Hi All,
I have recently aquired a PCW 8256 and I installed a Flash Floppy Gotek in it as drive A:
THis raises some questions....
Does the PCW natively support CPC Data format discs? I have CPM software for the CPC that I would like to run on the 8256, and although DSK files taken from the original media of these (Protext CPM / Supercalc2 / NewWord to name just 3) work fine in CPMBox (PCW EMulation setup as a PCW8256) I am unable to get these same DSK files to read on the actual hardware.
So is there a way to get these programs working on a PCW8256 from a gotek? or are there some specific parameters in the FF.CFG config file to tell the drive how to handle CPC DSK files correctly.
Kinda Confused!
Craig
Oh By the way the PCW version of Head over heels is great fun, and more colourful than the speccy version.
I'm pretty sure that the PCW will support the various standard CPC formats, in that if you have one of those disks (Data, System format) and put it into drive A: of a PCW, then the PCW will read and access the disk. I understand that such fprmats are the ONLY times that disks without the 16 byte XDPB header info will work. I think that the machine will detect that it it NOT a 'correct' disk, but will try these CPC formats on the off-chance. So, as described on page 381 of the 'Amstrad CP/m Plus' book, the PCW supports 3 formats, System, Data Only, and also any format covered by the XDPB. I think the PCW can tell them apart on the basis of the sector numbering, which is peculiar in the case of the data and System formats.
I'm pretty sure that I have been able to read Data and System format disks in the past. I do not have any such disks to check right now.
I do not know what happens when a Gotek gets involved. The PCW SHOULD see the data coming from the image exactly as if it was reading the real disk, so it should work, but maybe the process whereby it sees that the disk is 'wrong' (as in a CPC format) but reads it anyway in interfered with?
Geoff
The PCW could detect such formats based on sector numbering, which is different than regular formats.
If the problem is that the Gotek running on the PCW will not accept the CPC format disks, and there seems to be no 'fix' for this, then you might use the emulator to create a PCW format image and transfer the files from the CPC .DSK to an empty PCW .DSK, and see if that will then work OK on the Gotek connected to the PCW.
Geoff