Newb - How to load .MDR image?

[redgatemodels]

I’ve got things mostly working. I started again, initialised the sd card, created a folder, created a blank image, assigned it to vdrive 1 and then manually saved the colour version of the 3D monster maze onto drive 1. It ran fine and continued to work even after removing the sd card, powering down etc.

The only fly in the ointment is that the configuration file still shows BLANK against the formatted image. This, so I’m told should have the name of the formatted drive showing.

I have subsequently copied a few mdr files into the folder on the sd card and after .cd into the folder successfully used .ld1”” to unload the image assignment then .ld1”tranzam” for example to switch to a different image.mdr

This then runs from drive 1.

If the mdr is duff, it comes up BLANK when doing an .li

[redgatemodels]

The simplest way that I've found to get an mdr working on a vDrive is as follows:

New blank formatted SD card
Copy mdr into root of SD card, I always use an 8 character filename, just makes things easy. You can create a folder, but it's not necessary especially if you are just loading one mdr image only
Make sure toolkit is loaded by removing any SD card from the vDrive and doing a NEW (or hit the reset button) and RUN
Insert SD card into vDrive - LED will be amber and it will beep.
Type .mkcfg to create a blank config file, LED should go out.
Type .ld1"<Image name>" where <Image Name> is the name of the mdr you copied to the SD card. IF you created a folder and put the mdr file in it you will need to do a .cd"<foldername>" first.

Now CAT 1 should work. If not type .li to make sure that the image is not showing as BLANK, if it does it is not formatted correctly for the vDrive and won't work sadly.
If CAT 1 works you can now run the program from the vDrive as normal.

To be honest you can get 32Gb SD cards from China for less than 2 quid each, it's easier to have loads and just put one mdr image to each one rather than using toolkit commands etc to load different images to different drives etc. Most commercial games will only run from drive 1 anyway.

[redgatemodels]

One caveat to the above. I have noticed an issue with the vDriveZX cache causing issues if you switch one image to another.

If you have a working sd card set up as above and then copy another image mdr to it and want to switch it to vdrive 1 to run it, the procedure is:
make sure toolkit is loaded
type .ld1"" to clear the loaded image from vdrive1
type .ld1"<new image name>"

all seems well, BUT the CAT 1 can be corrupted by the contents of the catalogue from the previous image, especially if it has common filenames on it.

The solution is to power down (not rest button) the speccy and therefore the vDiveZX to clear the cache and all will be well.

I have reported this to Charlie, so hopefully a firmware upgrade will sort things in time