Thanks DataGhost for the instruction and the hints of the process. I spent three evenings trying to figure out how to make my new 8GB card work with CHDK and S5IS. First I tried the method described on this page, but unfortunately it didn't work. Then I tried to play with aefdisk32, but the problem is that when you change the partition type to 0x0 aefdisk32 wipes out the whole partition data instead of just changing the type. Saving the data to a file, changing it and then restoring didn't work with aefdisk32 either - the restore function apparently doesn't work properly. Hence I spent some time finding an app which will just change the partition type and I ended up with Beeblebrox NT. And then everything was finally in place. Below is a simple instruction:
0. Get all of the software needed for the setup.
- aefdisk32.exe - to create partitions
- Beeblebrox NT - to change partition type
- bootable.exe - to make card bootable
- CHDK firmware - actual CHDK
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7. Close CMD and Disk Management. Run Beeblebrox NT. Choose your drive from the drop-down. Since Beeblebrox NT starts numbering from 0 the number of your drive should be the one you found with aefdisk32 minus 1, which is 4 in my case. Change the type of the first partition on this drive to 00 and save the changes. Then close Beeblebrox NT.
8. Windows now will see your second partition and show the first as unallocated space. Format second partition.
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Hope this instruction helps.
Camera: SD870 (IXUS860)
Mem Card: 8GB PNY SD
CHDK Loader Method: CardTricks
Hey, great instructional! I can tell that this is the route to go with, but alas I cannot quite get things working properly. I follow the steps without errors, EXCEPT:
Step 8. This does not happen. Based upon executing "aefdisk32 3 /show" I can see that the partitions are all proper before I run Step 7. However, after using BB to change the partition type to 00h, "aefdisk32 3 /show" reports the 16MB partition I created as beibng 0MB and empty. So, somehow it is being wiped out. Any hints here?
I suspect that this is the crux of my problems.I have played with setting the active partition to either the FAT12 16MB one with the CHDK stuff (not using BB to set its type to 00h) or the remaining 7.9GB FAT32 partition. When the card is locked, it will boot into CHDK just fine and of course only recognize the 16mb partition. When unlocked, it sees the 7.9GB partition and does not load CHDK. From what I understand, the FAT12 partition needs to be set to an Empty / typeless partition without destroying the addressing information so the camera boots from it, but only recognizes the FAT32 partition to store things. When performing step 7, Windows only sees one partition still.
I do not know too much about partition types and management, so some Googling will be done. Can anyone give me a quick crash-course on the differences between primary/extended/logical partitions? Can the SD870 actually boot from one partition and store data on the other?
Other than that, I got CHDK running fine on my 2GB card. Worst case, I will just use the 2GB card for bracketed shots for HDR stuff, and the 8GB card for the other 90% of the time when I don't really need all the extra tools. Buuut, where's the fun in that! Thanks all, great forum and great work! I look forward to learning to write my own scripts for bracketed shots and build a USB trigger!
