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------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 55 Sat Feb 27, 1993 L.MCCLURE at 02:39 EST Has CMD ever given any thought to producing a graphics card add-on for the 64/128? (Nothing fancy, perhaps 256 colors at 320x200, using something like a Yamaha 9958 VDP, perhaps). ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 56 Sat Feb 27, 1993 J.PEEPLES [CPM Survivor] at 09:10 EST The problem, of course, is lack of software that could be modified to support it, IMHO. To check out some NICE screens on the 128 side, get IPAINT. It's darn hard to learn and use, but it's worth the price just to see the demo paintings!!! ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 57 Sat Feb 27, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 13:02 EST Yes, but as J.PEEPLES pointed out, the problem with software compatibility became the over-riding issue. What we had considered was adding the same chip to the 64 as is used by the 128. This wouldn't have given anything extra (beyond what you can do with the 128), but it would have made for easier programming since many Commodore programmers already know about the VDC. There were other problems in doing this as well, and I won't go into detail here since the project was shelved. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 58 Sun Feb 28, 1993 R.KNOP1 [Rob Knop] at 15:18 EST Re: I-Paint demo paitings, you can actually see the demo paintings without getting I-Paint! Check out the I-Paint viewing program file "ivs" in the libraries here on GEnie, and do a keyword search for "i-paint" or "ipaint" (one of them works, I forget whih) to find several archives with I-Paint demo files in it. -Rob ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 59 Mon Mar 01, 1993 HOWIE-CBM at 08:03 EST I believe that IVS.SFX the IPaint Viewer System SFX comes with a couple of demos, one of which is Gorilla and is spectacular!! I cannot imagnine anything better than Gorilla. Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 60 Mon Mar 01, 1993 B.MCCULLOUGH [fisherman] at 22:15 EST something for CMD to think about (perhaps they already have).. A small "black box", between the computer serial port,and the disk drives,printer ect...that has its own fast microprocessor (maybe a 16 bit one), that acts like the "stacker board" on a 486 PC..Namely a device that wpi ould very quickly ,compress the files on their way to the various disk drives and unpack the files on their way back to Commodore Computer (128 or c64) It possibly could also be connected to the parallel port on the RAMLINK and linked to the drives via their serial ports. It should sense whether an incoming file from a drive was compressed or not and treat it accordingly An enabling switch would look after files or software that were not compatabile le .Perhaps there is room for a daughter board inside RAMLINk. Think of the advantage of having approximately double the capacity on all your drives . A 1541 with the capacity of a 1571, a 1571 with almost the ca@ pacity of a 1581 and a 1581 with about 1.5 megabytes of storage.. IS THIS A PIPE DREAM OR A FEASABLE IDEA... BOB ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 61 Tue Mar 02, 1993 HOWIE-CBM at 04:51 EST Bob, I like you suggestion. However, I think it has its most merit if it were to be used with the HD direct. Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 62 Wed Mar 03, 1993 J.PEEPLES [CPM Survivor] at 00:42 EST I like this idea, but it may prove VERY expensive...I'd probably be willing to buy one though! ;) Just sign me, Still hoping for the Kro-Bar CMD Deprotector!!! ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 63 Wed Mar 03, 1993 J.PEEPLES [CPM Survivor] at 00:44 EST Buy the way, Just thought I'd say that I feel like a have a whole new computer system since adding my HD-40 and RAMLink to it! :) It takes some $$$, but if you got it free, it's worth it! I now depend on these peripherals SO heavily that I cannot imagine being stuck computing without them. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 64 Wed Mar 03, 1993 HOWIE-CBM at 03:16 EST Altho I only have a RL, I ditto everything you just said!!! Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 65 Mon May 31, 1993 R.ALBRECHT3 [CommieUser] at 01:05 EDT I was wondering, If I bought a new FD series floppy drive and a CMD hard drive, would there be a problem running them on a 128D with a Different ROM chip? What I mean is that I have an I-EEE interface connected to a 128D for a commodore hard drive. I had to replace the stock ROM chip with the one supplied by SKYLES Elect Works and I lost the stock chip. I can't even remember what chip it is (it's been about 5 years) anyway I want to know if I have to buy the stock ROM chip to use tese drives. Also, do your drives (floppy and hard) run relativly cool? and do they operate just like any other Commie drive? (Same commands etc.) I really don't know a whole lot about your products and I need more information because my old reliable Commie hard drive blew up. I run a BBS and I need more room! Can you give me the address of your company so I can get a brochure or a information sheet? I tried looking in computer mags but finding info for these 8 bit Commodores is starting to be real tough. I can't even find mags that support these anymore. Thanks for the info and look for my order real soon. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 66 Mon May 31, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 23:36 EDT First, if you're not going to be running IEEE devices anymore, and you want to get maximum performance from our devices, then I very much recommend that you replace the Skyles chip with a JiffyDOS kernal ROM. For a 128, that will only run you about $42.95 additional, and the added ease of use with the JiffyDOS command wedge plus the speed advantages in both modes make it more than worthwhile. And our documentation will show you exactly which chips very nicely, that won't be a problem at all. As for heat, the FD has always run fine in this area, and HD's with capacities of 52 MB and up have newer technology drive mechanisms which run very cool. The older type of mechanisms used in the lower capacity drives (42 MB and lower) do run from very warm to hot, and are prone to fail sooner than the newer types. This is one of the trade-offs (the other being capacity) to getting a less expensive drive. To get an extensive catalog covering all our products, just request one by calling our orders line at 1-800-6383-CMD. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 67 Sun Jun 06, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 23:03 EDT As most of you have (hopefully) noticed, CMD now stocks a rather wide variety of products. We've recently come across a source for many older game titles, and we're considering adding these to our line. This is where you, the users, can be of great assistance to us. Please leave a response to this message with a list of your favorite games, AND a list of games you wish you had gotten before they disappeared from the market. Not only will this give us a better idea of what we should stock, but may well give you an opportunity to get some of those long lost items on your wanted list. :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 68 Mon Jun 07, 1993 CBM-ED [e.g.bell] at 00:12 EDT Impossible Mission and GameStar Tennis are the only 2 games I have ever REALLY enjoyed, but Miner 49'er and Oils Well are fun too. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 69 Mon Jun 07, 1993 G.NOGGLE [Greg] at 01:25 EDT yeah impossible missiom. I also liked wizard crown a LOT and there was a part two for that game called "Ice Dagger" or something very similar to that which I WANT BAD Greg ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 70 Mon Jun 07, 1993 C128.JBEE at 03:24 EDT PSI 5 ELITE Destroyer were all good games. Suggestion: go through the old INFO issues and only pick the top rated games to sell. If INFO did not rate it highly then most likely it was not worth buying or enjoying. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 71 Mon Jun 07, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 13:12 EDT INFO? Think I used up all my old issues to start an Amiga 1000 on fire once... ::grin:: ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 72 Mon Jun 07, 1993 CBM-MARK at 15:00 EDT LOL!, Doug ;D ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 73 Mon Jun 07, 1993 GULLIBLE [Jon] at 23:10 EDT Maniac Mansion... and the sequel that starts with Z? (Don't have, but wanted to get.) The GAMES series by Epyx were also good. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 74 Wed Jun 09, 1993 HOWIE-CBM at 15:23 EDT Yes! The one called "Computer Poeple" or "Little People" or something like that. Not really a game, but the one with the people who live inside the computer, who need us users to give them input to thrive. I think I have this right.... I'd like to get this one! Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 75 Mon Jun 14, 1993 F.OGLE [Color 64 BBS] at 21:23 EDT Howie, you were half-right both times -- The title is "Little Computer People". :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 76 Tue Jun 15, 1993 HOWIE-CBM at 13:35 EDT Fred, That's the one! Little computer People!!! Yea! I'd like that one! :) Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 77 Sun Jun 20, 1993 M.MATTING [mats] at 07:43 EDT Great game I'm still looking for: ELITE from Firebird! Mats ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 78 Wed Aug 11, 1993 AMFORD at 22:53 EDT How does the LTKON cable work? Or what does the LTKON cable do? ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 79 Thu Aug 12, 1993 F.OGLE [Color BBS] at 23:51 EDT Since Xetec's Lt. Kernal used a non-standard SCSI pin configuration, this cable will allow the LtK to be plugged directly into the CMD-HD's DB-25 add-on port (as an example, when I added my old LtK onto my CMD system, CMD had none of these in stock, so I made a SCSI-50 to DB-25 connector.) ... The LTKONNECTOR cable just makes it all much simpler :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 80 Fri Aug 13, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 04:34 EDT Boy, my job is getting easier... Thanks Fred. :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 81 Mon Aug 16, 1993 AMFORD at 00:04 EDT Okay, so which one of the drives OS is in charge? Do you give LTK commands or CMD commands to the drives? ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 82 Mon Aug 16, 1993 F.OGLE [Color BBS] at 00:49 EDT The CMD-HD's operating dos runs the system. :) Doug, you're welcome. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 83 Mon Aug 16, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 12:31 EDT Heh, guess I can take another vacation, eh? :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 84 Mon Sep 13, 1993 C128.JBEE at 12:25 EDT The forwarded (to this topic) Superbase messages ended up being showed as "new" messages so I deleted them and will upload them to Library #1. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 85 Thu Nov 11, 1993 T.DONLAN at 23:25 EST Greetings! I have but one question at this time. :) Does CMD have a catalog (or something similar) and if so, how does one go about receiving such? I would appreciate it if a reply could be sent by E-mail because I am not sure when I will be able to get back to this RT. Thanks! Tim ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 86 Fri Nov 12, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 23:55 EST Catalogs can be requested by calling 1-800-6383-CMD. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 87 Mon Nov 15, 1993 T.DONLAN at 00:23 EST Thank you very much! I will be calling CMD probably later today. TR ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 88 Fri Nov 26, 1993 H.HERMAN1 at 02:03 EST Doug, I just uploaded to the Library an SFX that includes the file parts for those running CP/M from any CMD drive to have the current date and time automatically set each time CP/M is booted. I was not sure if I should put this into CMD's Library or the CP/M Library. I opted for the latter, but will gladly agree if you decide that it should appear in another Library. I hope that CP/M users who also have CMD drives find this routine as useful as I have. Hpowie ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 89 Fri Nov 26, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 17:35 EST Tough call, Howie, since it is specific both to CP/M and CMD RTC-equipped devices, but sounds to me like either library is a legit place for it. So I won't move the file. JBEE has final call on this, though, so it's up to him at this point. My only question is, where'd you get the routines? :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 90 Sat Nov 27, 1993 H.HERMAN1 at 04:59 EST Doug, The routine, and the "scheme" that allows for a boot into CP/M to auto set the CP/M date and time comes from the C128 of Gerard Van Wieringen of Holland. It is an example of one of those approaches that is so simple, yet elegant, that one might `slap the forehead' and ask why it took so long for Gerard to come up with this. :) As a bonus, the same procedure will allow any user of dBASEII to auto set its date, as well. Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 91 Sat Nov 27, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 12:34 EST Thanks for the info Howie, as well as for uploading this. And our KUDOS to Mr. Van Wieringen! ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 92 Sat Apr 02, 1994 L.MCCLURE at 05:48 EST I saw this in a message dated 3-28-94 on comp.sys.cbm: "I heard a whisper yesterday that CMD had acquired to rights to manufacture the C65! This would be fantastic, should it come off! Can anyone confirm or deny this rumour?" I told them it was very likely nothing more than wishful thinking, and stated the reasons why I thought so. Got any ideas as to how this one got started (i.e, has CMD bought the rights to *anything* from CBM lately, or even talked about it? Also, if you care to officially deny this, I'll state so for all on comp.sys.cbm. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 93 Sat Apr 02, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 22:13 EST CMD definately has not aquired the rights to manufacture the C64-DX (C65). ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 94 Tue Apr 05, 1994 D.TUOMI [Doctor] at 08:20 EDT I heard that whisper myself. It would be nice if they would. I'd buy 2 or 3 of them. Doc. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 95 Sat Apr 30, 1994 L.MCCLURE at 05:07 EDT Given Commodore's current situation, has CMD made any plans to investigate attempting to aquire the rights to any or all of Commodore's 8-bit technology? I would think the creditors might very well percieve this as virtually valueless, and CMD could pick up the rights to the masks for 8-bit custom chips, ROM code, etc. for a song. If no interest were expressed, I fear they might include such in a lot offering of other assets, and the new owner might fail to make any use of it. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 96 Sat Apr 30, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 09:31 EDT I can't really comment on this at this point, other than to say that I'm sure we aren't ignoring the situation. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 97 Sat Apr 30, 1994 C.EFTHIMIOU [brat] at 21:47 EDT I hope not ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 98 Tue May 03, 1994 L.SCHONDER [C128.LOU] at 00:25 EDT Where can I buy a CMD 1024 Commodore compatible? (Is my imagination running away with me?) :D ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 99 Sat May 07, 1994 D.TUOMI [Doctor] at 05:38 EDT Oh yes, that's the successor machine to the C-65 isn't it? Doc. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 100 Sat May 07, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 08:43 EDT Hmmm... sure you aren't referring to the CMD Mega64? ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 101 Tue May 10, 1994 D.TUOMI [Doctor] at 03:46 EDT I thought that was the one with the built in CD ROM... Doc. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 102 Sat May 21, 1994 I.MCKINNEY [TheBigMac] at 02:28 EDT I had a very long conversation today with the great Roger Gouin. A subject came up about repairing disk directories. He told me that there is no directory repair program for anything other than the 1541 drives since Commodore made the DOS for the drive available to the public. It was our understanding that since CMD developed the FD drives, there should be a program available to be able to fix a damaged directory. Now to our knowledge, no such program exists for 1571,1581, or FD drives. We also agreed that since CMD is an extremely busy place right now, they don't have the manpower or the time to develop such a utility. My point is this: Roger is willing to create such a program if CMD will provide the information to him about the FDs DOS. So far he has not received a reply from them. He speculates that CMD is reluctant to provide the information. Tell me as well as Roger would you be willing to use this program if the DOS information were released? ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 103 Sat May 21, 1994 C128.JBEE at 03:05 EDT I guess I will byte and ask who is Roger Gouin? As for fixing 1571/1581 disk directories, the tool I used was a normal sector editor. Are you talking about an automated software program to fix disk directories? ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 104 Sat May 21, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 09:05 EDT I'm clueless too; I don't know who he is and haven't seen any correspondance from him, though it quite simply may not have come to me. Charlie Jr. at CMD has recently been trying to catch up our mail, and I believe did so this past week, so perhaps the info he requested is on the way. However, I have to point out that our time is indeed limited, and we do tend to pay more attention to letters from customers with problems, placing these ahead of other information requests. Regardless, if you can list what information he needs here, I'll do what I can to respond. It should be noted that we typically do not give out addresses to most CMD DOS variables because they move from one version to the next. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 105 Mon May 23, 1994 I.MCKINNEY [TheBigMac] at 01:04 EDT Roger Gouin has recently written several articles about programming and the direction we should take with our Commodores. He wrote for dieHard and now for LoadStar and intends to give CMD some of his inputs also. He was stating he wants a Directory Repair program similar to the one on the Maverick! Upgrades and Goodies disk. I recently found out it won't work on 1571 or 1581 drives. He wanted one for an FD drive. He is willing to create one but needs the information on the DOS of the FD drive which he says CMD is reluctant to release. I'll talk to him later this week and see if I can get him to elaborate more on the subject or even get him to leave a message here. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 106 Sun May 29, 1994 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 18:30 EDT This question is for Doug Cotton... I will be ordering a couple of FD drives this week. My question concerns the RTC. I have a RTC in my RamLink. With the battery back-up this option is great. Now, if I have the RTC installed in the FD drives will they keep the time even when the drive is turned off. Also if I don't order the RTC option, then will I be able to read the date stamps that were created from my RamLink when I access file on disk copied from RamLink? Can the FD read the clock from the RL... Thanks in advance for any insight. Bob ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 107 Sun May 29, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 23:36 EDT Each CMD device RTC option has its own battery, to allow it to keep time when power is not applied to the device. So yes on that one. I don't believe the Time & Date extensions work on the FD if it doesn't have the RTC option installed, so negative on that one. When files are being created on one device, it can't jump out on the bus to look for another device with an RTC in it - so no, the FD won't 'read' the RTC located in another CMD device. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 108 Mon May 30, 1994 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 00:02 EDT 12-9 >Each CMD device RTC option has its own battery teensy weensy one I hope. Thanks Doug. Bob ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 109 Mon May 30, 1994 W.WILEY2 [COYOTE] at 02:55 EDT Any plans to mate a CD ROM drive to the HD drives by way of SCSI? ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 110 Mon May 30, 1994 I.MCKINNEY [TheBigMac] at 03:11 EDT Refer to messages 102-105 on this matter. The following message is from Roger Gouin. His comments and opinions are his own and I do not necessarily support his views. I am only relaying his comments to everyone involved. The problem stated by Ian McKinney and many others using 3 1/2" disk drives is the lack of disk repair methods for these drives. As for any Commodore formatted floppy disk, you know that the most catastrophic problem the users face is a "read error" on the directory track, especially the BAM sector. It can be just 1 improperly written byte, yet the result is they have to trash their disk as the directory cannot be read into memory with normal DOS. There is no "read error" repair method available as far as I know for 3 1/2" drives. At least a warning to users not to use MAVERICK! repair routines is in order via Commodore World or other ways. But more than that, the average user should have a simple method to be able to recover from such very common mishaps. If CMD does not have the time to develop the method and tool, then at least the necessary DOS data should be provided so that such methods and routines may be developed by others. For example, direct disk read routines to fix the read erros need to be published for both the 1581 and FD drives. That concludes his comments, but I have something to say. Roger had written several articles for dieHard and most recently LoadStar. 25% of issue #119 was his work. It to me is obvious that if JBEE and CMD-DOUG have not heard of him by now we are in for some possible redundancies appearing in the magazines that we all subscribe to. (So far it has happened with Compute! Gazzette and LoadStar two months ago.) It would be very easy for these gentlemen or any other magazine editors to coordinate with each other at least by reading the other's magazines so that duplicate programs and/or articles don't appear in 2 to 3 magazines in the same month. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 111 Tue May 31, 1994 J.STEPHENSO1 [Jimbo] at 02:34 EDT And now for something completely different ... A while back I read someone asking about possible support for a tape backup. This got me to thinking ... what would be the technical hurdles involved in such a venture? Well, after much brainstorming, I came up the following proposal: There are now tape back-up units that are designed for laptop computers. The majority of them take advantage of the PC's parallel port, which can be programmed to be bi-directional. Why not decide on a large manufacturer, like, say, Colorado Memory Systems, and get information from them about low level programming their devices. Then decide on the model to support. As for attaching it to the computer, how about the user port via a geoCable? It has a centronics-type plug on one end already (which, if necessary, can have a centronics to db-25 adapter attached), and has no built-in barriers to bi- directionallity, unlike printer interfaces. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the user port is programmable. This solves our hardware problems (well, a new cable may have to be manufactured, but that is the least of our problems). The software side should be just as simple to implement: first, decide on a record format. Second, either read a byte or write a byte. If writing, include the proper header and trailer information for formating. If reading, look for the proper header info, then read bytes until done. Data compression could easily be added, and, with proper foresight and planning, it would be simple to save an entire HD to tape, and selectively restore individual files, as well as entire partitions. It seems to me that this doesn't have to be the exclusive provence of CMD. If they are too busy scheming up more ways to steal my paycheck ;) , what's to prevent someone else from making his or her fortune writing the software? OK, I open up the floor to discussion. I'm sure someone can tell me why it hasn't been done yet, just as I'm sure someone else will tell them how it will be soon. I'm not much of a programmer, but I would be more than happy to be in on this. :) Jimbo ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 112 Tue May 31, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 21:52 EDT It seems to me that most of the people I've seen looking for tape back-up want it for backing up the HD. I'd suggest using an SCSI tape unit in this case. Granted, the hardware costs a little more, but the software development time would be cut by MONTHS. Just my 2 cents. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 113 Tue May 31, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 22:19 EDT RE: The Roger Gouin message thread... All the info he should need is covered in the FD manual, with the possible exception of accessing the area where the partition tables are stored. That latter info isn't documented anywhere in any form that we could quickly provide to anyone outside of the company. I'm still not clear on what SPECIFIC information he thinks he needs to write such a utility; it should all be easily handled through standard job queue programming, and the codes for that are all in the FD manual. RE: Reading Magazines... It's rare for me to read any magazine cover to cover, but I always at least browse each issue of dieHard, LoadStar and CEE-64 Alive! enough to see what is being covered. I don't memorize author names, though. As for having all various magazine editors co-ordinate what they'll be covering, I wouldn't expect that, nor would I consider it to be a good idea for one to avoid a subject simply because another is going to cover it. Each publication is bound to put it's own spin on an article, and there's bound to be info covered by one and not the other (and vice-versa). Furthermore, while it would be nice if everyone subscribed to all the publications, that surely isn't the case; what you suggest could leave many users without any info at all, simply because a publication they don't subscribe to is covering it. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 114 Fri Jun 03, 1994 RANDOM-MAG [Random Mag] at 00:28 EDT As far as tape backup units go, the SCSI tape drive idea is the only way to go: the many inexpensive IBM tape-drive units (most of which actually rely on the floppy drive ports) are extremely unreliable and slow. For someone to spend the amount of time it would take to develop such a system would be simply unfeasible. PP&S tried to create the software for such a system on the Amiga line of computers for TWO YEARS, and in the end gave up. The idea of a SCSI tapedrive, on the other hand is not so impossible. Still, considering that most tape drives cost more than the cost of a hard drive of the same size, one would be better off buying a backup harddrive, which would be much faster and more efficient than a tape drive anyway. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 115 Mon Jun 06, 1994 D.TUOMI [Doctor] at 03:49 EDT That's always been the problem I've had with SCSI backup systems. They're really TOO expensive. I think that the FD has great potential to becoming a backup medium. If only the price of the 3.2mb disks would come down! Personally, what I have an 8250 (old Commodore 1mb disk drive) which I file copy stuff from the hard drive to when I'm backing up. It's nice, the drive accepts double density disks, so it's really inexpensive to operate, and it stores in 1mb incrimiments. So, on my 80mb HD, I would need 80 disks (if I had it filled, which I don't). But, that's about the same as a bunch of 1.6mb disks only less costly on a per mb basis. Doc. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 116 Mon Jun 06, 1994 C128.JBEE at 08:36 EDT Most of the media ads in Computer Shopper sell 4.0 MB diskettes for $1.95 bulk and $2.90 in lots of 10. To back up an 80 MB hard drive would take about $3.00 x 22 = $66.00. It takes about 10 minutes to back up 4 MB partitions. I think the FD-4000 makes a great backup unit for Commodore owners. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 117 Mon Jun 06, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 23:02 EDT I tend to agree, but for some of these folks running BBS's, they've got a lot more than 80 MB to back up - and for those folks it would seem like a SCSI tape backup unit would do a good job and would be pretty cost effective in the long run. 60 MB tapes cost around $12.00 each, and I believe the drives can be had for around $250 or so. If you compare that to the cost of an FD-4000 and enough ED disks to backup, say a 300 MB system, then the SCSI tape backup would come out far cheaper. What it would take for software, though, I can't say at this point. I've got a tape unit myself, and will probably do some testing when time permits. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 118 Tue Jun 07, 1994 F.OGLE [Color BBS] at 01:06 EDT That's good to know. 200+ MB needs a backup system like this :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 119 Tue Jun 07, 1994 D.TUOMI [Doctor] at 03:57 EDT I've only seen the ED's at the more expensive rates. That's when I've seen them sold at all. Could you tell me the name of the company that is selling them for that much. Doc. -Well, I thought the IEEE drive thing was clever... ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 120 Tue Jun 07, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 19:38 EDT Try Midwestern Diskette (see any issue of Computer Shopper). ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 121 Tue Jun 07, 1994 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 21:15 EDT Looking for a good ONE DRIVE file/disk copier that will work with the FD series drives. Just Got my FD drive and I am in need of a compatible file copier that will work with a one drive system. I haven't tried Maverick yet or Fast hack-em (I am assuming that they won't work on native partitions.) Any leads will be greatly appreciated. Bob P.S. This is one great drive system. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 122 Tue Jun 07, 1994 GEOS-TIM at 21:42 EDT You might want to check into a new program that Maurice Randall is bringing out, called Mr.Copy. It sounds like it may fit the bill. It copys GEOS and non GEOS program from Basic. All drives are supported. It is scheduled for a July or early August release. :) -Tim ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 123 Wed Jun 08, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 01:23 EDT The Compression Kit by Madman Software has a single drive disk copier that works with all the CMD devices. ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 124 Wed Jun 08, 1994 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 09:31 EDT "The compression kit by Madman...." CMD-Doug- So, what you are saying, is that after dumping almost five hundred dollars on drives from CMD, I have to shell out another $40 dollars for a program that will allow me to copy disks? BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.... (ROTFL). Been there,done that. Doug, I sent you email for the library that contains files for CMD storage devices a couple of weeks ago. How about giving me the key? Bob ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 125 Wed Jun 08, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 18:30 EDT Not at all. We gave you programs that copy disks - just not one that does so to the same drive. Just a little tip, but using BCOPY to copy an FD disk to several 5.25" disks, then reversing the process to get back to another FD disk is probably faster than using a single drive copier to do the whole process on the FD itself. ::head scratching mode:: Where did I put that key, anyway...? ------------ Category 12, Topic 9 Message 126 Wed Jun 08, 1994 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 23:09 EDT 12, 9 CMD-DOUG said to me.. >Not at all. We gave you programs that copy disks .... I am not complaining about copying disks. I want a one drive FILE copier, so I can take a disk with a zillion different files and then selectively copy the files I want onto another disk in the same drive, without having the redundancy of copying the material twice like I have to do now. Seems that a program for this function would be a standard item considering that all these 1541's - 71's -81's are all on their last legs... (the reason for buying a FD drive in the first place). I guess it boils down to the sad fact, and I hate to say this, but, the FD Drive is not a stand alone drive. You cannot use this drive on your