[Coco] Using HDB-DOS for DriveWire 3

[Tim Fadden]

N8WQ wrote:
> Yes, I would like to have a blank .vhd image.  I don't  know what  
> size to shoot for though.  As you can probably tell I am a  newbie at 
> this.  :)
>
> O. Alan Jones
>
I am thinking that the /x? drivers supplied is a specific size, but I am 
not sure.  The way I did it was to first use dmode to modify /x0 for the 
number of sectors I wanted.  Saved it, and made a new os9boot with the 
new descriptor.  You could also use cobbler. Then I used the toolshed 
tool os9 to create an image with the same number of sectors as I had in 
the /x0 descriptor. This may not be required. I can mount the image I 
created on one of the unmodified /x? and it works just the same.

If you tell me exactly what size disk etc, you want. I could create it, 
or give you vague instructions and make you figure it out, :-) or exact  
instructions in which you would learn less. he he he

With the toolshed program os9, you can make images that only have the 
allocation table, and grow as you put data on it, or create file the 
full size from the beginning.  They seem to work the same to me, but I 
was told that you must create it full size. So far I have not found this 
to be true.

Here is a way to create a disk image without using the toolshed tools:

Boot into os9 with the nitros09DW3 image in /x0.
Then on the Drive Wire Server, select an empty floppy say, /x3. Instead 
of selecting a file to mount, select type as os9, and type in a file 
name of your choice, say, newdisk. the server will create the file 
newdisk.os9

Now from os9, try a dir on /x3 you should get a 253 error "Non-Shareable 
file busy"
Now type in: format /x3 
........   Follow the prompts, and do both a physical and verify 
format.  If you watch the drive wire server interface, you can see the 
read/write to the file, and you can watch the file on the pc grow in 
size as it goes along.

It will take a while, but when done, you will have a new blank disk 
image of about 8.3 meg .  If you want a different size, use dmode on the 
/x? you are formating, beforehand, and it will be the size you specify.

I could not find any of this documented, but it seems to work just fine.



P.S. don't get hung up on the .vhd extension.  I have used .dsk, and 
.os9 for the image extensions, and they both work the same with Drive 
Wire anyway. I finally ended up using .os9 for the standard, as that is 
what it is.

If you have any questions, feel free.

Tim Fadden