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New PCW 9512+ owner

Started by chinny22, 13:02, 16 October 20

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chinny22

Hi all,
I manged to score a  PCW 9512+ off freecycle,
Funny story. The post said number of "Amstrad PC's" so I replied I'd be interested in one as into old computers and have a number of old 486's and up.
I was told that the Amstrad's had all gone but he also had a 486 so got that instead.
The guy was helping clear out his neighbours house who had recently passed away. Going though the files on the 486 found that he was an ex merchant navy captain.
(now wiped and upgraded into a dos games pc)


About a month later another post was on feeecycle this time a bit more accurately for a Amstrad PCW and the daisy wheel printer. I did think it was a coincidence and asked about it's history when picking it up He said it belonged to an ex captain, haha so it was from the same listing!


I've a few questions though as haven't really messed around with anything earlier then a dos PC
What's the best way to write disks? as most images are for the 3inch disk's will they still work on my 3 1/2 disk?
What's the best software to use to write disk images? I've got PC's with Dos, Win9x, XP, etc so compatibility with modern OS's isn't a requirement.
I know kits are available to fit a Gotek into earlier machine but what about the 9512+


cheers










GeoffB17

#1
As far as image writing is concerned, the 3" and the 3.5" disks are the same.  The image data gets written, and you end up with a CF2DD disk on a 3.5" disk.

NB, you should be using a DSDD floppy, and not a HD disk.   The latter MIGHT work initially, and MIGHT be reliable for a time, but a correct DSDD (730k disk) will be much better.

If you're going to write the image on the PC, then you need software that will be able to access the FDC, which WinDoze tends to object to.  Real DOS and Win9x should be OK.  The actual software depends on the image, I've used ImageDisk (IMD) for writing .IMD images, and .TD0, and this will work for Binary (Raw) images as well.  There are images about using the .DSK format, these are more aimed at CPC machines and are mostly the CF2 format.

More likely, I use 22DISK for various jobs, with assistance from the Joyce emulator, so I rarely need to write images directly.

Regarding the Gotek, this may be more problematic.   The 'kit' for the earlier varieties of PCW (using the 3" disks) will not be appropriate, as the drive uses a different connector - but if the kit is actually suitable for a PC and has the cable adjusted to suit that it may well be directly useable, just remove the cable converter?   However, I'm not sure about the power element, not sure if the lines would need to be reversed as is required for the 8xxx PCWs.

Geoff

chinny22

Thanks,
Now I know what software I need.


Your wording helped re the Gotek as well. It's obvious really I was searching using Gotek and PCW9512+ as my keywords but open up the search to PCW9512+ and standard floppy and found this in 2 seconds!


http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/gotek-(flashfloppy)-wiring-for-a-pcw9512/

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