[Coco] File transfers over DriveWire between PC and Coco hard disk

[Robert Gault]

Joel Ewy wrote:
> Robert Gault wrote:
>> There have been some claims that you need a floppy drive on the Coco 
>> to transfer files between a DriveWire mounted image on a PC and a Coco 
>> hard drive. That is not correct.
>>
>> It is easy to set up a RAM disk on a Coco for use with HDBDOS. Drives 
>> 2 and 3 become full RAM disk with a 512K Coco, rather than floppy or 
>> hard drive "disks" under Basic.
>> The content of these drives is stable even after a hard reset with 
>> ALT+CTRL+REST.
>>
>> I have tested the RAM disk code that works with the KEN-TON scsi 
>> RGBDOS on a DriveWire HDBDOS system and the RAM disk still works. That 
>> means you can have your normal HDBDOS in ROM, load the RAM disk, load 
>> HDBDOS DW3, copy files from the PC to the RAM disk, reboot the Coco, 
>> start up the RAM disk, and the contents are still available for 
>> transfer to your Coco hard drive.
> 
> Hi Robert,
> 
> Which RAM disk are you using?  Is this one that is generally available?  
> I tried out at least a couple different RAM disk programs and they 
> stomped on Drivewire, so I've been working on a BASIC program to do some 
> Drivewire file management tasks.  If there's a RAM disk that does what I 
> need, I might turn my attention to other projects.
> 
> JCE
> 
>>
>> It is much easier running NitrOS-9 as no RAM disk is needed.
>>

Depends what "generally available" means. :) The program is essentially 
the one that came with the KEN-TON hard drive system. I don't know how 
wide spread that is.

Writing your own should be simple. All you need to do is interface with 
HDBDOS so as not to interfere with its operation. Care was taken in the 
original RGBDOS to permit users to write these type of applications.

Disk Basic 1.1 had a JMP inserted at $D75F (DSKCON) so all you need to 
do is find some free memory in the $C000-$DFFF area, change the jump 
address at $D75F to point to your routine, and if a drive other than 
your RAM disk is accessed, jump to the original patch placed at $D75F by 
HDBDOS. Or you can JMP [$D936] which should contain the correct vector.