[Coco] Booting OS9 on my CoCo 3

[Bill Pierce]

Dave, I agree with Robert. It could be that you have 128k and the boot is requiring 512k due to the ramdisk.

Why not make a drivewire cable, boot from drivewire, then you can explore/modify your real disks and see what the problem is.

 

 

Bill Pierce
"Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
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-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Philipsen <dave at davebiz.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Tue, Aug 8, 2017 3:12 am
Subject: [Coco] Booting OS9 on my CoCo 3

Ok, so it's been a REAL long time since I booted OS9 on my real CoCo 3 from a floppy disk.  Like almost thirty years.  So I picked up a used FD501 controller from eBay awhile back and I just now hooked up a 3.5" floppy to it.  I can format a floppy and I can save/load programs from it.  But when I try to boot an old disk (probably 30 yrs old) I get the familiar "OS9 BOOT" screen and then the floppy does a seek at what sounds like a faster step rate and then it does nothing.  Frozen with "OS9 BOOT" on the screen and the floppy is still selected with the motor running.This is a very old boot disk that I labeled "OS9 Level II System Master with ramdisk".  My old setup was a CoCo 3 with 512K and a multipak and one of the old full-size floppy controllers and an RS232 Pak.  My new setup is a CoCo 3 with 128K, no MPI,  the FD501, and a 63C09.I've got some 5.25" OS9 disks too but I don't currently have a 5.25" drive so I'm hoping to get things worked out with the 3.5" drive. It may be that the floppy is just so old it's lost some of its retentivity but I just thought I'd put it out there to see if anyone has an idea.  Maybe I'm missing something obvious.  The FD501 does not seem to work at hi-speed. Could that be the problem?Dave-- Coco mailing listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco