[Coco] OS-9 Floppy

[Bill Pierce]

There is actually a utility on one of the Burke and Burke disks that will do hybrid disks and I've seen a couple of more else where, just can't remember where at the moment. I think the utility is part of the HyperIO package since that software was for using RSDOS partitions on B&B HD setups. It's called Skitzo and on the dsk I have, there's a Skitzo2.

Bill P

Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
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Bill Pierce
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-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Sun, Mar 17, 2013 6:42 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] OS-9 Floppy


Melanie and John Mark Mobley wrote:
> Can I write a DECB (Disk Extended Color BASIC) file to an OS-9 disk without
> disturbing the OS-9 portion of the disk?
>

It is possible to format a disk for both DECB and OS-9 but you need much manual 
work to get it right. It is only practical if you force the first half of the 
disk to be OS-9 and the second half to be DECB.

Here is how you must do it to get it to work. Format the disk for OS-9 as a 
single sided disk. Now use dEd to mark as used the allocation bit map in LSN1 so 

that OS-9 can't make use of track 17 and beyond. So fill LSN2 bytes $26- with 
$FF.
Now format a different disk with DECB. Place the OS-9 disk in drive0 and the 
DECB disk in drive1. Run the following program.
10 CLEAR 512
20 FOR S=1TO18
30 DSKI$1,17,S,A$,B$:DSKO$0,17,S,A$,B$
40 NEXT
That will place a DECB directory onto the OS-9 disk. You now need to mark the 
file allocation sector T17S2 to show that the sectors used for OS-9 are not 
available. You can write a DECB program to do this but using a raw disk editor 
is easier. Again assuming the first half of the disk is OS-9 fill T17S2 bytes 
0-$21 with $EE to mark it used.

Now you could right either a Basic09 or DEC Basic program to do the above but it 

probably won't be worth the effort. Why not put OS-9 on the front side of the 
disk and DECB on the back side of the disk?

Robert


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