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rea 4 nor ************ Topic 4 Thu Oct 24, 1991 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 04:48 EDT Sub: HD Series Hard Drives A place to post questions, answers, comments, and suggestions for the CMD HD series of Hard Drives for the C64 and C128. 238 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 1 Thu Oct 31, 1991 G.HOYLE at 01:13 CST I'm having some big problems using GEOS with the HD-20. Mainly, a lot of applications crash; sometimes geoWrite files get corrupted; I've even had some partitions switch names! I have GateWay, but I prefer Geos because it's easier to rearrange files. Could this have something to do with my problem? --Guy ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 2 Thu Oct 31, 1991 G.HOYLE at 01:21 CST BTW--I use a lot of PD GEOS software, which I know may or may not add to the problem. What procedures do you recommend for finding out if these are interfering with the HD? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 3 Thu Oct 31, 1991 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 10:10 EST Most of the corruption problems with Geos start with autoexec files that change areas or vectors on bootup. I think one of the ones mentioned that causes problems is the one that blanks your screen after a couple of minutes. The easiest way to isolate a problem is to start from the bottom up with a "virgin" Geos disk, transfer it to the HD into a couple of different partitions and then load up each partition with the different programs you use. Put one or two of the PD programs into each. Once you start getting trouble inside a partition you may be close to finding which program that is the cause for your trouble. Also, do not use a "MAVERICKed" version of Geos with Gateway! ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 4 Fri Nov 01, 1991 CMD-DOUG at 04:00 EST Also check to see which version of HD DOS you are using. Some versions had problems with corruption. The safest versions to use are 1.46, 1.47, 1.80, and 1.82. All others should be avoided. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 5 Sat Nov 09, 1991 K.LESTERJR at 22:23 EST Hi - You (Doug Cotton) said at a conference on Q-link some time ago that you had used a Supra SCSI interface to store information from your Amiga and your Commodore on a CMD hard drive at the same time. You said that the Supra software had a provision for "foreign partitions" (probably intended for AMAX) and that CMD's software had the same. I should be getting a CMD hard drive any time now and I'm looking at purchasing a used Supra interface (specifically because you said that their software would allow the two computers to share a drive). Could you please explain exactly how this is done? My confusion comes from seeing how other hard drive software works - you can specify tracks and cylinders and such, while RamLink's (which I assume is similar to the HD's) sets things up by size. Maybe if I had both pieces of equipment and their accompanying set-up software it would all be self explanatory, but right now the best thing I can think of to do is ask. I don't want to accidentally trash either side because I "overlapped" the two sections. By the way, the Hard Drive is the 40 meg model and I plan to divide it equally between the two computers. Thanks much. -Ken ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 6 Sun Nov 10, 1991 CMD-DOUG at 15:11 EST First, be aware that setting it up is tricky stuff - you'll have to do some snooping to get this to work. The first thing to do is to locate where the system partition is located. This can be done using the PARTITION INFO program from the HD UTILITIES disk. With SCSI drives, everything is mapped in SCSI blocks of 512 bytes each, as opposed to tracks and cylinders as is used with standard MFM or RLL drives. Just try to remember that there are 2048 SCSI blocks per Megabyte of storage. Now, you'll have to hook up the HD to the Amiga, and use their utilities to format it. Then use their software to partition. The bottom-most partition should be a foreign type (I've forgotten what they called it) of 1 Mb. This should keep our DOS safe when you re-install it. Now create a partition for the Amiga to use. Let's say you make that 20 Mb. Then partition the remaining area as foreign. Now you need to hook up to your 64/128, and run CREATE SYS (placing the drive into INSTALL mode). When you are done with that, use HD-TOOLS to create a foreign mode partition of the same size that you created your Amiga partition to be plus 1 Mb. You'll have to create more than one if you used more than 15 Mb for the Amiga (example: 20 Mb for Amiga, create 1 16 Mb foreign, then 1 5 Mb foreign for a total of 21 Mb). Note that there are 4096 Commodore blocks per Megabyte when using HD-TOOLS. Now you can create partitions to use from the Commodore side, after you have made the foreign partitions. Those foreign partitions must be created first but could be assigned partition numbers that are out of your way for normal use (like partitions 253 and 254 for instance). The only other thing I can think of to warn you about is to look out for SCSI Device Number conflicts. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 7 Mon Nov 11, 1991 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 21:10 EST I just uploaded a small date utility for CS-DOS 128. It reads the date off a CMD HD and adds it to CS-DOS so you do not forget it in your ARC, SDA, or SFX files :) I could not resist sharing it because it will give you an idea on how many nifty ways you can use the time clock in the CMD HDs. I do ask that you do not upload the file somewhere else because it and other utilities are being published in TC128 #31. It is also a "kludge" that I use, you are better off using the decimal mode vs. ascii for the date and time, but that is a longer article ;) Library #22 datev1.csdos.arc ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 8 Tue Nov 12, 1991 CMD-DOUG at 00:24 EST Hmmmm....anyone interested in the code to set the clock in DIALOGUE 128 from the HD on boot-up of the program? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 9 Fri Nov 15, 1991 DR.EVIL at 22:54 PST Clock code for Dialogue 128: yes, please do upload the code. Kent ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 10 Thu Feb 06, 1992 MIKE.DUNCAN at 02:30 EST Okay! I give up! What Happened?! My CMD HD-20 hard drive was whirring. I was one subdirectory up from the root, with about "22000 Blocks Free", in a Native Mode partition. I was editing a BASIC file that had grown to 22 blocks long, and had just done a "@0:SAVE". (It's okay now, right?) Then I checked the directory and ... "WHAT THE ...."! My BASIC' subdirectory was trashed! Luckily, there was a semi-recent backup of the file I had just been editing. So, I broke out the sector editor and went looking around. It wasn't a pretty sight. The header block of my subdirectory, and the 21 blocks after it, had been overwritten by the file I was replacing! I couldn't believe it! Further checks revealed that two other subdirectories were history. One was for my store-bought word processor (no big deal). The other contained my SwiftCalc data files, for which I had a not-so-recent backup copy. Boy! Talk about learning the hard way! The next day, my goal was to see if I could salvage the directory structure by hand. It was worth a shot. It might take less time than a format & restore. (Also, I had to keep reminding myself not to SAVE to it!) Briefly, here's how it turned out. - Discovered that SwiftCalc data files have SC' as the first two bytes. Wrote a short file to hunt those down. Got *ALL* of them back. Rebuilt the subdirectory and updated the BAM. Copied the files to floppy. - Marked the scrapped subdirectories as DELeted in the root directory, then performed a VALIDATE which aborted with an error. 66,Illegal Block,160,00' - Using Disk Cracker & appendix D of the HD Users Manual, checked memory at $2800-283F, immediately following the VALIDATE. That led me to the header of the just-rebuilt subdirectory, at Track 1 Sector 70'. Checked and rechecked it. Over & over again. It looked okay. - So, I don't know any better. Wrote a not-so-small file to chain through all of the directory entries on the HD, and report any errors along the way. It doesn't find anything. Hmmm... - Called CMD for insight. Doug said it didn't make sense. He said something about checking $0234, which I fully intended to do, BUT!.... - That night, showing Dialogue to a friend, I accidentally SAVEd to the HD-20 instead of the RL. (Which I didn't find out about 'till later.) And as I was showing how my file scanner' hadn't found any errors - IT DID! And it was pointing to Track 1 Sector 70'. The sector editor confirmed it. My rebuilt SC-DATA' subdirectory had been clobbered again! - Marked SC-DATA' as DELeted in the root. Did a VALIDATE. "00,OK,00,00" I guess *SOMEHOW* these blocks got deallocated in the BAM. I don't know. But something just doesn't make sense to me, and I hope you folks can help me out with it. Why did I get the 66 Error, if there was no link to Track 160 Sector 00' to be found anywhere on the HD? - /\/\ike ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 11 Thu Feb 06, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 08:34 EST I hate to think what would have happened if you were not so skilled! Backups on any mass storage device on ANY machine or computer is a must. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 12 Mon Feb 17, 1992 W.HAGEN1 at 18:43 PST do any of the dos upgrades support the aux port on the HD for spooling to the printer? And, How do I get v1.82? thanks ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 13 Thu Feb 20, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 23:16 EST HD-DOS upgrades since version 1.46 are considered to be minor. Mostly they have been only to take care of bug fixes and to add RAMLink parallel routines. Spooling will be part of a more major upgrade, and has not been implemented as yet. You can download 1.82 from our private library here if you have access to it. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 14 Fri Mar 06, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 18:47 EST Moved message from deleted Topic 17 from this category ====================================================== A.KARANTZE [The Maverick] at 01:22 EST Hi there CMD users. I have a question regarding the CMD hard drives. I want to purchase a hard drive, but am torn between which - a less expensive HD for my A500, a more limited HD for my 128,or both? Since the HD's have SCSI connectors, I thought I might purchase a CMD drive and a SCSI controller for my Amiga and run the 2 together? Of course, they would'nt both be on at the same time......! BUT, my question is,can it be done... I don't want to kill either of my computers just yet, and it would be good for both to have access to bulk storage. Now,figures for Commodore access times are widely available, but how does it perform as a SCSI drive,etc What is the seek time... 65,48,28,15,9 millisecs,etc... and how well would they work.... This is important,because if thehre are too many probs I will go with a cheap A590 Amiga hard drive. All replies greatfully received.... - The Maverick - BTW Doug, how goes it with my Jiffydos 128 order... any info received on it yet? Im still waiting for it.... ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 15 Sun Mar 08, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 09:42 EST If you know an awful lot about how SCSI hard drives work and configured you might be able to use the drive with two systems. Otherwise, I'd say forget it. It's not a simple thing to do, and you'll need to have flexible tools for the Amiga side as well as the 64/128 side to be successful. As far as access speed goes, it depends on the model. Typically, the HD-20 and HD-40 use slower, less expensive mechanisms, often in the 25-38 ms range. The larger models tend to get better and faster mechanisms, in the 9-19 ms range. As far as orders go, such things should be checked directly with the sales department. My schedule doesn't often allow me the time to check on such things, and this has been even worse the past few days as I was unable to work for a few days due to an injury. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 16 Mon Mar 09, 1992 A.KARANTZE [The Maverick] at 01:42 EST Doug, Thank you very much for that information. I guess I will go for an Ami ga hard drive then. BTW what are the latest prices on your Hard drives? BTW2 I'll ring up tommorow morning then and find out - hope it does'nt take too long, toll charges add up! Antony karantze ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 17 Tue Mar 10, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 20:51 EST I'll be updating current pricing this coming weekend. Look for it in then. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 18 Sun Apr 12, 1992 J.DONATO3 [QueensCUG-NY] (Forwarded) I was given a Seagate ST-4096 80 80mb H/D Serial # K0068984, I thoink its a MFM drive. I would like to know if this drive is compatible with CMD O?S or do I need a special or different H/D I have this H/D and no CPU to use it on I own an AMIGA 1000, C64, c-128(flat) If anyone can help me I would appreciate it I7m planning to start a BBS for my user group... please leave me EMAIL here or dial my BBS and leave FEEDBACK at 718-296-8151 Thanks ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 19 Mon Apr 13, 1992 D.BURR8 at 05:23 EDT Don't quote me on this, but I THINK it should work if you hook it up to a CMD drive via the SCSI connector. Or maybe not ;) Dan ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 20 Fri Apr 24, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 21:57 EDT The HD can only be used with SCSI drives. Seagate part numbers for SCSI drives always end with an "N". The correct version of that drive for use with the CMD HD would be an ST-4096N. The one you have is probably MFM, and no, that won't work. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 21 Thu May 14, 1992 W.SMITH102 (Forwarded) I only just bought Maverick v5 and has had some problems trying to copy some of my programs to my HD-20...Some how I did get GEOS on the drive with no problem...Actually I forgot what I did...but i have problems trying to "softwire" my 1571 and the HD20...any help ANYONE...*s ..? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 22 Thu May 14, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 08:01 EDT With the latest version of FCOPY in Library #19 there is not much reason to use Maverick. Though I have the 1581 copier on my HD I never use it since I have never been able to get V5.0 to work with the HD. I would say skip it and use FCOPY and MCOPY. Look in the TIPS topic here for sample boot programs with device # swapping. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 23 Thu May 14, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 11:32 EDT It is likely that what you are experiencing is Maverick's pickiness sj gJ with serial bus devices. I've seen my share of problems getting Maverick to work as well, with it working fine on my 128D at work, but not at all on my 128D at home. About the only part of the program that is useful with the HD anymore is their REL file copier. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 24 Fri May 15, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 19:54 EDT Which CMD's own FCOPY beats - no contest. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 25 Sat May 23, 1992 AMFORD at 11:43 EDT Is there, or which, a program that will sort the directory on a partition? Would like to re-group some of my files by name. Thanks ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 26 Sat May 23, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 14:02 EDT Try ADDE128.arc in library #41. Works pretty good. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 28 Sun May 24, 1992 R.LAZAR1 [Shadwell] at 09:37 EDT I just uploaded a public domain 128 menu system for CMD HD's called hd-menu128. It will be file #9731 if it gets passed by the sysops. I don't know who the author is but it seems to be pretty good. It offers multiple help screens, sets the time from the HD clock, has auto screen blanking, and a host of other features including a memo/reminder option. I was wondering if any of you expert programmer's out there could adapt this to RamLink as well. Rob ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 29 Sun May 24, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 15:49 EDT It is now live :) Hard drive tip: When creating your partitions name them like this: #xx - partition name or #30 - Utilities When sending CP commands all over the place within a program, by doing a directory you can easily see the partition number without getting confused. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 30 Sun May 31, 1992 D.MCLAUGHLI8 [Black Fire] at 19:22 EDT Just uploaded a file called ADDiskEd075.arc... This is a disk editor with some interesting options. Basically its a Beta release, 'cause its been sitting around for about two years now and I haven't finished it yet. Simply because I've never had a use for any of the other commands I originally planned on emplementing(sp). I gave it v0.75 since it is about 75% complete, approximately. Anyway, if anyone wants me to add a command or two, just let me know and I'll do it. Probably won't take long. If I remember correctly, it only took me about two weeks to get this far along with the program. I also included the source so anyone with "Better Working Power Assemble" can modify it as they see fit. But if you don't feel like doing it, just ask me. Lastly, a WARNING! Don't use this to w'R'ite a block on a RAMLink or RAMCard. Due to a bug and my lack of knowledge of DOS at the time, it will offset all the bytes on a RAMLink by one position. That's enough to make a mess of problems for you. You can read and examine the blocks of a RAMLink or RAMCard all you want with no harm done. This is another thing I can fix with out too much trouble, it anyone wants me to. The program has succesfully been tested on CMD's HD, 1541, 1571, 1581, SFD- 1001, and a D9090 HD as well. BTW - IMHO, this is a *MUCH* nicer program than what CMD shipped with the HD!!!!!! Doug PS - The docs suck, if you need any help there, too. Just ask. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 31 Sun Jun 07, 1992 J.PEEPLES at 05:41 EDT I have come up with a question that I can't seem to find in the HD manual. I have asked some IBM-type friends what they recommend...I asked three people and got as many answers. My question: if your computer (except your monitor) stays on for EXTENDED periods of time, like days, weeks, or forever, what should you do about the hard drive? Should you just let it run normally and not worry about it? (If you stay in GEOS a lot, this is the only option that doesn't involve repeatedly rebooting the system). My HD-40 does get pretty hot when the motor runs for hours, but not hot enough (I think and hope) to damage the mechanism or the electronics. Or, should you use the PARK HD program to park the drive heads but leave the drive on? This way the electronics are not subjected to the strain of repeatedly turning them off and on, but I speculate it may actually be better for the drive mechanism (mine is a Rodime, by the way) to let it get hot and stay that way rather than have these repeating heat-up then cool-down temp alterations. Or, should you simply power down the HD when not in use for a while, and power it back when you are ready again. Again, this will involve rebooting a program like GEOS or GateWay, but with an HD, rebooting is NOT the chore it used to be when I just had two 1571's. Any thoughts or comments are appreciated. --James P. PS: Most of the IBM people thought it was best to leave the drive on but park the heads when the system is not in use, for whatever that's worth. These are also the same "friends" who tell me to get a *real* computer so I'm not inclined to trust their objective judgement overmuch. ;) ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 32 Sun Jun 07, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 11:25 EDT No matter if you own a PC or C= it is best to avoid turning the HD on and off constantly. It is better to run it all the time. Even if the HD drive is auto-parking I always feel better parking it myself before turning it off. If you are not going to use it for 8 hours, turn it off. Why waste the electricity? If you are going to leave it only for 1/2 hour I wouldn't bother turning it off. Most drives will start to fail, no matter what you do, after 3-4 years. HD media and parts have a limited lifespand. The more you use them or the more you turn them on and off the more likely they will fail earlier than someone else's drive. Though considering the usage you get out of a HD under even moderate use over a course of 3-5 years it sure beats using floppies! Also, 3-5 years from even 200 MB will probably cheaper than 40 MB hard drives are now so you will have upgraded it anyway. The best way to get maximum mileage out of your HD is to low level format (wipe the sucker clean!) it and run a program to find all the bad and marginal sectors at least once a year. If you want to treat your hard drive really nice invest in a good surge and line conditioner. That will extend the life of your whole system a lot longer than anything else you do. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 33 Fri Jun 12, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 00:25 EDT If you do choose to leave the HD running constantly, make sure it has plenty of ventilation...you might even consider putting a small fan on it. The life expectancy of most hard drive mechanisms is as JBEE mentioned, but some are better than others. If yours runs fairly hot, then it is likely that you have a Seagate mechanism in it, and those do not tend to last as long as others, especially if allowed to run hot for extended periods of time. As for parking, I don't usually bother doing it manually myself, as the drive does this itself if not used for a few minutes. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 34 Sat Jun 13, 1992 J.PEEPLES at 01:59 EDT Everybody, thanks for the input! :) The mechanism in the hard drive is a Rodime. It does run hot, but not as hot as some external hard drives I've encountered with clones. You could have fried an egg on some of those!!! The drive never gets so hot it would be uncomfortable to leave your hand on top of it. Curious...how does the life span of the Rodime mechanisms (45 meg) stack up to the Seagate and other mechanisms? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 35 Sun Jun 14, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 00:46 EDT I don't know that I can really say. We used very few of them, and we did see a batch of them come through which had very poor media quality, though most of those never made it into the field. After that we moved away from using them at all. Most of those which we did ship have stayed out in the field, and have been out there for somewhere around a year. It appears that those which did not exhibit short-term media problems are doing alright as far as reliability, but those units do run nearly as warm as the Seagate drives, apparently using similar technology. I guess I would still suggest keeping a fan on these units if running for long periods of time in higher ambient temperatures (say mid 90's or higher). ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 36 Tue Jun 16, 1992 B.ENNIS1 at 02:33 EDT I own a CMD HD and have been looking for some way to make a backup of it. I use mostly native mode partitions with large file sizes (mostly databases) which tend to be unwieldy for the 1571, and unreliable on the 1581. Are there any backup devices like the tape backup systems for the clones? Or better yet, I saw a card that you can put into your clone and make a backup of your hard drive onto a regular VHS video tape. Is there some sort of device for the CMD HD to do this? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 37 Tue Jun 16, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 19:34 EDT Use ARC (C-64) or CS-DOS (C-128) to backup partitions. It will compress a large relative file 50% or better. Takes a while, but well worth it. As long as you have a C-1581 with a WD-1772 controller you should have no problems with the 1581. One way I back up my data (and it is quicker this way too) is copy the native mode files into 1581 partitions and then MCOPY the 1581 partitions to a 1581. This is a LOT faster than file copying, especially with relative files. If you have a REU, a C-128, and are using PRG or SEQ files than using the LHA CS-DOS module will greatly compress your files. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 38 Wed Jun 17, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 01:14 EDT Good answers by JBEE. Though I might add that the 1581 has quite a few more problems than just the controller ones he mentioned. I'd have to take off my shoes to count all the 1581 bugs that can cause data loss, but fortuneately most of them are rather difficult to cause. As for tape backups, VCR backups, no, there aren't any routines for supporting such devices that I know of. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 39 Wed Jun 17, 1992 R.KNOP1 [Rob Knop] at 01:26 EDT What brands of drives does CMD typically use for it's HD's? I've heard some less than stellar things about Seagate drives. One service guy was telling me something about the lubricant that they use, which can cause trouble if the drive is left spinning with the head on one track for too long (too long being, if I recall correctly, a matter of several days). -Rob ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 40 Fri Jun 19, 1992 B.ENNIS1 at 02:24 EDT Oh, sorry, I didn't know that your device wasn't capable of being used in such a way. It's a pitty really, it would be so easy to backup a hard drive that way if all you had to do was insert a tape and let it go. I guess perhaps getting a hard drive wasn't a good idea since there is no way to easily copy the data once you have it in there. I don't know about the 1772 controller, but I doubt my 1581 has it. I don't use mine anymore because it's untrustworthy. I had hoped that a hard drive would improve things, but now I'm fearful of losing all that data. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 41 Fri Jun 19, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 05:39 EDT One way to make sure your data is intact after ARCing the files and getting the ARCs to a floppy disk, is to do a verify on the ARC file that you copied to the floppy. A verify on the checksum will show up any errors, even if only one bit is off. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 42 Sat Jun 20, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 00:10 EDT We have used mechanisms from a number of different manufacturers. The HD-20 and HD-40 have quite often used Seagate drives - where the HD-20 is concerned, it is almost impossible to find mechanisms at all anymore. On the HD-40, we try to find drives by other manufacturers, but it is getting difficult to find 40 MB mechanisms as well, and when Seagate is all we can get, it's what we get. The HD-100 and HD-200 have always used higher quality mechanisms, usually Connor, Maxtor, Quantum, or Western Digital. At certain times the HD-20 has been fitted with Connor, and the HD-40 with Connor, Quantum, Rodime, and Fujitsu. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 43 Sat Sep 12, 1992 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] at 18:46 EDT Do the CMD hard drives work with the burst mode routines available for the 1571/1581? For example, do the burst routines provided on the 1581 demo disk work with burst saves? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 44 Sun Sep 13, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 12:58 EDT Yes, though there are some differences. The HD uses the 1571 burst command set in all partition types except 1581 and 1581C emulation partitions, where it uses the 1581 burst command set. For burst reads and writes, I don't think this matters, as those are pretty much the same on either drive. One thing you might note is that burst is only possible when the HD is hooked up serially...parallel can't support it since burst protocol happens over the serial bus, so you should always test for burst correctly, though you should do that anyway to make sure that a 1541 isn't being used. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 45 Mon Sep 14, 1992 R.KNOP1 [Rob Knop] at 21:25 EDT I assume a CMD HD hooked up parallel-ly means through a RAMLink, right? Which is faster, a parallel hoookup or burst reads/writes through the serial port? -Rob ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 46 Mon Sep 14, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 22:03 EDT Has anyone been successful with installing Superbase V3.0 on the HD? I have the 5.25 floppy version of 3.0 and want to use native mode partitions for Superbase. I need the ability to access 15,000+ 300 byte records. I do NOT want to boot from a floppy at all and want to backup to 3.5 disks. Has anyone installed the compiler Basic128 onto their HD? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 47 Tue Sep 15, 1992 J.PEEPLES [!CP/M--Man!] at 06:24 EDT I have installed Superbase 3.0 on my HD. I first used M-Mirror, a beta-test copier here on GEnie in CMD's private library...then I found that MCOPY works as well on this one. --James ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 48 Tue Sep 15, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 06:32 EDT What did you do, install it on a 1541 partition? Are you using native mode partitions with the 1581 thingy? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 49 Wed Sep 16, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 01:06 EDT Parallel is faster. No question about it. As for Superbase, the 5.25" version (long as you have the latest one) can be copied to a 1541 partition. After you boot, just use MAINTAIN OTHER to switch to a 1581 partition. Course, if you get an FD eventually, you could use either 1541SUB or 1581SUB in a Native partition and still be able to back it up. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 50 Wed Sep 16, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 02:31 EDT Thank you Doug :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 51 Sun Sep 20, 1992 B.ENNIS1 at 22:42 EDT How are the burst routines used for reading & writing? And how do you check for them. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 52 Wed Sep 23, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 22:50 EDT That is probably a much longer subject than I care to attempt to cover here, and what I could tell you isn't from experience, as I have never attempted to program in that manner. Suffice it to say that reading and writing data using burst protocol requires writing all your own read and write routines in ML, and directly to the serial I/O bus. Perhaps JBEE or someone else up here knows of some sample routines, but I'm not aware of any, short of some of the programs which came on the 1581 Utilities disk supplied by Commodore with the 1581 drive. ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 53 Thu Sep 24, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 00:01 EDT There are only so many ways to do burst protocol, I use the ones from Devpak 128, which I couldn't upload here without permission. I modified them so they use bank one. If you can wait a while I am sure I can dig up some PD ones or find ones to publish. I think everyone has just used the ones Commodore provided in Devpak128 and the 1581 disk. Anyone else with suggestions? ------------ Category 12, Topic 4 Message 54 Thu Sep 24, 1992 R.KNOP1 [Rob Knop] at 09:44 EDT There is an article in Issue #3 of the Usenet C=Hacking Magazine entitled "Bursting Your 128" by Craig Bruce, which has an in depth description of burst loads on the 128, and (I believe) complete source code for burst load routines. File numbers in the library here for C=Hacking #3 are 9870 and 9871. I haven't read that article in detail because I had already written my own burst routines; when I did it, my primary source was Compute!'s 128 Programmers Guide. They have a reasonable (if short) section on burst loads, and do have a complete burst file load routine, though it has two problems: (1) no comments in the source code (just a 128 ML monitor dump), and (2) a bug- it speezes on the last block of the file. If memory servers, it just doesn't load the last block of the file at all. I used as a secondary reference the 1581 and 1571 user manuals, which have very little on burst routines, but at least the 1581 manual has a key reference to the commands. Were I to do it now, though, I would probably go first to the C=Hacking article. -Rob ------------