Need help building a driver for "True-IDE" Microdrives

[ravic]

Hi,

I am planning on building a driver which will enable the use of True-IDE microdrives (Yes, the Ipod mini and Muvo 2 kind).

There are already some ATA block drivers available for the PPC 2002 device. So i do not want to re-invent the wheel if an existing one can be used.

I ordered my 4GB drive but has not arrived yet. I will need some info from a person who already has one so that i get a kick start before i recieve the drive.

1. What is the behaviour when you plug in the microdrive ?. (Be as descriptive as possible.)
2. Install Resco registry explorer and post what is displayed under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\PCMCIA" ? Export the registry file and upload it if possible.

I know several users here mentioned having tried a Seagate ST1 and Hitachi Microdrive.
I really apreciate if one of you guys can post this information.

EDIT:
I am looking for someone who has the 4GB versions extracted from Ipod or Muvo and are currently not able to get it to work in the AXIM.

CF and power pc interface spec. Lot of information about CF standard here http://www.toshiba.com/taec/componen...5GP_030523.pdf

Edit: More microsoft reference docs
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/tran...ed_070803.aspx
Host: Jay (Microsoft)
Q: Can True IDE mode be used for CF card using PCMCIA/ATADISK?
A: Yes, this works with ATAPI not ATADISK.


Edit: 12/26/2005

I think we hit a dead end. Most PDA compact flash slot implementation is based on PCMCIA standard. And PCMCIA slots only support ATA disks, not IDE disks. So there is no software fix for this. Sorry for the bad news.

[darkdestroyer]

Under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\PCMCIA
I've got
ATADisk
BlueCard-LSE041-FDC3
Brain_Boxes-Bluetooth_PC_Card
Brain_Boxes-CF+Bluetooth_PC_Card
Detect
Hayes-OPTIMA_288
MEGAHERTZ-Megahertz_28.8
(more random megaherts)
Modem
BLahblah blah

What exactly are you looking for?

When i plug in the microdrive it
1. Clicks and spins up
2. Appears in Resco
3. Spins down once resco closes.

Also what are you looking for in this "plug in " description. Nothing happens on screen.

[ravic]

Can you try using PHM Device Manager and see if it is displayed there ? Any unknown devices ?

Also, you mentioned that it appears in Resco ? Do you mean Resco File Explorer ? What does it appear as ?

[darkdestroyer]

I only have Unknown devices under
Ports (COM)
Those are
Unknown Serial Device (COM2)
Unknown Serial Device (COM3)
Unknown Serial Device (COM7)

Apart from that everything else is perfect

[ravic]

Do you see anything under "Disk Drives" ?

[darkdestroyer]

Standard Disk Drive (DSK1:)
Standard Disk Drive (DSK2:)

[ravic]

One of them should be your SD Card and the other is the Microdrive. If you select the microdrive and click on the properties icon you should see something for the path for the Registry. Can you please post that path.

[darkdestroyer]

Yes i see what you mean. Its the ATADISK.dll

Its the ATADISK Which is located under

Drivers/PCMCIA/ATADisk

For you information im using a hitachi 2gb microdrive from a blister pack.

[ravic]

Sorry, i should have mentioned that earlier.

Since you are using the blister pack version i am assuming that it is working fine in the Axim x50.

I was referring to Seagate and Hitachi Microdrives that do not support "CF" mode and only support true IDE mode.

Blister pack versions support CF and IDE mode and are already detected properly.

The information you posted is still helpful since we can use this to distinguish between the two

I am looking for someone who has the 4GB versions extracted from Ipod or Muvo and are currently not able to get it to work in the AXIM.

[darkdestroyer]

Now all you need is a person with an axim and a Microdrive from the ipod or such and have him give you the information.

[transcout]

Wow! This will be awesome if you do get this working! I thought they were pysically different somehow?

[ravic]

They are kind of physically different.

Here is some text from Toshiba's SPEC for a CF interface

A CompactFlash card is essentially a small form factor card version of PCMCIA PC Card ATA
(AT Attachment) specification and includes a True IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) mode which
is compatible with the ATA/ATAPI-4 specification. As such, there are 3 distinct interface modes
that a CompactFlash card can use:
• PC Card Memory Mode (uses WE#, OE# to access memory locations)
• PC Card I/O Mode (uses IOWR#, IORD# to access I/O locations)
• True IDE Mode (uses IOWR#, IORD# to access I/O locations)

The fact that these drives are working in the PC means that these devices support True-IDE or ATA Mode. This is achieved by grounding the OE# pin (also called ATA SEL#) at power up. This is most likely hardwired for the ipod drives. It is cost prohibitive for a manufacturer to produce two different drives just to make a consumer buy the retail version. They most likely programmed the EEPROM to make the ATA SEL# grounded at power up.

So as long as we can get a ATA driver recognize the drive we should be good to go.

I read that Windows Mobile 5.0 includes support for IDE drives. That should address the situation. But i would like to see if there is a solution before WM5 is available.

[lynx_deb]

can you give the ata drive from WM5.0 emulator?
may..it can help you :)

[ravic]

I am trying to get the WM5 dev environment setup. Will try to get that as soon i am one with it.

[lynx_deb]

i've got from MSDN libary this Q&A

Host: Jay (Microsoft)
Q: Can True IDE mode be used for CF card using PCMCIA/ATADISK?
A: Yes, this works with ATAPI not ATADISK.

so..there is a driver called atapi.dll in WinCE 4.2 (WM 2003)
you can try to use it instead of atadisk.dll for True-IDE CF Card..

If anyone can do this..please share information :)