[Coco] Drivewire info

[Robert Gault]

George Ramsower wrote:
>   I've never used drive wire on NitrOS-9. Heck, I've never tried NitrOs9. So,
> any/all future questions are as a newbie....
>
>    Can drivewire be configured to use it's connection to a PC as a default hard
> drive, say, as the CMDS directory? Perhaps as a total replacement, except for
> the boot disk?

You can mount a .vhd hard drive image of the type used with the emulators JVC, 
MESS, and VCC on Drivewire. That "hard drive" can include a NitrOS-9 boot disk 
in the RSDOS section and NitrOS-9 can be installed in the OS-9 section. The 
result would be a hard drive with $5A000 bytes devoted to OS-9.
Alternatively any of the Drivewire4 mounts can be an OS-9 .dsk/.os9 "floppy 
disk". Also these .dsk images can be created having any convenient size.

>
>   I'm thinking that if it can do that, then I may be able to eliminate my need
> for a replacement hard drive.
>   Of course, this means I have to convert to Nitros9 so that issue does not need
> to be mentioned.

Any OS-9 disk can be converted for Drivewire use by replacing the Boot module in 
the kernel and adding appropriate driver modules in the OS9Boot file.
You won't know what that means as a beginner but of more importance, the 
NitrOS-9 project has appropriate system disks available for download that are 
configured for use with Drivewire.

Another point to consider is the (D)isk (O)perating (S)ystem on your Coco3. You 
will want that to be a Drivewire version of HDBDOS. Optimally that should be in 
an EPROM in your Coco disk controller but you can use a LOADM version. The 
drawback of the LOADM version is you will lose it depending on how the RESET 
button is used and you must always do a LOADM on power-up.
You will need to learn how to get HDBDOS to access your Coco floppies as well as 
Drivewire drives but that is simple.

>   I have a laptop with plenty of HD space, a DB9 connection and W-7 OS.
>   The coco I want to connect to it is a CC3, 512K, 3 com ports and that laptop
> takes very little space and uses very little power, generates very little heat
> and it seems it would be perfect for what I'm thinking.
>
> George R
>

You should be able to get help here, on Maltedmedia, with converting many if not 
all OS-9 game disks for use with Drivewire.

Robert