman)

[Jpau]

hello every body out there I`m having serious troubles whit  WMS BB slots , I got 12 of these machines and I get the error !! Partition DSS signature validation failed! on the screen, don`t know what`s happening, I`m new in this and don't know much about it, could any body please help me to try to solve this out!!, I read on the  service manual that this is due the CF memory, I tried to copy one  CF but had no luck.

thanks in advance.

[rickhunter]

Signature validation is a routine that WMS machines run at boot time to verify that the software running is as produced by WMS in order to verify their validity.  If you are getting these errors, that means that your software had either been modified, or has been put on media that does not match the original.  The hash that WMS uses to validate their software is tied to the entire contents of the CF card, so if your CF card is bigger than the original card was (even if it's just 1 byte bigger), it will fail validation.  That is why you can only use what WMS uses for their cards which are sandisk originals.

[blueridgeslots]

hello every body out there I`m having serious troubles whit  WMS BB slots , I got 12 of these machines and I get the error !! Partition DSS signature validation failed! on the screen, don`t know what`s happening, I`m new in this and don't know much about it, could any body please help me to try to solve this out!!, I read on the  service manual that this is due the CF memory, I tried to copy one  CF but had no luck.

thanks in advance.

Just another quick thing is also that particular error will occur when trying to use newer Software with older BIOS, example trying to use a 1800 Clear with less than v2000 BIOS it will show Clear Card empty, same with the newer OS

[Jpau]

hello everybody!!

does any one knows why is thi showing up when booting the WMS BB??

uncompresin linux... Ok, Booting  the Kernel.

init started: BusyBox v0.60.2 (WMS) multi-call binary

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                  STARTING  RC.SYSINIT

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Setting up symbolic links in /dev ...Done!

/dev/raw/raw1: bound to major 3, minor 0
/dev/raw/raw2: bound to mayor 22,minor 0
Validate: OS-Game compatibility check: OS Comp: G1.3 Game Comp: G1.3
Checking device "SSOS-000-1480":
..................................Device " SSOS-000-1480
signature Invalid!
..................................Device "S597-000-1000"
signature invalid!
/dev/root.old/initrd minix rw 0 0
bash-2.05a#_

I`m using sandisk CF for both game and OS.

thanks in advance.

[blueridgeslots]

See post above about Bios, or at least post what Bios and Ram you have

[comman]

The game cf cards are industrial card and you will never be able to use a normal commercial card (udma must be unsupported , smart must be unsupported..etc) and the card geometry of card is a little different . To create backup copy i use DiskImage .

hello everybody!!

does any one knows why is thi showing up when booting the WMS BB??

uncompresin linux... Ok, Booting  the Kernel.

init started: BusyBox v0.60.2 (WMS) multi-call binary

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                  STARTING  RC.SYSINIT

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Setting up symbolic links in /dev ...Done!

/dev/raw/raw1: bound to major 3, minor 0
/dev/raw/raw2: bound to mayor 22,minor 0
Validate: OS-Game compatibility check: OS Comp: G1.3 Game Comp: G1.3
Checking device "SSOS-000-1480":
..................................Device " SSOS-000-1480
signature Invalid!
..................................Device "S597-000-1000"
signature invalid!
/dev/root.old/initrd minix rw 0 0
bash-2.05a#_

I`m using sandisk CF for both game and OS.

thanks in advance.

Hi , you'r game cf cards is broken .

[stayouttadabunker]

This link I've placed below here really helped me understand why you're getting these errors and
also why Blueridge is saying that the BIOS may need to be updated as well
when using these newer flash cards. >>>

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/modesUDMA-c.html

[Slotmaster]

This is an old thread but this looks like bad CF cards and not bios related, if BIOS you would not get this far.

[blueridgeslots]

Wrong Bios = Partition Fail
Not enough Ram (Cache) = Locking up toward end of booting process usually

[rickhunter]

When games fail validation it typically means that the card's logical disk geometry do not match. This usually means you got fake sandisk cards.

For the record, industrial cards and standard commercial cards (i.e. sandisk and sandisk ultra and sandisk extreme) all share the same drive geometry and DO work with WMS platforms, as long as they are legit cards.  I use a mixture of standard and ultra cards and have never had issues with validation.

[stayouttadabunker]

Is this partly what you're talking about rick?
I understand that it has more to do with hard drives rather than game cards?
I pulled it from the PCGuide website. >>>

Hard Disk Geometry Specifications and Translation

The generic term used to refer to the way the disk structures
its data into platters, tracks and sectors, is its geometry.
In the early days this was a relatively simple concept: the disk had a certain
number of heads, tracks per surface, and sectors per track.
These were entered into the BIOS set up so the PC knew how to
access the drive, and that was basically that.

With newer drives the situation is more complicated.
The simplistic limits placed in the older BIOSes have persisted to this day,
but the disks themselves have moved on to more complicated
ways of storing data, and much larger capacities.
The result is that tricks must be employed to ensure compatibility
between old BIOS standards and newer hard disks.

[rickhunter]

Compact flash cards are basically Flash memory with an IDE interface or PCMCIA, depending on which pins are shorted on the card (yes, you read that right).  It supports CHS logical block addressing and some CF cards even have wear leveling for the NANDS.  So as far as the host interface for the CF card is concerned, it's nothing more than a hard drive with (Cylinder Heads and Sector scheme).  This is the drive geometry that must match in order to pass validation as the hash algorythm takes this into account when comparing the Hash in the CF program to the calculated one as the validating routines calculates the hash.