[Coco] Disk drive questions?

[John E. Malmberg]

ostro011 wrote:

> Ray, thanks for being so patient.  I am a "software" oriented guy but a
> hardware imbicile.  (Mark Marlett has had to come to my rescue multiple
> times for hardware issues.)  I guess what is driving this exchange, at
> least for me, is the desire to move data between a Coco and a PC.  Most new
> PCs now do not have 5.25" drives and I don't think they support that
> format, and most standard Coco systems only have 5.25" drives.  Putting a
> 3.5" drive on a Coco would help bridge this gap.

Going going going.....

> I think you are saying that without any special software, I can unplug one
> of my 5.25" drives on the Coco and replug in a 3.5" drive (720K or 1.4M ?)
> and still be able to store the same information from either OS9 or BASIC. 
> The Coco doesn't care.  I can BACKUP 0 TO 1 if I want and the Coco will
> make the copy.

Yes, as long as the media is 720K in the 3.5 inch drive.

> Assuming this is correct, I now have Coco data on a 3.5" diskette which
> should be able to be ported into a modern PC using its 3.5" HD drive.

It depends on your definiton of modern.  Windows 2000, and Windows XP 
have removed the API that programs could use to read 256 byte sectored 
floppies.

That API is known to work on DOS 2.x to 6.x, Windows 95, and Windows 98, 
and possibly Windows NT 4.0 and earlier.

I do not know about Windows ME, I do not have a system to test it on.

My MSDN ran out at Windows 2000.  I might have a ME beta disk in the 
kit, but I do not have a system free to install it on.


You can solve this problem in software, if you can teach the COCO in 
your favorite OS to write on a 512 byte sectored floppy, preferably one 
formatted in FAT 12 format.

My short term plan is to use Windows 98 to read floppies.

My long term plan is to use the Cloud-9 CompactFlash to IDE adapter to 
write on that media, and read that media on a USB CompactFlash media on 
my other systems.

If you watch the sales, the local stores here put the USB readers on 
sale for either 100% or 97% rebate.

-John
wb8tyw at qsl.net
Personal Opinion Only