[Coco] dskini.exe problems

[Roger Taylor]

At 09:55 PM 1/12/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>All,
>
>I've setup a WinXP PC for work purposes.  In an effort to try to 
>consolidate the number of computers I have to maintain, I'm trying to move 
>my CoCo disk writing tasks from the Linux box (which has been replaced by 
>a Mac OS X system doing server tasks) to the PC.
>
>I'm using a Shuttle motherboard running the latest Windows XP.  In a 
>Command Prompt window, any DSKINI command just sits there trying to write 
>the first sector of the virtual disk to drive A: (a 1.44MB floppy).  The 
>BIOS is set up properly, and I can read FAT16 diskettes, so I'm wondering, 
>does DSKINI.EXE have compatibility issues with some of these floppy 
>controllers built into these condensed Super I/O chips?
>I would sure like to get this to work.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>Boisy

tisk tisk tisk...  please don't stay up late on this one!  Windows XP and 
several other modern versions of Windows will not let you do this.  You can 
boot with MS-DOS or a Windows startup disk, and it will work, but not from 
Windows, or a console prompt.

I've been upset about this for years now.  You can comb the web turning up 
lots of complaints, but no solutions.  The MS web site even gives a false 
reason for why you can't access non PC disks, saying that there's a sector 
byte that is incorrect, causing Windows to ignore the disk since it's not a 
modern Windows-created floppy.  If this is the case, then all CoCo disks 
have to be temporarily altered to trick Windows into thinking it's a PC 
disk?  Hogwash.

I posted a web site link a month ago to a small company that claims to have 
an OS-9 transfer system for the PC that *does* read and write non-PC 
floppies under XP and all other versions of Windows.  I'm sure these guys 
won't ever reveal their source code or offer their drivers for free, so 
I've given up for now and I just drop to DOS when moving .dsks around.  Or, 
I can use my 98SE laptop to read/write 3.5" DD CoCo floppies.


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Roger Taylor