Amstrad CPC 3'' Turkish Contents with USIFACII to PC and Internet

[DoctorCPC]

I want to load the 3'' floppy disks, which are the Turkish content in my hand, to the PC environment before they get corrupted. For this I have a Schneider CPC 6128 and USIFAC II with 3'' floppy drive. Can you tell me how to transfer a floppy disk to DSK image on USIFACII, like telling an stupid? I have about 100 floppy disks. some are already corrupted some are standard content. this is very important for me and Turkish CPC Lovers...
Best Regards

[Mark_wllms]

What firmware do you have? To find out type |STAT and report the version number of the board.

Also, do you wish to use USB drive or cable to PC?

[DoctorCPC]

I also don't know how to use USIFACII. I will use it for the first time. I need your help to transfer the 3'' floppy disks with Turkish content to PC. Please explain it like you would an stupid.


Serial port speed: 1000000
Interface Rom Number: 5 (Rev.4c)
Direct Mode:OFF (Ret2Root Dir:Yes)
765 FDC Emulation OFF
USB Device Enabeld: OFF
Dos Emulation:AMSDOS

[DoctorCPC]

USIFACII Original View Stat Results

[DoctorCPC]

Im Waiting reply
Best regards

[Mark_wllms]

Firmware version 5 has this ability built in, but as you have version 4 firmware, you will need an extra utility:
Download Disk2image.zip and place the contents in the root of your USB drive.  You need both GETIMG.BAS and GETIMG.BIN.

Put the USB drive in the USIFAC II and turn on the CPC. Insert a disk in the CPC drive.

Type ¦USB on the CPC, and press RETURN.
Type RUN"GETIMG.BAS and press RETURN.
Follow the instructions to type in a filename for the disk image. You will need to include the ".DSK" extension, for example "MYDISK.DSK".

When the disk has finished copying, you can insert a new disk and enter a new filename as before, or press ESCAPE to exit.

[DoctorCPC]

Because floppy disks are old, it's not very efficient, but it works great. and also very simple. So how do I burn the DSK file, which I have imaged using USIFACII, to a 3'' floppy disk with this method? It's written as a track. does it write to 3" floppy disks in the same way as a track? But as far as I understand it doesn't verify. a lot of thanks. this is Great Method. im waiting your reply about writing 3'' discs. at the same time i have got Amstrad PCW 8256. i want to duplicate start of day disc so locoscript and CPM.
best regards

[Mark_wllms]

Glad it's working now.
Writing images to disk is easy. Set up the USIFAC in the same way as before,  but use the built-in command
¦DSK, "IMAGE.DSK with the name of the image from the USB drive. The DSK image file will be written to the physical disk in drive A.

You could also load the disk images virtually to test them with the USIFAC by typing:
¦MG,"IMAGE.DSK and press RETURN
¦FDC and press RETURN

then use the disk image as a virtual disk. If you want to use the disk image on a CPC464 then type ¦464 instead of ¦FDC.

I believe the start of day disks on PCW will already have a utility called DISCKIT to duplicate them: http://www.retroisle.com/amstrad/pcw/Articles/disckit.php

[DoctorCPC]

but unfortunately I cannot get images of Amstrad PCW floppy disks with GETIMG.BAS. It gives a corrupt warning to the floppy disks that I am sure are working. unfortunately Amstrad PCW tracks may differ. so what should i do to get images of Amstrad PCW floppy disks? USIFACII works flawlessly for Amstrad CPC images. but Amstrad does not take images of PCW floppy disks.

[SkulleateR]

AFAIK you need to do that on a real PCW ...


The Program is called DU54 and available here : http://www.seasip.info/Unix/Joyce/faq.html

[GeoffB17]

I've not seen GETIMG.BAS, but if it's a standard BASIC program, then you could amend the prog?

Maybe the prog is using machine code and explicit sector reads.   As I think you know, the sector numbering for PCW disks is different to the numbering for CPC disks.   There could be more to it than that, but it could be worth looking at.

I've used DU54 on my PCW, but it's somewhat fiddly, you've got to get things exactly so otherwise the prog seems to take no notice.  Expect this, and try a few ways.  Hope it will not get confused with the Gotek.   If you try to image a CF2 A: disk and store the result on M: then this will be most reliable?

Geoff

[GeoffB17]

I've now downloaded the disk2image package, and looked at the contents.   I'm not an expert on the code, but I believe that this prog is for the CPC machines, and NOT for a PCW.   For example there is reference to disabling FDC emulation, which may be something needed on a CPC but the PCW has an FDC (I believe) so should not need any emulation, also yes, the code includes the sector numbers as data which will be wrong for a PCW disk.

It may well be possible to amend the prog to use the correct sector numbers for a PCW disk, and then run this prog on a CPC as intended.   A PCW disk uses the 'normal' CP/M numbering of 1 thru 9 (binary not ASCII), and some disks may use the sector interleave and some do not, it's just a matter of performance.  Apart from the sector numbering, a CPC disk is just like a PCW disk, and the PCW can read the CPC disks quite happily (it knows about the sector numbering ).   I don't think it should WRITE one though?

Geoff

[DoctorCPC]

I didn't understand the Du54 method. Can't I just take the image of Amstrad PCW floppy disks and write them back to 3'' disks using USIFACII? Can you tell me step by step how to do without Amstrad PCW? This post answered my question. I can take images of Amstrad CPC floppy disks and save them to floppy disks. but the problem is Amstrad PCW floppy disks.

[Mark_wllms]

The disk2image files are a utility for the USIFAC II CPC add on, to reproduce the disk imaging functionality of more recent firmware. It can cope with standard  CPC System and Data format disks only.  It isn't designed for PCW machines. There is more information at this thread: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/usifac-iimake-your-pc-or-usb-stick-an-hdd-for-amstrad-access-dsk-and-many-more!/msg204396/#msg204396

The OP want to know if he can use his Amstrad and USIFAC to image PCW disks. It appears he cannot.

[Prodatron]

For PCW discs I hope this will help:

https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/software-related/amstrad-cpc-3-turkish-contents-with-m4wifi-to-pc-and-internet/msg209307/#msg209307