Amstrad PCW9512 3" disk in a CPC ?

[Doktor]

Hello,

after some time, here I am with new questions...

A few days ago I bought on eBay a pair of 3" disk drives from PCW 9512...but I forgot that they are double sided.
I replaced the drive belt in one and connected everything in my spare CPC 6128, but drive cannot read disks.
I read somewhere that they are backwards compatible for reading 360k disk, but cannot remember where...and my original idea was to connect it to my PC for transfering downloaded *.DSK images...

Any ideas what can be done ?

Regards,
Doc

[arnoldemu]

Hello,

after some time, here I am with new questions...

A few days ago I bought on eBay a pair of 3" disk drives from PCW 9512...but I forgot that they are double sided.
I replaced the drive belt in one and connected everything in my spare CPC 6128, but drive cannot read disks.
I read somewhere that they are backwards compatible for reading 360k disk, but cannot remember where...and my original idea was to connect it to my PC for transfering downloaded *.DSK images...

Any ideas what can be done ?

Regards,
Doc

Hmmm.. double sided should be ok. Are these 80 track 3" drives? Now that *would* cause a problem.

[ukmarkh]

Wouldn't you need something like the Parados on rom or cart in order to format and access 80 track "3 drive/media?

[Cholo]

3" discs are 3" disc so you really shouldnt have any troubles if you format the disc. Pcw use different formats (if i recall right) so you will need to format to the usual 190kb on each side.

Have you tried the 6128 drive with other amstrad discs? Best is probably to get a set of cpm system discs so that you can format the pcw discs. Should be quite easy to get cheap on ebay.

There are other tools to format but i guess you dont have that or a way to get it to disc.

EDIT: Oh and getting the normal 6128 manual is probably also a good idea (its expain in there how to use the Cpm discs to format).

[Doktor]

@ Cholo and rest of guys: thanks for your answers...

I bought two disk drives, but tried just one.
I have original user manual and original system disks with utilities, and will try to do something with that.
Those disk drives are indeed 80 track (double sided) but I think that they are backward compatible...

If I make something with them, will post here for sure ! 

[TheRogue]

I seem to recall that there is some procedure required to make the 80 track drives step twice for every 1 track if you want to read 40 track disks. I don't know what is required to make this happen, but just something to think about.

[arnoldemu]

Wouldn't you need something like the Parados on rom or cart in order to format and access 80 track "3 drive/media?

Yes, but you wouldn't be able to read standard 40 track discs unless you forced the head to double step.

I don't know if it is possible to modify the drive to double step or not.

On the BBC we had 40/80 track drives where you could switch on/off double step.

[Executioner]

Yes, but you wouldn't be able to read standard 40 track discs unless you forced the head to double step.

You can set up ParaDOS to double-step from one of the menus or by poke-ing the DDB.