[Coco] Re: [Color Computer] Re: using Tandy FD drives in a PC

Peter Singfield snkm at btl.net
Fri Jun 4 10:00:21 EDT 2004


There was a Coco software we used especially for this -- believe it was
called "Clone" -- or Clone Master???

Basically -- it does a complete bit image of one disk to another.

Like Norton Ghost does today.

Actually -- should not Norton Ghost work??

Some software protection depended on leaving specific tracks unformatted.

"Cloning" worked well for those.

Peter Singfield / Belize

At 12:41 PM 6/4/2004 -0000, Charlie wrote:
>The FD-501 drive worked perfectly in the 486 system. I was able to 
>format and read, write 180K disks under DOS and Anadisk worked great.
>
>I was able to copy COCO disks and they worked great. However anadisk 
>did not copy the COCO3 Sundog copy protected games. Sinistar, Warrior 
>King, Quest for Thelda all copied but didn't work the same as if I 
>had just done a BACKUP 0 TO 1 in the COCO itself.
>
>Anadisk was able to copy the COCO2 game White Fire of Eternity and I 
>believe that is copy protected. I'll have to try other games tonight.
>
>So in the end, I'm still not able to make backups of my favorite COCO 
>games :(
>
>-Charlie
>
>
>
>--- In ColorComputer at yahoogroups.com, "Mike Pepe" <lamune at d...> wrote:
>> The reason your drives are both being selected at the same time has 
>to do
>> with a quirk of PC floppy cabling. It has nothing to do with the 
>age or cpu
>> type or speed of the PC you're using.
>> 
>> All PC floppies are shipped from the factory set as "drive 1". (or 
>is it 2?
>> I'm not sure now) The twist in the cable determines which actual 
>drive
>> select line goes to the proper drive. Thus, you plug a drive into 
>the first
>> connector and it's "A", the second is "B".
>> 
>> There are two ways to solve this:
>> 
>> 1- use the PC cable, but set your CoCo drive to DS1 (or 2, if 1 
>doesn't
>> work) or:
>> 
>> 2- use a straight through cable without the twist. Set your A drive 
>to DS0
>> and your CoCo drive to DS1
>> 
>> Don't forget to remove or disable the termination on the drive 
>that's not at
>> the end of the chain.
>> 
>> I'm pretty sure the FD-501 drive has drive select jumpers, but if 
>it does
>> not, as you discovered, you can connect it as the only drive and it 
>should
>> work in any PC. You may need to experiment with the twisted/non-
>twisted
>> sockets and whether the PC thinks it's drive A or drive B.
>> 
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Charlie [mailto:chazbeenhad at h...]
>> > Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 8:57 AM
>> > To: ColorComputer at yahoogroups.com
>> > Subject: [Color Computer] Re: using Tandy FD drives in a PC
>> > 
>> > --- In ColorComputer at yahoogroups.com, Robert Emery
>> > <theother_bob at y...> wrote:
>> > > >   ----- Original Message -----
>> > > >   From: Charlie
>> > > >
>> > > >   I could NOT get the FD-501 drive to work as drive B on any 
>of 3
>> > > >   different PCs last night.
>> > > >
>> > > >   1st of all, as it was with a 1.44 floppy on the ribbon cable
>> > both
>> > > >   drives acted as A at the same time.
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > >   Any tips on getting this 180K fd-501 disk to work on a PC?
>> > > >
>> > > >   -Charlie
>> > >
>> > > --- sadolph <sadolph at m...> wrote:
>> > > > There is a resistor network that needs to be uninstalled, on 
>the
>> > b drive I
>> > > > believe.
>> > > >
>> > > > Also, you have to jumper the drive to be drive b.  there are
>> > usually markings
>> > > > that identify which jumper it needs to be.
>> > > >
>> > >
>> > > If your cable allows it, try putting both drives on the same 
>side
>> > of the twist
>> > > (if you can't find the DS jumpers.) The terminating resistor
>> > network should be
>> > > removed if it's not the last drive on the cable.
>> > >
>> > > Bob
>> > >
>> > 
>> > Yesterday I did get the FD-501 drive working in a Asus A7a-266 
>mobo
>> > with an Athlon 900 cpu running DOS.
>> > 
>> > My FD-501 drive has no jumpers at all. There is a spot that says 
>DS0
>> > DS1 DS2 DS3 but there are no jumper pins, the DS0 and DS1 are
>> > soldered together. Regardless, It was working as a single drive 
>A. Of
>> > course I told the bios it was a 360K floppy, but I got no error 
>and
>> > Anadisk was writing and reading from the drive just fine.
>> > 
>> > Still though, at the COCO the disks were no good. No DIR, nothing
>> > just IO errors. I took the FD-501 drive out of the PC and threw in
>> > one of the 360K drives I use on my COCO and got the same results.
>> > 
>> > So maybe it has to do with the disk controller on the mother 
>board.
>> > Or, a combo of both .....
>> > 
>> > I guess I'll have to search around here at work for the oldest 
>system
>> > I can find with a 486 or 386 cpu.
>> > 
>> > -Charlie
>> > 
>
>
>
>
>
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