Thinking of buying this 3/1/2 inch drive

dcdrac · 00:01, 15 January 14

If I buy this what else do I need to do to get it working? I have stcks of old 3 1/2 inch floppies I could possibly convert, old HD ones, is there any software tweaks I need to make?

I have parados on a cartridge will that be enough?

AMSTRAD CPC/SPECTRUM +3 FULL KIT: 3.5" DISK DRIVE + RIBBON CABLE + POWER CABLE |

Bryce · 10:00, 15 January 14

No software tweaks are needed, but you'll need to modify the drive to send a Ready signal and convert it to DS0 (PC drives are always set to DS1). Both of these changes are usually just soldered jumpers on the drives PCB.

Bryce.

steve · 13:10, 15 January 14

As it's a full kit, I would expect the drive to be modified already.

pacomix · 13:34, 15 January 14

I bought this kit from this guy and you don't need to worry about anything. If you buy the disk drive from him it will work out of the box.

Bryce · 13:50, 15 January 14

Ah, didn't realise the kit included the drive. Ikongrs doesn't modify Ready signal on the drive, he permanently sets it on the cable. I prefer to modify the drive so that the drive only says Ready when it really is ready.

Bryce.

dcdrac · 19:02, 15 January 14

ok doke so plug drive in, I guess I will need a disc that is a max of 720KB?

TFM · 19:05, 15 January 14

I agree with that. The Ready signal should be only ready when the drive really is ready to be used. Else there would be problems with some software.

However don't change DS1 to DS0 else the CPC has two A-drives instead one A and one B drive.

dcdrac · 23:19, 15 January 14

I have forgotten the format command for AMSDOS, I cannot recall if you ahd to do it n CPM or could do it from the Command line in AMSDOS

Whether it was Format A: or Format Disc

Got CPCXpDisc but it does not appear to like external USB floppy drives and will not format the floppy.

MacDeath · 23:49, 15 January 14

QuoteI prefer to modify the drive so that the drive only says Ready when it really is ready.

you sneaky creepy classy elegant magnificent dude...

dcdrac · 23:59, 15 January 14

guess I will need to use the CPM discs to do it none of the tools I have found so far support USB drives.

Bryce · 09:31, 16 January 14

Quote from: dcdrac on 23:59, 15 January 14
guess I will need to use the CPM discs to do it none of the tools I have found so far support USB drives.

CP/M doesn't support USB either

Bryce.

dcdrac · 18:16, 16 January 14

yes I know so will have to boot into CPM on the CPc swap drives then format the floppy.

Unless there is a Windows 7 64 bit version CPCXp

TFM · 18:21, 16 January 14

It should run with that, but not usb drives imho.

robcfg · 18:32, 16 January 14

Quote from: dcdrac on 18:16, 16 January 14
yes I know so will have to boot into CPM on the CPc swap drives then format the floppy.

Unless there is a Windows 7 64 bit version CPCXp

Do you mean a Win7 64 Bit CPCDiskXP version? Because I use the regular one on my 64 bit Win7 and works flawlessly. Maybe you have an outdated version of the fdrawcmd driver?

dcdrac · 18:52, 16 January 14

might be the driver I guess that's gettable from MS?

Found it but I will not install but it cannot find a floppy drive lol

robcfg · 18:56, 16 January 14

You can get it here: fdrawcmd.sys - Floppy Driver for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7

dcdrac · 19:27, 16 January 14

yes tried it keeps telling me no floppy detected, there isn't one, or does not support USB Floppy drives.

dcdrac · 22:09, 16 January 14

ok found a formatted floppy and copied a dsk file to it I guess I have to convert that somehow

TFM · 22:14, 16 January 14

Use CPCDSK for that

dcdrac · 22:24, 16 January 14

that's hitting the buffer of the fdinsatll not liking usb floppy drives is there another tool out three?

dcdrac · 22:44, 16 January 14

Found this giving it a go

LIBDSK homepage

00WReX · 00:33, 17 January 14

Writing DSK images to 3.5" floppies

http://ldeplanque.free.fr/ManageDsk/ManageDsk_v0.20h.zip

Cheers,
Shane

robcfg · 10:52, 17 January 14

Anyway, USB floppies are a no-go, as the programs cannot access the controller directly.

You'll have to install a real floppy attached to your motherboard.

00WReX · 11:12, 17 January 14

I only have a USB floppy these days, nothing else.

I use "writeDSK" all the time to get DSK's from my laptop to the CPC.

Cheers,
Shane

JonB · 12:54, 17 January 14

Quote from: Bryce on 10:00, 15 January 14
No software tweaks are needed, but you'll need to modify the drive to send a Ready signal and convert it to DS0 (PC drives are always set to DS1). Both of these changes are usually just soldered jumpers on the drives PCB.

Bryce.

Hi Bryce

I have one of these kits and the floppy, as you say, doesn't send RDY, or rather it is always RDY. This is unfortunate because DISCKIT3 wants all disks removed before it will exit, and it must be using RDY=FALSE to tell if you complied. How do you convert the drive to proper RDY functioning?

Cheers

JonB

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Thinking of buying this 3/1/2 inch drive