News:

Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!

Main Menu
avatar_Starglider

PCW 8512 Drive B not working

Started by Starglider, 07:54, 07 October 19

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Starglider

Hi guys, sometimes when I boot the 8512, drive B is invisible to the system and exhibits no activity. Any ideas?
Starglider aka Perifractic
http://youtube.com/perifractic 

Amstrad PCW8256 with Gotek & HD Drive B

JohnElliott

Does it make a difference if you start with a disc in the second drive? CP/M detects a second drive by accessing the drive status - the drive is absent if it is not write protected and not ready. Putting a disc in should make it report as ready.
(The usual situations where this shows up are 5.25" drives, where the write protect sensor is blocked for a read-only disc, open for read-write, so an empty drive reports read/write; and 3.5" drives with a disc partly in the drive, so that the write protect sensor is covered but the disc does not rotate).

GeoffB17

Well, it certainly makes a difference on my PCW - if I don't insert a disk into B: when I boot, the drive is just not there, and putting a disk in later does not help.   I just put a disk into the drive as a matter of course, ever since I had the B: drive.

And that's with the drive being an external 360k 5.25" drive.   I also have a 3.5" B: that can be attached as an alternative, and that does NOT seem to have the same behaviour, but this drive has been wired to be ALWAYS ready to get around other problems with 3.5" drives.

Geoff

Starglider

Thanks guys, I'll play with that theory a little bit.
Starglider aka Perifractic
http://youtube.com/perifractic 

Amstrad PCW8256 with Gotek & HD Drive B

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod