CP/M 86 Boot Disk for IBM Compatibles

Bill Buckels

unread,

Dec 13, 2008, 1:33:04 PM12/13/08

to

The following is now up for download:

http://www.cpm8680.com/cpm86//mkCPM86.zip

For anyone who wonders what Cp/M 86 might look like booting from a floppy on
their Windows box...

ReadME for mkCPM86
------------------

This zip file contains a batch file that will create a bootable CP/M 86 1.1
1.44 meg disk in Drive A: in Windows or MS-DOS.

Unzip into a working directory.

To make the disk:

- Run mkCPM86.bat

To boot the disk:

- Reboot your computer using drive A: as the boot drive.

Note: This disk will provide you with a ramdisk on drive M: when booted.

Bill Buckels
2008

A2Pro

unread,

Dec 13, 2008, 3:47:02 PM12/13/08

to

Hi!

On Dec 13, 1:33 pm, Bill wrote:
<--- snip --->

> Note: This disk will provide you with a ramdisk on drive M: when booted.

Neat!!!

On my system 'DIR M:' gets me a BDOS error.

'TOD 12/13/08' is rejected; 'TOD 12/13/99' is OK.

Willi

Bill Buckels

unread,

Dec 13, 2008, 4:12:00 PM12/13/08

to

"A2Pro" <a...@wilserv.com> wrote in message
news:633b090f-a274-46f2...@s24g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
>Neat!!!

Are we having fun yet:) Try making a diskcopy from a: to a:

That worked ok too. No BDOS error here. I am on an amd DX64/2 3000

Hey I used Sydex CopyQM to make the master disk from some converted 360K
image, then I used DataPackrat's utility D2F to make the image you have. I
don't know why of course:)

Cool to show the kids. Might be a wierd stocking-stuffer...

Bill

AppleCPM

unread,

Dec 13, 2008, 4:40:47 PM12/13/08

to

Hi!

On Dec 13, 4:12 pm, Bill wrote:
<--- snip --->

> Hey I used Sydex CopyQM to make the master disk from some converted 360K
> image, then I used DataPackrat's utility D2F to make the image you have. I
> don't know why of course:)

<--- snip --->

IMHO, "2FILE.EXE" and "2FLOPPY.EXE" from PC Magazine are the best
DOS programs for going from disks to images and back.

Willi

AppleCPM

unread,

Dec 13, 2008, 5:00:22 PM12/13/08

to

Hi!

On Dec 13, 4:40 pm, Willi wrote:
> IMHO, "2FILE.EXE" and "2FLOPPY.EXE" from PC Magazine are the best
> DOS programs for going from disks to images and back.

Oops, not so best. Seems that they only do disks with an MS/DOS
file system.

Willi

Peter Dassow

unread,

Dec 13, 2008, 5:41:54 PM12/13/08

to

For this special case (=for CP/M 86) you can download the sourcecode and
executables as well at http://www.z80.eu/msx2.html (look for READIMG and
WRITEIMG) - the two programs are able to read any PC compatible floppy
disk regardless of the logical structure on the disk itself.

Regards
Peter

Bill H

unread,

Dec 18, 2008, 5:24:35 AM12/18/08

to

On Dec 13, 5:41 pm, Peter Dassow <z8...@arcor.de> wrote:
> AppleCPM wrote:
> > Hi!
>
> > On Dec 13, 4:40 pm, Willi wrote:
> >> IMHO, "2FILE.EXE" and "2FLOPPY.EXE" from PC Magazine are the best
> >> DOS programs for going from disks to images and back.
>
> > Oops, not so best. Seems that they only do disks with an MS/DOS
> > file system.
>
> > Willi
>
> For this special case (=for CP/M 86) you can download the sourcecode and

> executables as well athttp://www.z80.eu/msx2.html(look for READIMG and

> WRITEIMG) - the two programs are able to read any PC compatible floppy
> disk regardless of the logical structure on the disk itself.
>
> Regards
> Peter

Has anyone attempted to setup a cpm 86 system on a flash drive and
boot from it? They do it all the time with linux. You could take a $5
1gb drive and set it up as a full blown cp/m 86 system with probably
all the software that was written.

Bill H