full wiorking 6128

[tazzman]

Hi   Really pleased with myself today, thanks to the great help and article by Bryce on fixing the disk drive on the 6128 and getting an actual write protect pin from Steve at data serve retro I can now read and save to disks!
Just waiting on the cable from ikonsgr74 to connect the 3.5" drive and a usb FDD from fleabay and I can copy the games from the pc to play on the Arnold.
Thanks for all the help from every one


Simon

[Bryce]

Congratulations. Glad I could be of help.

Bryce.

[db6128]

Since I recently received both:

Just waiting on the cable from ikonsgr74 to connect the 3.5" drive

These are great.

and a usb FDD from fleabay and I can copy the games from the pc to play on the Arnold.

Not so easy. Make sure it supports the 720 kB (DD) format. The one I ordered does not, so I have to buy another one.

And I presume you know that you can't directly write CPC-compatible discs using a USB floppy drive? I only recently learned that USB FD controllers do not allow the right type of low-level access required to write non–MS-DOS formats. You will have to either (1) write the DSK file itself to a normal 720-formatted disk and then copy that into an actual CPC-formatted disc on the CPC itself (it can be the same disc/side if you want) using Arkos's WriteDSK; or (2) use DOScopy (search here or Google for the link; I don't have it right now) to write single files to a DOS-formatted disc, which can then be copied onto a CPC-formatted disc in a similar way.

Not the end of the world, but a bit more work. Ideally, I'd have an old desktop for all this stuff, with various versions of Windows, DOS, Linux, an AWE64 Gold and everything... but I don't.

[Cholo]

Ninja'd by db6128, but anyways 

Uh oh! A little worried when i read the "usb drive" are you using software on the 6128 to access pc formatted 3,5" floppies? Or will you attempt to write back normal amstrad DSK disc image directly "raw" onto 3,5" floppies like using CPCDiskXP? .. CPCDiskXP requires internal floppy drive access to work so i fear that you cant use the usb-floppydrive for that.

The good news is that your 6128 can access 720kb pc formatted floppies using software so your usb floppy drive is still extremely usefull for transfering dsk or files to 720kb pc floppies for use with your 6128. Only one drawback: you need software on 3" that allows you to read/write to 720kb pc floppies first and that can be a bit hard if you dont have another way to get software onto your 6128.

A good program to use that supports 720kb pc floppy access on your 6128 is Symbos. I recomend Symbos because its easy to use and automaticly detects 720kb pc floppies in its windows-like-explorer program (joystick works as "mouse" too). Symbos also have a DSK extractor program so if you copy a couple of DSK files onto a 720kb floppy on you pc and then insert the floppy in your 6128 with Symbos loaded, you can then extract the DSK directly from the file on 3,5" B: drive to a empty 3" in your internal 6128 A: drive. Probably a good idea to get a program like Symbos on way or the other, as modern pc's rarely come with (or even support) 3,5" internal drives.

Before attempting to install a 3,5" floppy cable on your 6128 i suggest having a quick look at the instructions on how to use the side switch as its usually something that cause trouble for people:

1. Turn on power to 3,5" & 6128.
2. Turn the side switch to "ON" to turn B: into "primary" and A: to "secondary".
3. After use, turn off power to 6128 & drive.
4. Turn the side switch to "OFF" on the cable.

Aka that side switch should always be turned OFF after use or it will cause trouble on the next bootup.

More here on the 3,5" cable:
Guide on how to connect a 3.5" drive to a CPC6128/664 - CPCWiki

If you have any questions feel free to ask away 

Links:
CPCDiskXP - Write and Read Amstrad CPC disks from a PC
http://www.symbos.de/download.htm

[db6128]

Ninja'd by db6128, but anyways 

Heheh.

The good news is that your 6128 can access 720kb pc formatted floppies using software so your usb floppy drive is still extremely usefull for transfering dsk or files to 720kb pc floppies for use with your 6128. Only one drawback: you need software on 3" that allows you to read/write to 720kb pc floppies first and that can be a bit hard if you dont have another way to get software onto your 6128.

Yes, I meant to write about the need to transfer WriteDSK/DOScopy over beforehand, but I forgot somehow. FWIW, what I did was simply to create virtual tapes out of them on my PC and play them into my CPC 6128 using my tape cable, but I understand that not everyone has a cable like this. What other options are there? My mind has gone blank!

Before attempting to install a 3,5" floppy cable on your 6128 i suggest having a quick look at the instructions on how to use the side switch as its usually something that cause trouble for people:

Well... for me, the problem was the fact that I connected the cable to the CPC the wrong way around. But my initial silliness aside, it now works great, and I can fully recommend those cables by ikonsgr74. I just have to order another USB FD, this time one that supports 720 kB [sigh]

[Cholo]

I just remembered another little trouble: Windows stopped supporting 720kb formatting quite a few versions ago (aka vista/7 dont support 720kb formatting anymore). It wasnt too hard to google a old windows based 720kb formatting program/tool though .. but i must admit i havnt tried this at all with a usb-drive.

Other options on formatting 720kb pc dos formatting (or other solutions to help transfter). Thinking a bit out of the box here (its ok to laugh ):

- Getting a HxC floppy emulator board obviously solve everything but its a quite expensive.

- Isnt factory sealed DD floppies usually pre-formatted to pc 720kb? I do recall getting some that wasnt so its a bit of a risk. Or buy some old pc 720kb floppies if possible .. with a bit of luck you can simply delete the files on the floppies and hopefully they dont have too many errors on em.

- Pretty sure i managed to format some 720kb pc floppies on my old amiga 500 using some pro/public domain transfer software (CrossDos and a couple others). It does require that you have at least 1 external drive (DF1) as the amiga need to assign 1 drive as amiga and one as pc. Works best if the floppy is brand new (aka dont try to format on top of a amiga formatted floppy).

- If its just for formatting and transfer stuff to 720kb floppy you can actually get a old used Laptop without hdd/no hdd/dead battery for as little as £15-25. All it need is a open bios, working floppy, keyboard, screen (and optional cd/dvd and usb-port). Downloading/making a startup floppy/cd shouldnt be a problem and once you have access to dos you can format away. Quite a few things that can go wrong with buying a old laptop though, make sure the bios isnt password'ed and that you get the psu as well etc.

- as db6128 mentioned: using a audio-lead to transfer the 720kb-reading-software to 3" may be a bit of work but it only needs to be done once.

[tazzman]

Thanks Guys for replies and can I now say EEEKKK!!


Thought it would be too easy just to plug everything in and copy away.... I will get symbos for sure of course I have a netbook with Windows 7 so will have to figure this out and play around when I get the stuff. I also have a tape transfer cable on the way from Retro Computer Shack so I should be able to play my cassette based games on the old portable cassette deck.
Have to look-out for an older pc I guess with windows 95 or 98 on it so I can use to that to copy. Ummm


Anyway thanks for all the advice I will reread it all and follow the links and see how I go

[db6128]

I also have a tape transfer cable on the way from Retro Computer Shack so I should be able to play my cassette based games on the old portable cassette deck.

Using this, you could also play tape files directly from your PC into the 6128.

Have to look-out for an older pc I guess with windows 95 or 98 on it so I can use to that to copy.

Not really.

If you have a computer with an internal 3.5" drive, you can write DSKs and AMSDOS files directly using CPCDiskXP et al.

If you need  to use an external drive (i.e. your motherboard does not have an integrated floppy port/controller), you can make sure that it supports 720 kB/DD format, write DSKs or AMSDOS files to a 720 kB–formatted disc, and then convert those into a normal CPC-compatible format using WriteDSK/DOScopy on the CPC – after copying either of these programs onto the CPC using your tape cable.

Versions of Windows up to XP can format 720 kB disks, and there's probably a way to make newer versions do it, too – or just use a DOS boot disk/CD, in which case your OS doesn't matter.

[Cholo]

Have to look-out for an older pc I guess with windows 95 or 98 on it so I can use to that to copy.

As db6128 mentioned, if you have a desktop pc around all you need it install a internal floppydrive and you can format 720kb floppies and as a bonus use CPCDiskXP to write directly to the floppies in amstrad format as well.

Of cause that requires you to have a pc with Win XP or higher i guess. Buying a whole new pc does seem a bit "overkill" of cause, but a quick look on ebay (uk) i noticed that there is plenty of old office-pc being sold with XP for as little as £30 (desktop box only). Might be able to get a Laptop with XP fairly cheap as well but do be carefull as the pc's that come with XP quite often dont have a floppy drive as well.

[Bryce]

I'd be careful with buying a laptop for this type of stuff. Many laptops used non-standard floppy controllers that might not play along with RAW / direct floppy writing programs.

Also, "WinXP or higher" isn't quite right. As you mentioned earlier, Vista and above don't support 720Kb any more.

Bryce.

[db6128]

Yes, XP was the last edition that allowed 720 kB formatting natively. Are there programs that can do it under Vista or 7?

But again, regardless of installed OS, I'm sure a DOS (or even Linux!) boot floppy/CD would let you do it, assuming you have a capable drive (internal or external) of course.

[gerald]

You can still use format 720k floppy on win7, just use the format command in a command window with proper parameters :

Code Select Expand


format a: /f:720

/f:720 is mandatory otherwise format will try 1.44MB by default, and will fail on SD floppy.

Tested on w7 ultimate 64bit with internal floppy (ie not USB)

[Gryzor]

[attachimg=1]

[db6128]

You can still use format 720k floppy on win7, just use the format command in a command window with proper parameters :

Code Select Expand


format a: /f:720


Excellent; thanks!

Now I think did read this before but then forgot.

[Bryce]

[attachimg=1]

Ok, I've managed to get the CF-2 into the 1541, now how do I get it back out?

Bryce.

[TFM]

You have to get a c64, that you will use the program the 6502 of the 1541, this will finally release the disc 

[Bryce]

I've tried the hardware version of your solution... Well sort of... I hit it with a C64, but that didn't help.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Uuuum.... maybe it's more easy to get a new disc

[Gryzor]

Quote from: Gryzor on Yesterday at 16:45:54 
Ok, I've managed to get the CF-2 into the 1541, now how do I get it back out? 

Bryce.

Yell at it?