[Coco] Vcc - Drivewire4 How to??

coco at jechar.ca coco at jechar.ca
Thu Jul 5 15:51:14 EDT 2018


I have an attachment I would like to send to Bill Pierce but I don't 
have your
email address and I think that the coco list strips attachments could 
you
contact me directly at coco at jechar.ca

On 2018-07-05 10:21, Bill Pierce via Coco wrote:
> First, read the "HDBDOS" manual found on Cloud9's site (or in my
> Starter Kits). That explains how HDBDOS/RGBDOS works.
> As Robert explained, the DriveWire slots are interpreted as harddrive
> images, UNLESS the "HDBDOS Translation" mode is checked in DriveWire
> "Tools". This lets DriveWire (and HDBDOS) know you are using the slots
> as disk drives.
> 
> FYI,
> DRIVE x - change default disk drive (HD/256 in default DW slot)
> DRIVE #x - change default DW slot
> 
> DRIVEOFF = VCC Drives 0-3 ON, DW Drives 0-3 OFF, DW Drives 4-255 ON
> DRIVEON = VCC Drives 0-3 OFF, DW Drives 0-3 ON, DW Drives 4-255 ON
> DRIVEOFF x = VCC Drives -x ON, DW Drives -x OFF, DW Drives x+1-255 ON
> DRIVEON  x= VCC Drives -x OFF, DW Drives -x ON, DW Drives x+1-255 ON
> 
> Normally, HDBDOS sees the DriveWire slots as mounted hard drives with
> an OS9 partition, followed by an RSDOS partition which is divided into
> 256, 35 trk, single sided drives. The location of the RSDOS drive
> (i.e. the size of the OS9 drive) is determined by the values stored in
> a location in HDBDOS (see the manual) which is the offset to where the
> RSDOS drive begins. All "DRIVE" commands affect these drives, NOT the
> DriveWire slots unless HBDDOS Translation is used.
> Also keep in mind, once you have OS9 booted, the "/Xx" descriptors are
> set for HDs, so formatting a floppy disk image in a DW slot would
> require you to manually set the proper disk type and size in the
> format command line.
> 
> Yes, I know it's all confusing but in the end, it's a very powerful
> set of tools and much can be done with them. I know when I first
> started using HDBDOS, it took me several months to get my head around
> all it's features and how they relate to disks Vs HDs.
> 
> BTW, the only real difference between VCC v1.43b and VCC v2.01 is
> where the "Becker Port" module is located. In 1.43b, it's built into
> the Coco's serial port and accessed in the "Config/Bitbanger" menu. In
> 2.01 it's a separate DLL that has to be mounted in the MPI and
> accessed in the "Cartridge" menu. Other than that, settings for either
> are the same.
> 
> All that being said, using my Starter Kit AND following the directions
> in the included text file, VCC will be configured to boot up into
> NitrOS9 straight out of the box. After the install, only 2 user
> actions are required, which is to mount the 2 included HD images as I
> couldn't figure out how to do this in the installer.
> 
> After the Starter Kit installation, the NitrOS9 configuration is:
> 
> VCC 6809 version:
> 2 Meg Memory
> 3 Floppy Drives (VCC Native Floppies)
> 1 90 Meg HD (VCC Native HD)
> 4 90 Meg /Xx HDs (DriveWire Slots
> 
> VCC 6309 version:
> 
> 2 Meg Memory
> 3 2x 720k 1x 158k (/D0-/D2)Floppy Drives (VCC Native Floppies)
> 1 90 Meg /H0 HD (VCC Native HD)
> 8 128 Meg /Xx HDs (DriveWire Slots)
> 
> I just recently installed both installations on a fresh Win 7 install
> and they're working flawlessly. They have also been tested on WinXP,
> Win Vista, Win 7, Win 8, AND Win 10.
> 
> Please keep in mind, and VCC v2.x installation on Win 7 and above need
> to be run in "Administrator Mode". This will be fixed in a future
> version. This is due to VCC keeping it's config file in the program
> folder and Win 7 & up doesn't like to allow writing to these folders.
> "Administrator Mode" allows this.
> If you do not run in Administrator Mode, you will have to reconfigure
> VCC each time it's run as the configuration can't be saved.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 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
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> 
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Thu, Jul 5, 2018 2:37 am
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Vcc - Drivewire4 How to??
> 
> You are missing the point of how the ROM installed to use Drivewire
> works. It assumes that a hard drive is mounted on Drivewire and it
> contains both a NitrOS-9 partition and a Disk Basic partition. The
> Disk Basic partition has 256 "drives".So, if you want the Drivewire
> drives to all be Disk Basic disks, you need to tell Drivewire that
> using its Tools function on the menu. Click on "HDBDOS translation"
> making sure that a check mark shows.Now from Basic when you DSKINI4,
> you should act on Drivewire drive #4.Robertcoco at jechar.ca wrote:>>
> Ok It is sort of working but Totaly useless.>>   It does not see the
> drives I mount.>>   When I select disk in memory for drive 4 and then
> do a DSKINI 4>   It formats drive 0 rather then drive 4 like it's
> supposed to F* UP!>>-- Coco mailing
> listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco


More information about the Coco mailing list