Writing DSK images to 3.5" floppies

[joska]

I've just bought myself a CPC6128, but have no disks. I plan to connect a 3.5" drive (I have several spare SD/DD drives for my ST's) externally as I have loads of DD 3.5" floppies. Can DSK images of 3" disks be written directly to 3.5" disks, or do I have to convert them in some way?

[dragon]

Yes  you only need this:


CPCDiskXP - Write and Read Amstrad CPC disks from a PC


A 3,5" FDD in pc and cpc DD compatibles.


Thats all.(apart  you  need modify the 3,5" FDD in cpc to add the ready,and side A/B A: on/off interrupts.).


If you have a samsung sfd 321B.This is the best  fdd you can use in the cpc,because it support a native ready signal with a litte  modification.

[joska]

Thanks, so this will be easy I will be using an old Atari ST drive which supports the Ready/Disk change signal directly.

[TotO]

Sure, it's better.

[Gryzor]

It's worth noting that it's easy enough to connect your 3" drive to the PC as well and transfer the images to the 3" disks. Of course the 3.5" drive has its plus points, but I thought I'd mention it...

[joska]

It's worth noting that it's easy enough to connect your 3" drive to the PC as well and transfer the images to the 3" disks.

Yes, I know. But I have no 3" disks but loads of 3.5" disks, that's why I want to connect an external 3.5". When/if I get hold of some 3" disks it appears to be easy to transfer disk images from a 3.5" to the internal 3" on the CPC itself.

[dragon]

In the cpc 3,5" drive you have two options.Solder the interrupts in the fdd motherboard.Or made the interrupts in the FDD cable.I personally use the 1º metod,Because i use the fdd in cpc and cpc plus without modify the ribbon cable.


My metod is rare I know,


1º I pick up the bottom of old FDD that came with holes at the bottom. .
2ºI put it up in the top of new FFD,And i add a two switch interruptor in the holes of old FDD.Add a litte tape.And new 3,5" cpc born   and  later you can add a printer image in the top of fdd .

[TotO]

He said 2 times that he use an ST drive (that work w/o hack)...
So, why speaking here about PC drive ? I miss something ?

[dragon]

easy.

You miss,I never have atari st.So I not know the atari st drives .

[TotO]

 

[Cholo]

More about connecting a 3,5" floppy:
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Guide_on_how_to_connect_a_3.5

Do note that to use CPCDiskXP you need a internal 3,5" in your pc as it need direct access to the hardware (aka you sadly cant use a USB floppy for this).

Also worth mentioning is that once you have a 3,5" drive connected to your 6128 .. you can also access pc formatted floppies on the cpc. It dosnt require any extra hardware, but you do need software to make it read/write to the pc formatted floppies.

I usually suggest to everyone to get a copy of Symbos as it recognized the pc formatted floppies automaticly and it has a nice "explorer"-like filemanager and even a DSK extractor, so if you have a few DSK files on the pc formatted floppy then you can simply extract the disc images to the 3" in A: drive. I always keep a copy of Symbos on 3" disc simply as the last 2 pc's ive had didnt come with floppy drive (and the last one dont even support it i think). Of cause you can always use a USB-floppy drive along with Symbos (or similar software) as long as pcs have USB ports i hope.

http://symbos.de/index.htm

[arnoldemu]

Also worth mentioning is that once you have a 3,5" drive connected to your 6128 .. you can also access pc formatted floppies on the cpc. It dosnt require any extra hardware, but you do need software to make it read/write to the pc formatted floppies.

For people who don't know: use "720K" Double density format.

[TotO]

He only want to know if he can write directly 3" DSK on 3"1/2 floppies an reading them by using a ST drive on it, that all...

[00WReX]

There is another option out there that works if you only have a USB PC floppy drive called "WriteDSK".
The only issue with this is that you need to get "WriteDSK" onto your CPC to run it.
WriteDSK - CPCWiki - The Ultimate Amstrad CPC Community & Encyclopedia!
If you have a tape connector cable you can do this via your latop in the form of a .wav file.
Initial read may sound like a bit of messing around but it really is simple and I use it all the time.
I actually now use this program in ROM form but initially I got started exactly as I mentioned above.
1. Convert WriteDSK to a .wav file.
2. Load it to my CPC via the tape connector cable.
3. Then the first .DSK image that I copied to my Amstrad formatted 3.5" disk was "WriteDSK".
    (So then you don't need to load it via the .wav file any more).
If you do have a tape connector cable I can post up the .wav file of "WriteDSK".

Cheers,
Shane

[joska]

The CPC arrived today. It was sold as spares/repair, but it turned out to work just fine. The only thing I had to do was to clean the keyboard foil as some of the keys didn't work.


The ST floppy drive worked fine with just a straight cable, no modifications were necessary. It's a huge beast though, I had forgotten about that I will probably modify a laptop drive and use that one instead.


This is my first 8-bit with a floppy drive, I only had tapes back in the 80's. I was a bit surprised to find that there is no "format" command in Basic, and with my old PC stored away for the moment I couldn't really test any floppies. The 3" drive is super clean and probably works fine, I will try to find some 3" disks and transfer disk images to them using writedsk. I would be very grateful if you could upload that wav of WriteDSK.

[dragon]

To format de 3"/3,5" disk in the cpc.You need use the cpm operating system:


System Disk - CPCWiki - The Ultimate Amstrad CPC Community & Encyclopedia!

write in the cpc


|cpm turn the side of disc.and search the utility to copy/format disk .


Yo only need one disk to test the floppy,write a little progam in basic,save it in disk,and load it.

[TotO]

DISCKIT3 is the name of the CP/M tools for that.
Format and verify the disc, so you are sure to know if you get errors.

[joska]

I don't have any disks, not even the cp/m disk


However, I found this: Amstrad CPC 6128, the 3.5″ floppy and opcodes | Dimitris's Blog


It worked fine and I've now been able to test the floppy. This is great fun! I've never owned an 8-bit with a floppy drive before, this makes programming so much more fun and efficient than using tapes.

[00WReX]

Hi,
Attached is the WriteDSk .wav files as well as the .dsk & .rom files if rquired.

Cheers,
Shane

[joska]

Thanks, the tape images worked beautifully.

[TFM]

This is my first 8-bit with a floppy drive, I only had tapes back in the 80's. I was a bit surprised to find that there is no "format" command in Basic

You can find a format program as part of the DiscKit3 on the CP/M Plua System Disc. Somebody should have some for you (not me, sorry).
If you decide to add a MegaFlash to your 6128 then you can use several DOS ROMs which all provide format commands and even 0.7 MB formats on the 3.5" B drive.

[TotO]

In those days DiscKit3 is great, because it check the floppy while formatting. (Discology don't for example)

[joska]

Attached is the WriteDSk .wav files as well as the .dsk & .rom files if rquired.

Alright! I finally got the chance to test WriteDSK now, and it works just beatifully! The first image I wrote was WriteDSK itself


Unfortunately floppy support sucks on modern PC's. I only have laptops and a USB drive now, and I'm not able to format a 720k floppy under Windows 7 or Linux. I actually had to format a floppy on my Atari Falcon and transfer the dsk images to the floppy using the USB drive on my Windows laptop. But now that I have a floppy with WriteDSK and a 720k formatted floppy that my PC can actually access things will be quite straightforward. Thanks for all the help guys

[TFM]

In those days DiscKit3 is great, because it check the floppy while formatting. (Discology don't for example)

Right!
To check floppies I really suggest (in additon) the CP/M program BD04.COM because it scans mutiple times and locks out defective sectors, but you can still use the remaining sectors.
See attachment for an extended system disc.

[00WReX]

Alright! I finally got the chance to test WriteDSK now, and it works just beatifully! The first image I wrote was WriteDSK itself


Unfortunately floppy support sucks on modern PC's. I only have laptops and a USB drive now, and I'm not able to format a 720k floppy under Windows 7 or Linux. I actually had to format a floppy on my Atari Falcon and transfer the dsk images to the floppy using the USB drive on my Windows laptop. But now that I have a floppy with WriteDSK and a 720k formatted floppy that my PC can actually access things will be quite straightforward. Thanks for all the help guys

Good to hear you had success with WriteDSK.
You should be able to format your disks for 720K on a USB floppy under Windows 7...try it from the command prompt.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
C:\>format a:
Insert new disk for drive A:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is FAT.
Verifying 720K
Initializing the File Allocation Table (FAT)...
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?
Format complete.
     713.0 KB total disk space.
     713.0 KB are available.
        1,024 bytes in each allocation unit.
          713 allocation units available on disk.
           12 bits in each FAT entry.
Volume Serial Number is D8EB-5FCB
Format another (Y/N)? n
C:\>