Well, I just bought a tonne of things – a cable and a PSU for one of my existing 'internal' drives to use with my 6128, a 50-pack of discs, and a USB floppy drive to write from my laptop – and then read that apparently CPCDiskXP doesn't work with USB-based drives (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Guide_on_how_to_connect_a_3.5%22_drive_to_a_CPC6128/664#And_up_and_running). Is that still true? Do none of the other (mostly older) tools work with USB? I don't particularly want to have to keep a beige-box tower PC around purely to write DSKs.
I bought the 3.5" stuff mainly because I thought the HxC was a bit too expensive right now, but if the USB drive cannot be used, then the 3.5" stuff might be a waste of money and I should have just bought an HxC to begin with.
You can use the tool WriteDSK (http://www.julien-nevo.com/arkos/tools.html), in combination with the USB floppy drive on your PC to do what you want.
As Mochilote has mentioned, WriteDSK work well. I use it all the time for the same reason you mention.
Below is some previous discussion & the required files...
Writing DSK images to 3.5" floppies (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/general-discussion/writing-dsk-images-to-3-5'-floppies/msg48223/#msg48223)
files...
Writing DSK images to 3.5" floppies (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/general-discussion/writing-dsk-images-to-3-5'-floppies/msg48377/#msg48377)
Cheers,
Shane
Very good replies, thanks, and a very useful looking program. But I don't know if that'll save the USB drive and disks from being returned: having to do the transfer in two steps is not ideal, but more significantly, I would have no way to read disks back to PC without needing an internal drive again anyway.
I guess I will keep an old PC around after all! Hopefully I can also get my FD-1 working on it, too. Just trying to be sensible and find ways to avoid spending £70 on an HxC. ;)
Sure, if you mean you'll look into preserving flowers in a vase longer versus splashing out for a garden... :D