[Coco] Looking for utilities for the following chores....

[Robert Gault]

K. Pruitt wrote:
> Some of the things I would like to do is:
>
> 1. Create blank virtual disks for use with Drivewire 4 (currently I am using
> pre-existing blank virtual disks)

You don't need any utilities for this purpose as DW4 will do the job.
 From the DW4 interface, right click on a drive number and select "Create new 
disk for drive #".
A new window will open where you can enter the name of an existing file in the 
blank. If you want a name that does not yet exist (as a zero byte file), click 
on the [...] and select the directory you want and enter a new file name.
This will 'create' a disk but it can't yet be used. You must format the disk 
either with the Disk Basic DSKI or the OS-9 Format commands. These commands are 
issued from your Coco.

> 2. Copy files from my PC (let's say text files from the My Documents directory)
> to those virtual disks which I could then access via my Coco.

If you use a current OS that does not have DOS, you need either the Toolshed 
package (a Sourceforge project), imgtool/wimgtool (from MESS), or some of the 
tools mentioned on this list.

> 3. Copy real RSDOS disks from my Coco to virtual disks via Drivewire. When I try
> this it appears to be successful but the virtual disks always revert to their
> blank state.
>

You don't need any utilities for this purpose as DW4 will do the job.
On the DW4 menubar, select Tools/HDBDOS translation. You should then see a 
message Item 'HDBDOSMode' set to 'true'. Select it again and you should see
Item 'HDBDOSMode' set to 'false'. You want this mode turned on or TRUE.

Now mount a blank or scrap disk in the DW4 server drive0. Mount on your Coco the 
disk to transfer in drive1. Enter the HDBDOS command DRIVEOFF0. This will make 
drive0 a real Coco drive and drive1 a DW4 drive. Use BACKUP0TO1 or the COPY command.

You can also transfer files from DW4 to you Coco.

> Are there utilities (or even just instructions) out there that do these tasks
> successfully?
>
> Thanks.
>

If 1. or 3. above don't work, you either have Write Protect turned on in DW4 or 
have used a Read Only directory on your PC.