[Coco] Re: Help needed: problems with RETRIEV(E)ing DSK images

[Robert Gault]

Maybe there is no identifier on a 5.25" disk. I thought the drives would 
be able to use normal as well as HD disks but that was a guess on my 
part since I don't have such drives.

I should point out that while the MESS tools will work with .dsk images 
(of several types), they don't work with hardware. That means you can't 
read a real floppy with the MESS tools. Since it has become apparent 
(even to a slow learner like myself) that it is file transfer between a 
PC and real Coco disks, you should forget about the MESS tools for this 
purpose.

Torsten Dittel wrote:

>>Tape closed the disk hole/notch that indicates HD media. Why copy sector

>>by sector? That should not be necessary.

> 

> 

> Err... has the 5.25" floppy disk any hole/notch to indicate HD media?

> The 3.5" surely has. I wonder what happens if I use "flippy" disks with

> additional Write Protect notch and Index Holes punched in so I can use

> the second site by "flipping" the floppy around. However, if the 5.25"

> HD media has, my CoCo drives won't check it anyway, they are too old to

> have heart of HD media.

>  

> 

>>BACKUP may seem to use tracks but it actually divides memory into tracks

>>and then fills that memory sector by sector. The only Coco command that

>>uses tracks is DSKINI where a track is written in one pass. All other

>>commands are sector chunks.

> 

> 

> OK, thanks, didn't remember exactly because I wrote so many BACKUP tools

> 20 years ago (might find my "CerCompCopy" in these days, guess what this

> does... :-). Bill V., If you read this: I wrote this just for

> educational purposes).

> 

> 

>>>Aren't the MESS tools able to grab a DSK image in JV format?

>>

>>Yes.

> 

> 

> Do they have the same problem concerning sector 1? Or are they using a

> "track read" and do the sector ripping by software?

> 

> Regards, Torsten

> 

>