Q68 support thread

[NL_QL_Usr]

oops

replace ntfs with fat32

Windows dos Diskpart
be sure to select the correct disk!!

diskpart
list disk

select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
format fs=fat32 quick
active
exit

[Tinyfpga]

I have not used my Q68 in a long time but I am in the process of printing a keyboard housing to accommodate it. In anticipation of success I setup the Q68 to my liking but found , like Martin_Head, that I was unable to create a FAT16 partition on a 4GB SDHC card.

I see that he asked for an idiots guide to do this in September. I Tried every Windows variant suggested in the forum without success. Has anyone managed to create an SDHC FAT16 secondary partition on an SDHC card using either windows or DOS?

I tried Diskpart on Widows 7, Disk Management on both Windows 7 &10 and Macrorit Partition Expert.

One thing that really confused me was that, other than in its name, the word Partition does not appear in the list of operations available in Macrorit. One can do all sorts of things with Volumes but not Partitions.

The Partition/Volume problem was also true for Diskpart and Disk Management. I found nothing useful when I googled "what is the difference between a Volume and a Partition".

I managed to create two somethings (volumes/partitions?) in the correct sequence on my SDHC card but nothing would format the second volume/partition as FAT16 at 8 sectors of 512 bytes per cluster.

This problem reminds me of other conversation on this forum regarding instruction documents. I know they are difficult to write, because I have written many myself. They are especially difficult if the reader knows nothing or very little about the subject one is writing about. This is certainly true for me in this case. I have been failing, on and off and for more than five hours so far, to create the correct FAT16 partition following instructions from multiple sources. An idiots guide might have been very useful.

One last thing:- the link to www.wlenrerz.etc. mentioned in the Q68 manual does not seem to work.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I always had problems with Windows Disk Management, the Disk Management Snap-in, never displays FAT16 partition, maybe Microsoft think all Windows users should be using NTFS or FAT32.

I use Linux to create the Q68 SD Card, see screenshot of the Gnome Disks application:

Here is my Q68 SD Card, that I use, there is main Q68 FAT32 partition and 3 FAT16 Partitions.

Inserting the SD Card into the PC, Linux system automatically mounts all partitions and I use SMSQmulator or QPC2 to transfer files to the FAT partition.

The QWA files on the FAT32 partition can be mount in SMSQmulator as a WIN drive and files transferred in a QL environment, not worrying about the stupid file header system implemented in the QL emulators.

The basic process to create an SD Card is:

1. CREATE new blank SD CARD, so no partitions in the SD Card Partition Map.
2. Create a FAT32 parition
3. Create FAT16 partition(s), up to 3, as the disk make is a PRIMARY disk system, with only 4 Primary disk partitions available.
4. Copy the SMSQ/E partition to the FAT32 partition
5. Copy any QWA files to FAT32 partition
6. Copy files to FAT16 partitions in 8+3 format ( #8 characters for name, 3 for extenstion)

That is it, nothing hard or difficult, I think Microsoft make it hard for people who must use their operating system.

Try using GPARTED, which may be more easier to use.

[dilwyn]

One last thing:- the link to www.wlenrerz.etc. mentioned in the Q68 manual does not seem to work.

It's https://www.wlenerz.com/ (i.e. only 1 r)

[Peter]

One last thing:- the link to www.wlenrerz.etc. mentioned in the Q68 manual does not seem to work.

Don't see it. Could you please point me to that manual page, so I can fix ?

[dilwyn]

In the manual that's on my Q68 page (SMSQ/E manual) the only link I can see is on page 11, section 3.2 Limitations, where there's a link to an empty image file:

A ready-made file containing a 1.5 GiB FAT32 partition and a 250 MiB FAT16 partition can
be downloaded from “www.wlenerz.com/Q68/empty_image _file.zip”. This is a compressed
empty file under 3MiB in size which will be expanded to 1.8 GiB when decompressed.

Tries to open https://www.wlenerz.com/Q68/empty_image (i.e. without the " file.zip") which leads to a 404 error.

[Tinyfpga]

by Peter » Thu Nov 16, 2023 3:28 pm

Tinyfpga wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:33 pm
One last thing:- the link to www.wlenrerz.etc. mentioned in the Q68 manual does not seem to work.

Don't see it. Could you please point me to that manual page, so I can fix ?

Page 11, 2nd to last paragraph in the PDF document titled "Q68 SMSQE" manual:-
A ready-made file containing a 1.5 GiB FAT32 partition and a 250 MiB FAT16 partition can
be downloaded from “www.wlenerz.com/Q68/empty_image _file.zip”. This is a compressed
empty file under 3MiB in size which will be expanded to 1.8 GiB when decompressed.

On the matter of creating SDHC FAT16 partitions, is it really the case that this can only be done within LINUX

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,


After a lityle reasearch, Windows 10, Windows 10 formats FAT16 differently from previous Windows versions.

Where a SD Card would reject Windows 10 FAT16 formatted cards while accepted Windows 7 and earlier FAT16 formatted cards.

The difference is that, Windows 10 formats FAT16 leaving the partition ID as 0x0E and Windows 7 and earlier leaves the ID as 0x06.

I am not sure how to change the partition ID, it used be done with fdisk, maybe diskpart would be maybe able to do this, or maybe Powershell.

I have a Netbook with Windows 7, which does not read the FAT16 partitions, only the FAT32 partition is mounted, so it looks like, Microsoft in their wisdom have changed the way the Windows defines FAT16 partitions.

I see will see if there is another way in Windows.

Can a Mac read FAT16 partitions?

[desin]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 4978838f03

Greetings from Switzerland
Markus

[Derek_Stewart]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 4978838f03

Greetings from Switzerland
Markus

Hi Markus,

Your Web Link, is where I got the information.

Seems FAT16 LBA is different from FAT16 MBR

From this link:
https://superuser.com/questions/1517413 ... tion-table

FAT16: non-LBA: 0x04, 0x06 LBA:0x0e
FAT32: non-LBA 0x0b LBA:0x0c

This is why I can mount the FAT16 partitions in Wndows, looks like Microsoft are to blame.