[Coco] some progress...

[Stephen Adolph]

I'm starting to clue in...

since I only have 1 360k floppy, and they don't work well under
windows anymore, I was struggling with how to transfer files.

doh!  I can use 720k floppies formatted as 35 tracks per side to
transfer 360k .dsk images over to the coco.

I installed a 3.5 inch floppy and got it working right off.

So, my coco system is

3.5 inch floppy as drive 0 (and 1)
5.25 inch floppy as drive 2 (and 3)

I think this is all singing all dancing from here out.

I can run Nitros9, DECB whatever.  seems fine.

Only problem is that I threw out my last 3.5 inch bay adapter so I
can't yet mount my small floppy in my FD-501 case....

cheers, Steve


On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 6:03 PM, Stephen H.
Fischer<SFischer1 at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> OS-9 is very flexable, in fact you can read and write "FLEX" disks just like
> "DECB" disks using the special program.  I have done both, well, I just read
> the "FLEX" disks but I often read / wrote "DECB" disks as I was using my own
> version of "SLED" for the editing of a "DECB" program.
>
> But all the program does is to transfer files from "FLEX" or "DECB" disks to
> OS-9 files or the reverse.
>
>> There are a lot of applications for coco written for the base machine
>> however.
>> It  looks to me like you give up on those applications.
>
> Some "DECB" programs can be run using a special program running on OS-9.
>
>> Or are you forever just switching back and forth, to suit the task at
>> hand?  Sounds like that is the case.
>
> Yes, some "DECB" programs cannot be run at all.
>
> What someone did was to patch "DECB" to be able to run under OS-9.
>
> Both my floppy drives were 80 Track 2 Sided.
>
> The descriptors were set up for 80T 2S but once a OS-9 floppy is formatted
> with a lesser track / side count, OS-9 will recognize and read the OS-9
> floppy just fine.
>
> I often read OS-9 35T 1S disks this way.
>
> For some of the lesser floppy OS-9 formats I used sformat, part of the sdisk
> package.
>
> The utilities for the standard floppy driver can not do all that sdisk 's
> sformat can do.
>
> Thus I sometimes had to boot with an OS-9 system disk with sdisk.
>
> Other times, the standard OS-9 boot disk was used.
>
>> I was almost positive there was an OS9 command that could read/write
>> RSDOS disks. It may have been as simple as 'rsdos'. Can't remember
>> for sure.
>
> That's the name of one of the programs I believe.
>
> SHF
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Adolph" <twospruces at gmail.com>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 2:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] some progress...
>
>
> thanks I'll read some more.
> I tried changing the drive paramters, but of course the directory info
> is in the wrong track too.
>
> Steve
>
> On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 4:49 PM, Sean<badfrog at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 3:34 PM, Stephen H.
>> Fischer<SFischer1 at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>> * disks created in RS-DOS (35 track) cannot be read or written in
>>>> Nitros-9
>>>
>>> Wrong. You just need the proper disk driver, I assume that NitrOS-9 has
>>> this
>>> already.
>>>
>>> Then you need the proper program. I used sdisk so someone else will have
>>> to
>>> supply the name.
>>>
>>
>> I was almost positive there was an OS9 command that could read/write
>> RSDOS disks. It may have been as simple as 'rsdos'. Can't remember
>> for sure.
>>
>
>
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