retroputing

[Gapporin]

Has anybody messed around with this program before? In a nutshell, it allows you to use your HD space as a 1541 or other storage device connected to a C64 by use of the XE cable.

Without getting too technical, here's my problem: Whenever I point the device 8 to a single .D64 file, 64HDD sends it to the C64 and it loads fine. The problem is in recognizing a whole folder. When you load a folder in 64HDD, you use the C64 to navigate within that folder, and then attach a file to the C64 to run it. The C64 can see my PC just fine, and the two can communicate with each other. However, when I load up the directory contents or try to attach a game to the C64, the C64 hangs and the PC acts like nothing happened. The manual/FAQ lists a bunch of possible reasons, but none seem to fit my dilemma: The cable works, the CPU is set up to exact timing, etc.

Can anybody shed a light on what might be going on? I got Star Commander to work so I know the connection can work. I'm just wondering what's got 64HDD so muddled.

[Gapporin]

...aaand 5 hours later, I'm happy to report that I've gotten it (mostly) working. Can even run .d64 and .t64 files off of a CD. This program pretty much obsoletes my need for Star Commander or floppies -- why copy one or two to a disk when you've got 6,000 on a CD?

[Flack]

Out of curiosity's sake, how did you fix the problem? I remember messing with 64HDD one time, not getting it to work, and discarding the idea. If I didn't already own the 1541 Ultimate I probably would pick up one of the IDE solutions floating around now.
_________________
Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[Gapporin]

I think it was a variety of things -- after making the first post, I had fooled around with it to the point where nothing worked, not even single games. So I junked the configuration files and everything else and started over, this time from a different folder. C:\64HDD is the default directory that the program looks at, and I think that this is one of the problems -- if you have 64HDD installed to any other directory, it creates a lot of unneeded work to try and get 64HDD to recognize itself anywhere else (not to mention that, like most C64 programs, 64HDD is pretty finicky anyways).

Another problem is that you have to set up the *exact* timings in the config file. If you have a computer faster than a 486, there's a special switch to let the program know you're running a Pentium. However, you have to tell the program exactly how fast your computer is running or else the whole thing just won't work (The program has an autodetect feature, however, this works to varying degrees). Case in point: My computer is a Pentium 168MHz, but the 168 setting wouldn't work. I read online that VC1541 would read and gauge the CPU speed, so I downloaded that and ran it, and it stated that the processor was running at 166MHz. Guess which setting worked? Even by being off by 2 MHz causes a major problem, so you have to use the exact setting.

There may have been little things I fiddled around with along the way, but these were probably the two biggest roadblocks along the way. If I had figured out this from the onset, I probably would have only spent 30 minutes to an hour trying to get it to work rather than five. I remember thinking the first time it ran by luck, "Well, this won't take as long to figure out as Star Commander did." Coulda fooled me!

[Ze_ro]

I remember a long time back, I had an old 386 setup with 64hdd running purely to service the C64. It didn't even have a monitor hooked up, it just booted straight into the program. I remember it being very frustrating to set up, but I don't remember the exact problems I had. Once it DID work, it worked fairly well... at least as a huge disk. I don't think I ever got single .d64 files working, and most games I played on the C64 were multiple disks anyways (and usually copy protected).

One problem I did have though, was that the CMOS battery on the PC died, so every time I turned it off, it lost the hard drive settings, and it had no auto-detect functionality. Since I had no VGA monitor handy, this quickly made things incredibly inconvenient to use.

Nowadays, I have a 1541 Ultimate, so the whole thing is a moot point. The PC itself now merely serves as a stand for my monitor, though I believe everything is still setup for 64hdd if I ever chose to use it again (not likely).

--Zero