Writing DSK files to a 3.5" floppy on a PC
jon
Model IV. (Thanks Knut!). Now I'm trying to get a TRS DOS disk image
written to a floppy from a PC so that I'll be able to boot it.
WinImage won't open the TRS 80 disk image files. Anyone know of a tool
that will allow me to do this?
Thanks.
jon
244,2 at the BASIC prompt the lights of BOTH drives come on. How does
that work?
winston19842005
78c25741-e34d-4004...@k19g2000yqc.googlegroups.com, "jon"
<john....@yahoo.com> wrote:
Sounds like you may have both drives on the same drive select. Most 3.5"
drives are hard-wired to be the 2nd drive. What about yours? Is there a
jumper for the drive select? If not, then you may need to modify your cable
for just that drive. Or use it as drive 1 and your other drive as 0.
jon
wrote:
> On 11/16/09 7:15 PM, in article
>
> <john.co...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > It also appears I haven't jumpered the drive correctly. When I put OUT
> > 244,2 at the BASIC prompt the lights of BOTH drives come on. How does
> > that work?
>
> Sounds like you may have both drives on the same drive select. Most 3.5"
> drives are hard-wired to be the 2nd drive. What about yours? Is there a
> jumper for the drive select? If not, then you may need to modify your cable
> for just that drive. Or use it as drive 1 and your other drive as 0.
There are holes on the printed circuitboard (labelled d0 and d1) but
nowhere for pins to go. I'll look for another floppy drive as well.
I'd rather use the 3.5" floppy as drive 0, as I can then take disk
images from the internet and use them on the real machine. How would
one go about that? This PC doesn't like the DSK images for the
emulators, and refuses to write them...
Mark McDougall
> This PC doesn't like the DSK images for the
> emulators, and refuses to write them...
The "DSK" emulator format is not compatible with the format used by PC tools
such as WinImage. The similarities - namely their common purpose and file
extension - end there.
For reading/writing DSK files on a PC...
<http://www.tim-mann.org/trs80faq.html#[7]>
<http://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/disk-conversion-instructions/>
Regards,
--
| Mark McDougall | "Electrical Engineers do it
| <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug> | with less resistance!"
jon
Thanks Mr. McDougall!
OK I'll give the emulator a go. That will work fine with 3.5" floppies
right? Sorry for the rather "noobish" questions.
I only have access to our school's Dell computers, which aren't
restricted too much, but I can't go installing a catweasel card in
them. That's why I'm trying to get the 3.5" floppy to work as opposed
to simply writing 5.25" disks. Thanks for your help.
One more question: I'm having terrible problems with the drive select
on the Floppy drive itself. I can't find the jumper to set it to 0.
Will the "twist" technique work here, for the cable, or should I be
searching for another drive?
winston...@yahoo.com
The "twist" method, as in what the PC does, may not work. It doesn't
work on a TI-99, for example. But once you identify the drive select
you want, you can find the proper wire in the cable and reroute it.
jon
>
> - Show quoted text -
I haven't done this before, so I just want to make sure I understand
everything.
To reroute, would I just switch the wires that go to drives 0 and 1
ie, If pin 14 is drive select A and pin 12 is drive select B, would I
just swap these two connections?
Cheers.
Webster
You might want to look at OmniFlop for writing disk from the PC.
jon
Thank you. I'll give that a go. Nice!
How about the wires? To set the jumpers to drive0? Do I just switch
the drive select wires on the cable itself? Sorry but I still am not
completely sure how this works.
winston19842005
cc3d3900-a762-4150...@o9g2000vbj.googlegroups.com, "jon"
<john....@yahoo.com> wrote:
Yes. Funny, we are having this same discussion on the TI994A Yahoo Group.
BTW: We have TI99-PC, a front-end for OmniFlop, just released in October. I
converted about 40 3.5" disks with it... Not sure it works on 64-bit Windows
tho'...
jon
wrote:
> On 11/19/09 5:16 PM, in article
>
> - Show quoted text -
I just nipped over to your group. Good bunch of people.
The programme site says you need a 5.25" floppy drive. Can I just
"pretend," and use a 3.5" floppy instead, or are there other
differences that I'm oblivious to? I think I can "steal" a windows 98
laptop from our school's "junk" room without any problem for use with
it.
Are you aware if the TI-99 format is similar to that of the TRS-80?
I also found the cable modification from the "Mainbyte" site. Seeing
as I don't have all that much to lose, I might just give it a go.
winston19842005
d6264b20-ee4c-40b1...@o13g2000vbl.googlegroups.com, "jon"
<john....@yahoo.com> wrote:
You mean the TI99-PC site? I used it with a 3.5" drive, it doesn't matter.
I don't think the format is too dissimilar, but from what Paolo said, you
can use OmniFlop to "guess" the format of the disk, or maybe someone here
has done something for the TRS-80 with OmniFlop already.
The TI uses 256-byte sectors, 9 sectors/track single density, 18 double
density, 40 tracks for the standard format.
Single density can be double-sided, which gets weird. It uses the disk from
track 0, outside of disk, to track 40, inside of disk, then switches to side
two, track 40, inside of disk and works its way out to track 0, outside of
disk.
Then there is double density, which is 18 sectors/track.
Sector 0 contains disk information and allocation table, sector 1 contains
pointers to file descriptor records (up to 127), and these can be anywhere
on the disk, although there are some pre-allocated at the front of the disk,
and it contains file name, file info, and chains pointing to the sectors
that make up the file.
Both systems share the same type of drive, nothing weird like the Apple,
Atari or Commodore systems.
Herbert Johnson
> > I've successfully installed a 3.5" floppy drive as drive 0 in a TRS 80
> > Model IV. (Thanks Knut!). Now I'm trying to get a TRS DOS disk image
> > written to a floppy from a PC so that I'll be able to boot it.
>
>
> http://8bs.com/othrdnld/utilities/omniflop/OmniFlop.htm
The CP/M community in comp.os.cpm, often uses the MS-DOS ImageDisk
utility for general work with non-PC diskettes:
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/
It's had a lot of use to create disk image files, which can be
converted back to diskettes of the original format and content. The
site discusses issues of single and double density, there are
utilities to examine your PC's floppy controller for those
capabilities.
In the Tandy world, and other vintage computing worlds, there may be
other "disk image" formats which are not the same as Dunfield's IMG
format. With any disk image file, determine where it came from, and
use software from the same source to make use of that file.
herb johnson
retrotechnology.com
(email me via my Web site, not "gmail")
Knut
That is what we do, the TRS-80 thinks the 3.5" drive is a 5.25" drive. A 3.5"
drive works like a DSDD80 type 5.25" drive as long as you use 720K media. With
1.44MB media the drive switches automatically to HD and 360RPM being more
similar to an 8" drive. Model I and III are not fast enough to write data fast
enough for HD or even 360RPM DD.
It is just the same, only exception might be that the 3.5" drive is more reliable.
Knut
jon
OK, hope someone is still out there. Following the instructions from
this page:
http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/hardware/cables/35drive.html
I have gotten the TRS 80 to recognise the disk drive as 0. At least,
that's what I think, as when I turn the computer on, instead of
shutting off, it says "Diskette?" and the light on the 3.5" floppy
drive comes on. So that's good....
But I've used IMGdisk to write a LDOS type disk to a 3.5" floppy, with
opaque tape over the hole, as single sided, double density with 40
tracks. When I insert this into the TRS 80, it just hums for a while
and turns off. I took that disk and checked it with READDISK, and it
recognised it, and I even booted the image it made with an emulator
fine. Have I set something up wrong somewhere else? Help!!!!