I've been mucking around with CiderPress in an attempt to copy over some .po hard disk images to the compact flash card for my MicroDrive Turbo. In Windows, when I load CiderPress and attempt to go to File > Open volume, I am unable to open the CF card as a physical disk. It is listed, however, when I attempt to open it, I get an "Access Denied" message. I can, however, open it as a logical volume.
The instructions with the MicroDrive Turbo are specific about opening the CF as a physical volume. Any ideas why this error is popping up?
There may be a conflict happening with Windows.
Windows sees it as a physical volume too but doesn't recognize it so it asks you to format it (which you should decline) and then it will tell you that you can't access that volume (which is normal) and you should disregard that message.
When you open Ciderpress and click the "open volume" icon it should show up as a pysical volume the size of the CF card (in my case it's 128 MB) which is how I distinguish it from any other connected drives.
Anyway, if you are intending to write to that volume make sure you un-check the "read-only" box in the dialog box or you will get an error when you try to write anything to it in Ciderpress.
I can't seem to resolve the conflict and get passed the access denied when opening as a physical volume. It does seem to work reading the CF as a logical volume after dismissing the "can't access that volume" dialog. Is there a reason not to do it this way?
Run ciderpress as Administrator and it should sort your permissions to the physical volumes. If not let me know. I always right click > Run as administrator if I need to work with a CF card.
Thanks for the tip. Running as administrator works! I feel like that must have been what I did last time I used it. I guess I forgot that step.
That's an odd issue.
I've never had to run Ciderpress as an administrator.
Unless that is a setting in Windows now...
I encountered the issue in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Not sure about earlier versions.
Same problem in Windows 7. Has always been that way...
How do you run as administrator in Ciderpress, I encountered this same issue. I'm very new to ciderpress
After you type "cider" either right-click and choose "Run as administrator" or just select it on the right side:
CiderPress.png
Amazing thank you so much! Can anyone recommend good software programmes? I will be doing some writing. Also something to help with the layout so it's easier to navigate?
What kind of system? An Apple II/IIe, or IIgs? If you have a mouse it opens up some options.
I have an apple IIGS. I have upgraded the rom to v1, ram to 8mb and have the microdrive turbo. My 3.5 disk drive has stopped working since I did those upgrades though. Thanks for your help.
It's an 8 bit app but there is at least one word processing app on the MicroDrive in the /MOUSE/ directory.
Perfect thank you.
last question lol I've managed to work Ciderpress but want to add a new partition so I can add total replay to the microdrive. Is there a link or manual that shows you how to do this?
You'll have to consult the MicroDrive/Turbo manual on the ReActive Micro Wiki.
Here's a link to it:
https://wiki.reactivemicro.com/images/9/9d/2021-10-23-CFFA-RM_Manual.pdf
There you will need to use the MicroDrive utility software to create a new partition on your media of 32MB in size.
Usually it's good to start with a new CF card, then partition it out into several 32 MB partitions. I use small CF cards (I bought a stack of 128 MB CF cards from an eBay seller for a few dollars for just this purpose) so I can keep the number of partitions small. For instance, 128 MB gets me three 32 MB partitions plus a 16 MB partition. The rest of the space on the card is allocated for replacing bad sectors and for storing low-level format information.
You can create more partitions in the utility, but GSOS gets cranky if there are too many, and 8-bit Apples don't want more than 4 or 6 partitions or you'll lose slot allocations.
Thank you that is very helpful! I'm going to have a look now!
Oops - I mistakenly posted the manual to the CFFA3000
This is the instruction you want:
https://wiki.reactivemicro.com/MicroDrive/Turbo
And here:
https://wiki.reactivemicro.com/images/e/e7/MicroDrive_Manual_2019.pdf
No worries, I found the correct link. Thank you for your help.