[Coco] OS-9 Floppies - Conversion to DSK format?

[Bob Devries]

More....

The Vavasour emulator will accept double sided disk images provided that:

1. The disk image is of an OS9 disk, AND
2. the disk file has the extension .OS9

This is also true of the MESS emulator, BTW.

--
Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia

Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
the capacity to be his spokesman,
so that I know how to help the weary.

website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew" <keeper63 at cox.net>
To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 2:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] OS-9 Floppies - Conversion to DSK format?



> First off, I want to thank again everyone who offerred suggestions on how 

> I could figure out sides/tracks for the OS-9 disks I have from Carey, that 

> I am converting.

>

> I especially want to thank Bob Devries for posting his OS-9 Disk 

> Identifier program written in DECB. Using it, I made quick work in 

> identifying what was what with all of the OS-9 disks I have. The majority 

> of them were 35 track/single-sided (that is, they were either actual 

> single-sided 35 track floppies, or two 35 track sides on a "flippy") and 

> 40 track/double-sided - essentially "standard" OS-9 floppies. I did find a 

> few which weren't identifyable (one side may be DECB, or something else 

> entirely, or maybe unreadable - I don't know yet), plus one really strange 

> disk which identified as 80 track, 96TPI, double-sided. That one I am 

> saving for last in this conversion process.

>

> So - now I am doing the conversion. As all of you may or may not be aware, 

> I am using RETRIEVE.EXE, included with Jeff Vavasour's CoCo 3 emulator, to 

> grab a DSK format image of the floppy. Herein lies my problem:

>

> RETRIEVE.EXE can grab an image from only one side of a floppy. For 35 and 

> 40 track single-sided OS-9 floppies, this isn't a problem. In fact, the 

> first disk I converted in my OS-9 batch was a 35 track single-sided floppy 

> disk companion (?) for the book "The Rainbow Guide to OS-9".

>

> However, my second floppy is a 40 track, double-sided floppy. Now, I can 

> grab one side of it, and quite possibly even grab the other side - winding 

> up with one or two 181K DSK images.

>

> This isn't what I want, though - I want a single DSK image that contains 

> all the data from both sides of the original 40 track, double-sided 

> floppy.

>

> Furthermore, based on what I am reading in the documentation for Jeff's 

> emulator, it seems to state that it can't handle virtual disks with two 

> sides. Does anyone know if this is correct?

>

> I also have David Keil's CoCo 3 emulator as well - can I use it in some 

> manner to create the virtual DSK image I need?

>

> Or - am I up a creek? I am willing to build a new CoCo emulation box using 

> Linux and MESS, if that is what it would take (if there is software to 

> grab the image under Linux?).

>

> Once again, my setup for this project is as follows:

>

> 1. DOS (Caldera OpenDOS) PC for emulation use (w/ 5.25

>            floppy drive as A:)

> 2. Jeff Vavasour's CoCo 2 & 3 emulators under DOS

> 3. David Keil's CoCo 3 & 3 emulators under DOS

> 4. CoCo 3 w/ 512K and dual DSDD floppy drives

>         5. Mandrake 10.1 Linux box (for documentation)

>

> Once again, I don't have a Windows box with a 5.25 floppy drive 

> installed - unless there is no other way to do what I am wanting to do, I 

> would prefer to avoid building such a box.

>

> Thank you in advance for your suggestions - you guys have been a great 

> help to me in this project so far!

>

> Sincerely,

>

> -- Andrew L. Ayers

>    Glendale, Arizona

>

> --

> Coco mailing list

> Coco at maltedmedia.com

> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco