Getting CerBIOS to see my F: Partition

[Bowlsnapper]

So, this machine is running an X3 with a 160GB IDE drive. I wanted to mount some isos, since I won't have access to Mulleter for a little while and I need to download/install a few of the games that insignia is supporting. I went ahead and flashed the UDMA2 version of 2.03R, but it will not see my f partition... of COURSE. I'm new to diagnosing that particular problem, so I need some help. The only info I know is that the X3 bios is configured for "F gets all, no G".

[Natetronn]

F worked fine previously with other Bios? Maybe toggle that X3CL setting back and forth once.

Do you have a Startech IDE to Sata adapter and an 80 pin cable? If it's not that, I think you're suppose to use the non UDMA version.

Perhaps check to see what XBpartitioner 1.3 sees. Install it with the Extras Disc or find it in the Softmodding Tool repo under /Extras Disc/Softmod/applications.

 

[Bowlsnapper]

24 minutes ago, Natetronn said:

F worked fine previously with other Bios? Maybe toggle that X3CL setting back and forth once.

Do you have a Startech IDE to Sata adapter and an 80 pin cable? If it's not that, I think you're suppose to use the non UDMA version.

Perhaps check to see what XBpartitioner 1.3 sees. Install it with the Extras Disc or find it in the Softmodding Tool repo under /Extras Disc/Softmod/applications.

 

It's a 160GB EIDE HDD.  Not, SATA. It sees my other partitions fine, so I think the UDMA2 is not the issue. I had the same problem with the m8+ bios I just tried before CerBIOS. Says I have 2.something gigs free in XBMC, when it should be about 7 or 8. Both times I was unable to browse the drive, as selecting F: in File Manager just shows utter blankness. My guess is that my X3 is handling the partition structure somehow and that Cerbios and M8 are configured to use the partition table provided. Something must be wrong with mine. Is there a way to write the partition table without erasing or formatting anything? Is my theory even correct? I don't know.

[Bowlsnapper]

@NatetronnPlease forgive me: I should clarify that this is a box that has always run the X3 bios. I am attempting to use CerBIOS 2.03R.

Okay, so with the X3 bios running, XBPartitioner shows a correct partition 6 size of 145.22 at 16KB clusters. With CerBIOS, XBPartitioner says:

6    16KB clusters 120.55GB

7    1964434187KB clusters 24.67GB. I don't think that's accurate.

Says 7 starts at 0fffffff.

[Donnie-Burger]

46 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

@NatetronnPlease forgive me: I should clarify that this is a box that has always run the X3 bios. I am attempting to use CerBIOS 2.03R.

Okay, so with the X3 bios running, XBPartitioner shows a correct partition 6 size of 145.22 at 16KB clusters. With CerBIOS, XBPartitioner says:

6    16KB clusters 120.55GB

7    1964434187KB clusters 24.67GB. I don't think that's accurate.

Says 7 starts at 0fffffff.

You need to format hdd for cerbios with fatxplorer for cerbios to read your hdd.

[Bowlsnapper]

2 hours ago, Donnie-Burger said:

You need to format hdd for cerbios with fatxplorer for cerbios to read your hdd.

I suspected that. Is it the cluster size? (64KB) Although, it reads the other partitions fine, so I don't know if that would be it. Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with CerBIOS and setting up the hard drive for it. I don't know why it needs what you're saying it does, basically. I've tried looking for info on my own but I haven't uncovered much on CerBIOS and its HDD needs.

I suppose I'll go get a bigger HDD and just use chimp to copy everything over... after properly formatting of course. I unfortunately do not have enough space on my phone to back everything up... plus FTP is super slow and prone to failures when moving that much crap.

Where can I look for instruction on how to format properly for CerBIOS?

Edit: After doing a little reading, It appears that I may have to make a choice between X3 and CerBIOS. Unless I can format a small (750GB) HDD in a way that the X3 bios can still read. Wish I had more info on what makes partitions useable/visible to both BIOSes.

Does formatting HAVE to be done in Fatxplorer,or can it be done in newer versions of XBPartitioner?

[zatchbot]

On 3/13/2019 at 3:57 PM, KaosEngineer said:

If the other BIOS's have a different LBA48 configuration than what the drive is formatted with you will not see the partitions correctly.  It will look like the data has been lost.  Change back to the working BIOS and they will reappear.

You need to make sure that the other BIOSes support using a parititon table written to the drive using XBPartition v1.3 or XBPartitionTableWriter(or whatever it's actual name is).  Not all old BIOS's support it.

Someone smarter than I needs to verify, but I'm pretty sure this is your issue...

[Bowlsnapper]

9 minutes ago, zatchbot said:

Someone smarter than I needs to verify, but I'm pretty sure this is your issue...

So it IS the partition table. SHIT. Screwit. I needed to upgrade the hard drive anyway. I'm gonna have two Cerbios bioses. One at stock speed, one overclocked. I'll put the X3 Bios to the side for now. I'll put in a $14 500GB HDD and format with XBPartitioner at 64KB clusters. THEN I'll use chimp, or native Cerbios support to hook up both drives and transfer all my crap over.

Skibbidy doowap, Christopher Reeves.

[Natetronn]

• 4 KB cluster for 8GB to 64GB partition
• 8 KB cluster for 65GB to 128GB partition
• 16 KB cluster for 129GB to 256GB partition
• 32 KB cluster for 257GB to 512GB partition
• 64 KB cluster for 513GB to 1TB partition

Source

Attribute	Limitation
Maximum volume size	64 GB (with 4 KB clusters) 128 GB (with 8 KB clusters) 256 GB (with 16 KB clusters) 512 GB (with 32 KB clusters) 1 TB (with 64 KB clusters)

Source

Note: maximum is no longer 1 TB, with the new bioses we have these days.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Natetronn

[zatchbot]

I HIGHLY recommend fatxplorer BETA if you are going Cerbios. It technically is not required, but it has pre-made Cerbios configuration for 2tb+ builds.

[Bowlsnapper]

19 minutes ago, zatchbot said:

I HIGHLY recommend fatxplorer BETA if you are going Cerbios. It technically is not required, but it has pre-made Cerbios configuration for 2tb+ builds.

I know. But I won't have a PC for probably another 2 months. I HAVE to use the xbox to do all my formatting and file placement tasks. XBPartitioner it is.

 

21 minutes ago, Natetronn said:

• 4 KB cluster for 8GB to 64GB partition
• 8 KB cluster for 65GB to 128GB partition
• 16 KB cluster for 129GB to 256GB partition
• 32 KB cluster for 257GB to 512GB partition
• 64 KB cluster for 513GB to 1TB partition

Source

Attribute	Limitation
Maximum volume size	64 GB (with 4 KB clusters) 128 GB (with 8 KB clusters) 256 GB (with 16 KB clusters) 512 GB (with 32 KB clusters) 1 TB (with 64 KB clusters)

Source

Note: maximum is no longer 1 TB, with the new bioses we have these days.

Maybe I'll just get a 750GB drive. I'm dead set on using 64kb clusters, because I'm worried that Cerbios won't see anything below that. And if that's completely nonsensical, well, MORE space never hurt anyone.

Edit. Nah, 1TB.

[Natetronn]

theres a chance
that the partition table is not written to hdd
thats why
his gotta write the partition table
try rewritting partition table with xbpartitioner
if u load it & press white button
menu changes on top
change it to just say Write Table
Then press start it will write just the table to HDD
Then switch back to cerb & see if it worked
let us know if that works 
aslong as his running it using x3
bios & writting part table then no issue
i had same problem & i just had to rewrite table
but don't doing it while using Cerbios?
problem is cerbios treats everything as stock
untill u expand
& then it reads off part table
x3 bios does some f**kery & scans for sh*t
cerbios what it does is reads partition table & adjusts sizes accoridngly
if it cant find part table then treat everything as a stock drive

Should be fine, I'd do it without questions. But be aware there could be potential data loss.

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Natetronn

[Bowlsnapper]

1 minute ago, Natetronn said:

theres a chance
that the partition table is not written to hdd
thats why
his gotta write the partition table
try rewritting partition table with xbpartitioner
if u load it & press white button
menu changes on top
change it to just say Write Table
Then press start it will write just the table to HDD
Then switch back to cerb & see if it worked
let us know if that works 
aslong as his running it using x3
bios & writting part table then no issue
i had same problem & i just had to rewrite table
but don't doing it while using Cerbios?
problem is cerbios treats everything as stock
untill u expand
& then it reads off part table

Should be fine, I'd do it without questions. But be aware there could be potential data loss.

 

I actually saw the option of just writing the table without formatting and wondered if that would do the job. Sure HOPE there isn't data loss... Well, lets see! Be right back!

[Natetronn]

Also, in regards to UDMA5:

it needs the [startech] adapter and [80 pin] cable
haven tried with an ide hdd
with 80 pin
without adapter but i imagine crash

He hasn't tested UDMA5 with IDE and as it's suppose to be used with Sata, Startech adapter and 80pin cable, so he was kind of surprised to hear it worked with IDE and didn't crash. 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Natetronn

[Bowlsnapper]

Yep, it worked! Thanks guys. That'll get me up and running until I get a bigger hard drive. Only other thing I need help with is making sure I get a couple of isos mountable. I don't have access to Mulleter right now, so I have to rely on ISOs to run the games that insignia will support. Can you guys point me in the right direction?

@Natetronn

[Bowlsnapper]

1 minute ago, Natetronn said:

Also, in regards to UDMA5:

it needs the [startech] adapter and [80 pin] cable
haven tried with an ide hdd
with 80 pin
without adapter but i imagine crash

He hasn't tested UDMA5 with IDE and as it's suppose to be used with Sata, Startech adapter and 80pin cable, so he was kind of surprised to hear it worked with IDE and didn't crash. 

I'm using the UDMA2 version. UDMA5 resulted in no HDD detected.

[zatchbot]

On 10/19/2022 at 4:52 PM, zatchbot said:

Works with my Maxtor Quickview and Cerbios. Should work in your case!

You need a UDMA5 compatible IDE drive and a 80 wire cable but it will work just fine.

[Bowlsnapper]

Just now, zatchbot said:

You need a UDMA5 compatible IDE drive and a 80 wire cable but it will work just fine.

For some reason, IDE drives are over twice the price of an equivalent sized SATA drive. I might as well just get a SATA drive and a startech adapter. Anybody tried the dual HDD feature yet?

And for god's sake, how do I mount isos in Cerbios? Lol.

 

[Natetronn]

7 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

I'm using the UDMA2 version. UDMA5 resulted in no HDD detected.

Oh, right sorry, I was confusing regular stock Cerbios (UDMA2) with UDMA5, disregard

[Natetronn]

1 minute ago, Bowlsnapper said:

For some reason, IDE drives are over twice the price of an equivalent sized SATA drive. I might as well just get a SATA drive and a startech adapter. Anybody tried the dual HDD feature yet?

And for god's sake, how do I mount isos in Cerbios? Lol.

 

Yeah, and get an 80 pin, then you can try UDMA5 lol.

For mounting ISOs, what dashboard are you using again?

[Natetronn]

Aside...

Quote

with 2.0.3R if u install UDMA5 & it does not work, pressing eject should default you to UDMA2 and give u chance to recover.

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Natetronn

[zatchbot]

2 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

For some reason, IDE drives are over twice the price of an equivalent sized SATA drive. I might as well just get a SATA drive and a startech adapter. Anybody tried the dual HDD feature yet?

And for god's sake, how do I mount isos in Cerbios? Lol.

 

And loud as a motherfucker too lol

[Bowlsnapper]

1 minute ago, Natetronn said:

Yeah, and get an 80 pin, then you can try UDMA5 lol.

For mounting ISOs, what dashboard are you using again?

Most regular 80pins will be long enough, correct? I'm on a budget and can't spring for the Kekule deluxe 80pin. Lol.

I'm on XBMC 3.5.3.

[Bowlsnapper]

1 minute ago, zatchbot said:

And loud as a motherfucker too lol

Wait, what is exactly? IDE drives or using TWO drives?... Or ME? Lol.

[zatchbot]

This should work.

 

24" 40-Pin 80-Wire Ultra ATA 2-Drive Ribbon Cable, Manhattan 332781 https://a.co/d/1Xaa6Ne