Reading/Writing CP/M Floppy Disk Images from Windows

[Lloyd Johnson]

Can anyone point me to a set of tools that will allow me to copy or add files to the floppy disk images (DISKxx.DSK)?   The tools at http://www.cpm8680.com/cpmtools/index.htm work for the HDSK01.DSK through HDSK04.DSK but not for the DISKxx.DSK images.

Thanks in advance

Lloyd

[udo....@freenet.de]

There are no tools that support the hard sectored format used by MITS.

What I do is using the z80pack Altair emulation on a PC with a CP/M

version using the MITS FDC. The disk images include a command 'r',

which can read a file from the PC host and writes it onto the disk

image. The disk image then can be used in Altair machines too.

[Lloyd Johnson]

Thanks.    That gives me a direction to pursue.   I'm still learning so it might be a while before I get there.

Lloyd

[thunt...@gmail.com]

Hi Udo,

Could you please point me to some info on how to use the MITS FDC with your Altair emulation to be able to use the MITS 88-DCDD?

Thanks and best regards

Tom Hunter

[udo....@freenet.de]

In the z80pack repositories you will find shell scripts, boot rom and disk images to run the machine with MITS 88-DCDD:

https://github.com/udo-munk/z80pack/tree/master/altairsim

https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/ftp/altair/

What you do is loading the DBL boot ROM from MITS and mount some disk image in that format to the drives.

The drive names are different from the ones used for the Tarbell FDC, mits_a.dsk instead of drivea.dsk, and so

on.

You even can use the CP/M BIOS from Mike Douglas with drives A,B in Tarbell format and drives C,D in MITS

format, makes it easy to transfer files to the other disk format.

Just have a look at the provided scripts like mitscpm22, then everything should be obvious.

[wils...@gmail.com]

I use Altair32, which has a tool in the CP/M disk image allows you to read and write from the host. So you can use that to copy files into and out of the CP/M environment. 

http://altair32.classiccmp.org/

[wils...@gmail.com]

Ah, I had load it up again to remember the process. 

The programs in the CP/M image are "READ.COM"  and "WRITE.COM". They read and write to the "Files" directory under where the emulator is installed. (So if you have installed the system to C:\altair32, READ and WRITE access C:\altair32\files). 

So when I need to import files and don't want to use the XMODEM upload/download process, I'll do it this way. 

[udo....@freenet.de]

The latest z80pack release has r.com and w.com on the OS disk images with the same functionality.

[wils...@gmail.com]

I seem to recall the Z80 Pack not working on Windows the last time I tried it... is there a Windows binary somewhere to download? 

[udo....@freenet.de]

On Windows it works with Cygwin/CygwinX as well as WSL. No, I don't provide any binaries, the sources have a bunch

of compile options for you to choose from.

[udo....@freenet.de]

For Windows users there are third party builds of some z80pack machines available:

http://www.sydneysmith.com/wordpress/products-cpm/

These are ready to run and won't require additional downloads or sources. But it seems he's more

interested in the Cromemco machine than the Altair/IMSAI and the builds are based on a somewhat

older z80pack release.

Anyway, easy to use stuff for Windows users, might help someone.

[thunt...@gmail.com]

Hi Udo,

Thanks for your help. I used the mitscpm22 shell script which uses the "dbl.hex" boot ROM and it nicely accesses the files on the MITS 88-DCDD format floppy images. I successfully used "w.com" to copy files into the host filesystem but unfortunately it does not support wildcards.

Could you please point me to the "CP/M BIOS from Mike Douglas with drives A,B in Tarbell format and drives C,D in MITS format" you mentioned in your reply? I did not see any obviously named ".hex" file under "altairsim" and there is no index or README which explains what each hex file is for.

Also what are the conventions for the names of the disk images (Tarbell versus MITS) when using Mike's BIOS?

Thanks and best regards

Tom Hunter

[udo....@freenet.de]

thunt...@gmail.com schrieb am Montag, 24. Mai 2021 um 14:33:44 UTC+2:

Hi Udo,

Thanks for your help. I used the mitscpm22 shell script which uses the "dbl.hex" boot ROM and it nicely accesses the files on the MITS 88-DCDD format floppy images. I successfully used "w.com" to copy files into the host filesystem but unfortunately it does not support wildcards.

You're welcome. The transfer commands won't support wildcards, they can transfer one singe file only.

 

Could you please point me to the "CP/M BIOS from Mike Douglas with drives A,B in Tarbell format and drives C,D in MITS format" you mentioned in your reply? I did not see any obviously named ".hex" file under "altairsim" and there is no index or README which explains what each hex file is for.

That is available here, the CPM22AT is what you are looking for:

https://deramp.com/downloads/altair/software/8_inch_floppy/CPM/CPM%202.2/

 

Also what are the conventions for the names of the disk images (Tarbell versus MITS) when using Mike's BIOS?

That has nothing to do with the BIOS, it is the hardware. The Tarbell FDC supports soft sectored disk drives, these

are named drivea.dsk, driveb.dsk and so on. The MITS FDC supports hard sectored disk drives, these

are named mits_a.dsk, mits_b.dsk and so on. That is for any software accessing one of the FDC's, not just

CP/M, also Altair disk BASIC can access the MITS FDC for example. If you put a wrong image into either

drive type, the disk will not accept the floppy and behaves like empty, exactly as real hardware ignores

the wrong floppy type.

 

[thunt...@gmail.com]

Hi Udo,

Thanks again for your help.

Best regards

Tom Hunter