[Coco] 5-1/4″ DS DD 80 track drive, 300 RPM mod

Bill Nobel b_nobel at hotmail.com
Thu Jul 3 00:14:29 EDT 2014


Ok, I had my library from way back in zipped archives on a PC (originally 30+ 80t ds dd disks).  You would need to move those disks to ‘.dsk’ files from either a PC,Mac or whatever (That is a whole different story, need a drive for 256 byte compatibility).  I have had a lot of success using the various repositories as well to get things I have lost, or even never had.

Bill Nobel

On Jul 2, 2014, at 9:55 PM, Kandur <k at qdv.pw> wrote:

> Bill, I have an HD backup set, made on a Coco-3 running OS_9 L2,
> on 28 floppies, created by the HDKIT archiver/backup program.
> Just want to restore/unpack them to any HD, anywhere.
> Here is one question for you, while running nos-9 L2 dw on the Coco,
> how can I copy a file from a mounted virtual disk on the server?
> 
> Kandur
> 
> Wednesday, July 2, 2014, 8:17:48 PM, you wrote:
>> Ok, I think I now understand what you are
>> trying to do, been kinda watching the thread.  I
>> assume you have the restore program for you
>> backup under your boot with DriveWire?  If so I
>> ended up using winimg under Mess to move the
>> disks to virtuals from my PC zipped archive,
>> then moved them to DriveWire disks. Then I used
>> the restore program on the DriveWire drive to virtual HD.
> 
>> Bill Nobel
> 
>> On Jul 2, 2014, at 8:39 PM, Kandur <k at qdv.pw> wrote:
> 
>>> Wednesday, July 2, 2014, 4:43:36 PM, you wrote:
>>>> Kandur wrote:
>>>>> Many thanks Robert, you saved me a huge amount of wild goose chase.
>>>>> My goal is to restore a 1989 scsi hard drive backup set on  floppies to an
>>>>> actual scsi hard drive, connected to the Coco-3.
> 
>>>> You will need to indicate what was on the SCSI drive and how that was
>>>> transferred to floppies. For example, if the
>>>> hard drive was formatted so that 
>>>> the first part was OS-9 and the second part was
>>>> multiple 35-track Basic 
>>>> floppies, that is a Ken-Ton RGBDOS system and it won't be a problem.
>>>> If the the original hard drive had some other
>>>> format, then you will probably 
>>>> need to copy files rather than using a Backup command.
> 
>>> There could be a bit of misunderstanding regarding the HD restore.
>>> Don't really care where to restore the backup, as long as 
>>> the files can be accessed and I can copy them somewhere. 
>>>> You need to be specific about what your system
>>>> was and what you want your new 
>>>> system to be. This group can't provide help in a vacuum.
> 
>>> The system consisted of a Coco-3, MPU, J&M FD and Owl Ware HD controllers.
>>> 2x5.25" DS DD 80T 300rpm floppy drives and 2x100MB CDC Wren SCSI HDs, 
>>> running OS-9 L2. Can't remember, how was the HD formatted.
>>>>> I have the original
>>>>> controllers for this. DW was new to me and a pleasant surprise.
>>>>> I made a copy of one of my backup diskettes to a wd4 virtual floppy,
>>>>> using hdb-dos, but have no way to confirm that, if it is good or not.
>>>> Again where is the detail? What format did you
>>>> use for the DW4 virtual floppy? 
>>>> Did you copy files or use a backup command? Was
>>>> it a Basic or OS-9 transfer?
> 
>>> Just followed these instructions:
>>> "An example, to copy a disk from the CoCo to the PC:
>>> Step 1. Mount a blank .dsk image in Drive 0 of the server on your PC .
>>> Step 2. Type DRIVE#0 to switch to the virtual drive 0 (this is the default).
>>> Step 3. Type DRIVE OFF 0 to turn off virtual disk 0 on drive 0 and turn on 
>>>      floppy drive 0 connected to your CoCo.
>>> Step 4. Insert your floppy into the CoCo's floppy disk drive 0 and type BACKUP 0 TO 1
>>> The DriveWire and HDB-DOS will then transfer the contents of the real floppy 
>>> to the virtual disk 1 in the drive 0 slot."
>>>>> It still eludes me, how to copy  wd4 virtual floppies to a real floppies
>>>>> or to a hard drive drive on the Coco, running nos-9. Is it possible at all?
>>>> Of course it is possible. However, we can't
>>>> answer hypothetical questions. Post 
>>>> a specific question with details of all disks
>>>> and files, virtual and real, if 
>>>> you want an answer.
> 
>>> Come to think of it, I don't need that for the restoration.
>>>>> Unless I get hold of a headless version of nos-9 L2 floppy or dw image,
>>>>> where the console defaults to /T1 @ 9600 baud, can't use Dsave,
>>>>> due to my 128k ram limitation. I tried it. My last resort is to buy a
>>>>> $50 + shipping 512k ram upgrade for my 'like new' $45 Coco-3.
>>>>> Kandur
>>>> You are severely handicapped because of the
>>>> small amount of memory on the Coco3. 
>>>> However, that should not prevent transferring
>>>> the contents of a DW4 virtual disk 
>>>> to a real floppy on the Coco.
>>>> It will make it very difficult to run NitrOS-9 on the Coco3 system.
> 
>>> You are absolutely right, I can't even edit the boot list, run scripts,
>>> make a new boot disk, change descriptors, etc. with all those modules
>>> in the stock repo disk images. That's why I need a stripped down,
>>> no graphics, sound, joysticks, etc. L2 boot disk, where the console 
>>> defaults to /T1 @ 9600 baud terminal. I made one of this, way back when,
>>> worked great with my stock 128k Coco-3.
>>>> Robert
> 
>>> Kandur
> 
>>> -- 
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> 
> 
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