[Coco] Questions about drivewire3/hdbdos

[Robert Gault]

Bill wrote:
> Well, I thought I had it figured out.
>
> When I type DRIVE #1, it accesses the #1 drive. When I type DIR, I get a
> directory. But how do I load files into DRIVE #1, dir 1 or dir 2 or dir 3?
>
> (does that make sense?)
>

Not really :)

Bill, don't get confused between Drivewire3 and Drivewire4.
The first program assumes that each of the four slots is the equivalent of a 
drive mounted on a scsi channel. There is no built-in HDBDOS command that 
permits (under Disk Basic) copying between channels/slots. The only way that can 
be done is to move files into memory, issue a DRIVE#n to change channels, and 
then SAVE or SAVEM to the new disk.
The second program, has the feature HDBDOS Translation. This feature permits 
emulating Drivewire3 (Translation=OFF) or having each DW slot 0-255 the 
equivalent of the "drives" on a HDBDOS formatted hard drive.

Let's look at some examples which might make this easier to follow.
1) Moving files between a real disk in a Coco drive0 and a Drivewire image in 
slot0 by loading them into memory and then saving them.
    You access the real disk with DRIVEOFF and any commands to access drive0. 
You access the DW disk with DRIVEON and any commands to access drive0. This 
works with both DW3 and DW4.
2) Copying files between two drives mounted in different DW slots.
    Issue DRIVE#n to select the drive. Load a file into memory. Issue DRIVE#m to 
select the other drive. Save the file. This works for both DW3 and DW4.
3) Moving files when they can't easily be stored in memory, ex. machine language 
files. This applies to both 1) and 2) above.
    You can get the RAMdisk program from the Drivewire site. This program makes 
drive3 a RAM disk which is active whether the floppies are on or off. The 
program can be stored on either a real disk or a DW image.
    LOADM"RAMDISK" or whatever name it is saved as. Issue DRIVEON and DSKINI3 to 
format the RAM disk. Use DRIVEON or DRIVEOFF to activate either floppies or DW 
disks. Use either BACKUP0TO3 or COPY"file.ext:0"TO3 and then after an 
appropriate DRIVEON or DRIVEOFF go from 3 to 0. This works with both DW3 and DW4.

4) Moving files between DW disks.
    If you don't want to use the method in 3) you must use Drivewire4.
    Mount several images (single disks not hard drives) in the Drivewire slots. 
Turn on HDBDOS Translation and issue DRIVEON. Now you can transfer files between 
any of the drives with COPY or BACKUP.

=======================
If you are not sure what you want to accomplish or can't describe it, the above 
will seem confusing. It will not be when you can clearly state exactly what you 
want to do, step by step.
If nothing else, if you want a step by step answer to a question, you must 
present a step by step question. :)