[Coco] SuperIDE backup/restore

[Ed Orbea]

List Members

My goal is to be able to backup and restore my SuperIDE CF Card.I could 
copy each HDB-DOS virtual drive to physical floppies (and then copy them 
to DSK image files).

I could use dsave and make copies of the contents of the various 
NitrOS-9 directories and sub directories to physical floppies (and then 
copy them to DSK image files).

But why do I need to do that?

I "should" be able to use (via WinXP) the 'dd' utility from Cygwin or 
the Win32DI application or WinHex (from X-Ways software) or Disk Imager 
(by Roadkil.net) to extract an image of the entire CF drive and then 
restore it.

In order to try to do this, I purchased several 256mg CF cards (which I 
have referenced in previous posts).

I successfully used the above listed utilities to extract an image from 
my Cloud9 distribution card.

I generated as MD5 hash for each image (after it was extracted from the 
CF card) and all hash codes were identical.

I tried several different CF card (that Mark was kind enough to test for 
me, as I have been struggling with this for several weeks).

The 'target' CF cards are all identical to the Cloud9 distribution CF 
card according to that is shown via the IDEPROBE utility contained on 
the Clloud9 distribution disk

    Logical cylinders: 980

    Logical heads: 16

    Logical sectors: 32

    Total sectors: 501760

    LBA: Is Supported

    PIO Timing: 2

The only differences are the Serial Number (obviously this should be 
different) and the # sectors per R/W multiple(Cloud9 distribution disk = 
1, the other CF cards = 4).

So, I should be able to "extract" the image from the Cloud9 distribution 
CF card and "restore" it to any of the 'matching' CF cards.

The problem is that I can't. And let me explain further.

    I can extract the image (without any failures or errors)

    I can generate a MD5 has of the actual CF card and the extracted
    image, and they match. That tells me that I do not have to do a
    byte-by-byre comparison, as the image is an exact copy of the card.

    I can then restore the image to one of the other CF cards without
    encountering an error or failure

    I can then generate a MD5 hash of the new CF cards and that hash
    matches what has previously generated.

    But when I put the new CF card into the SuperIDE device and power on
    the system (CoCo3), I see the Disk Basic banner, the HBD-DOS LBA
    banner, and then the system either: starts showing 'sparklies';
    starts showing random colors and letters; or just hangs.

    The LED on the SuperIDE remains a solid color (no blinking).

I have tried using only the SuperIDE cartridge (no MPI)

I have tried various MPI configurations/combinations.

Everything works correctly, when I am using the Cloud9 distribution card 
and doesn't work when using the new CF card

My CoCo system (as mentioned in previous posts) is:

    CoCo3 (6809)

    Cloud9 Triad memory upgrade

    Roy's VGA converted

    MPI with slot 4 (either Disto SCII FDCC with DW3 in Eprom OR TRS-80
    26-3129 'long' FDCC); Slot 3 Orch-90; Slot 2 Modified SSC; Slot 1
    SuperIDE.

Your help is appreciated