8bitfiles.net/archives

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ 8bitfiles.net/archives / archives.tar / archives / genie-commodore-file-library / Information / FD-DRIVEMSGS.ARC / 00FD-DRIVES.MSGS next >

Wrap

Text File | 2019-04-13 | 33.6 KB | 853 lines

************ Topic 19 Wed Aug 19, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 23:35 EDT Sub: FD Series Floppy Drives Okay folks, now that the word is out, there's bound to be some questions about our new FD Series drives. This is the area for that. Since these are not yet released, I may not be able to answer some specifics. 133 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 1 Wed Aug 19, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 23:47 EDT To start, there are two models which will make up this product line, the FD- 2000 and the FD-4000. The basic difference is that the FD-4000 has a higher capacity mode which the FD-2000 does not. Both drives can read and write Commodore 1581, CMD 800K, and CMD 1.6MB formats. The FD-4000 can also read and write the CMD 3.2MB format. The operating system, FD DOS, is based upon the same principles as our proven HD and RL/RD DOS, and supports the creation of 1541, 1571, 1581, and CMD Native partition types. Up to 31 partitions are supported. Device number is settable via dip switches for device numbers from 8 through 15. The front panel has a SWAP button which allows the drive to be easily swapped with a device 8 or 9. JiffyDOS routines are built-in, and the drives also support standard and fast commodore serial protocols. Burst commands are also supported, and there is an option for adding a Real Time Clock. Release is scheduled this fall, with pricing to be announced. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 2 Thu Aug 20, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 00:45 EDT I think this is great news :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 3 Thu Aug 20, 1992 M.DULSKI1 [Mark @WIZARD] at 08:07 EDT Better than "great news", fantastic news!!! ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 4 Mon Oct 05, 1992 G.STAGLIANO at 20:02 EDT Your add copy states that the fd-2000 is 1200 percent faster than a 1581 How much faster is read/writes compared to a JD equiped 1581. This is impo rtant to me in my decision to get that great drive. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 5 Mon Oct 05, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 23:32 EDT Pretty much every application we've tried on the two side by side, with each operating in JiffyDOS mode, shows the FD to operate from 10 to 20 percent faster than the 1581. Naturally the ad copy compares the fastest FD operations against slowest 1581 operations...you know how marketing types are. :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 6 Sun Oct 18, 1992 D.WITMER2 [Snogpitch] at 22:49 EDT I have a question concerning the FD's Geos compatibility, for the FD4000. Can all 3.2 meg have access thru the one drive icon of Geos? Or does partitioning become mandatory, then giving one in essence 4 drives in one drive icon. I do not have Gateway, nor any other CMD products currently, but from what I've read in this month's Run Magazine's hands on article I want one of these for myself! Thanks, and expect to see me with one of the FD drives soon! ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 7 Mon Oct 19, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 20:53 EDT This is handled as with the rest of our devices - only 1581 partitions can be supported under the standard GEOS deskTop itself, but with gateWay you can access CMD Native partitions of up to the full size of the disk being used. A utility called CMD_Move is included to allow for partition switching (and for copying between partitions). CMDTime is an autoexec which is also included so that those who get the RTC option can install this on their boot disk for automatic setting of the GEOS time and date on bootup. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 8 Sat Oct 24, 1992 L.MCCLURE at 01:02 EDT I have a question of great importance. <GRIN> Why are the FD-series drives black instead of beige? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 9 Sat Oct 24, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 03:00 EDT Because drives of any other color sitting NeXT to a black CMD drive pales by comparison. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 10 Sat Oct 24, 1992 HOWIE-CBM at 04:05 EDT JBEE, Pales by comparison... :/ LOL!! :) Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 11 Sat Oct 24, 1992 J.ROBBINS16 [JBUS] at 04:24 EDT Jbee's been hangin' out in the JokeRt hasn't he? :] ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 12 Sat Oct 24, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 12:49 EDT ;) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 13 Sun Oct 25, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 22:38 EST Actually, we did it because we never know what color bezel the drive mechanisms we'll get will be, so with a black case it doesn't much matter. :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 14 Tue Oct 27, 1992 J.PEEPLES [CPM Survivor] at 06:04 EST You don't know how tempting it is to get one of these little FD drives! I'm to the point, though, where I'm running enough drives that serial bus loading is becoming a serious possibility...also I have to question just what good a new drive will do me when I'm already running an HD-40, a 5.5 meg RL, a 1581, and 2 1571's!!! Still, very tempting!!! (I think I'm going to look in the phone book and see if there's an entry for "Techno-lust Annonymous," or "Computer Overspender's Rational Recovery," or some such thing!) ;> ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 15 Tue Oct 27, 1992 C128.JBEE [* Sysop *] at 14:32 EST LOL! :D Actually, the ability to back up your Ramlink or HD on one disk vs. four or more. Since the FD-2000/4000 supports native mode and 1541/71/81 emulation partitions you can either Mcopy or Bcopy a whole collection of disks onto those EHD disks and have them readily available under Geos by moving directly to the partition. Doug tells me the 4meg can fit (18) 1541 partitions onto a disk. That's a lot of fonts ;) I would use the HD, RL, FD-4000, and maybe a 1571 and sell the others or keep them as spares. Since I use only a 1581, Ramlink, HD, the FD-4000 will take the place of the 1581. I keep a 1571 around on my other 1571/81 system so I can transfer 5.25 stuff to 3.5 format. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 16 Tue Oct 27, 1992 JIM.COLLETTE at 21:59 EST As far as serial bus loading, that's a good point... However, if I remember right, Doug told me a long time ago that they finally figured out how to fix that, and that the FD's load on the bus is negligible, unlike most of the current drives. Jim :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 17 Wed Oct 28, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 01:00 EST Let me clarify that... most of the newer drives load the bus even more when they are turned OFF, and that is what we have corrected in the FD Series. So they will still present a normal drive load on the bus when on or off, but no additional load when off. Can't get around the ON loading, since if it wasn't there, it wouldn't work correctly if it were the only drive attached to a particular computer. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 18 Sun Nov 22, 1992 B.HERRING8 at 01:50 EST Finaly.......................My fd2000 arived . its working as you said it would. I like the swap button on the front very convient. haven't put it thru all my WP's yet....but stay tuned..:) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 19 Sun Nov 22, 1992 C128.JBEE at 03:06 EST Using the FD with gateWay, a 1581 formatted disk works fine without any special drivers. I haven't given it an all out test yet, but relative files seemed to be greatly improved speedwise. I backed up over 10,000 blks of relative files in 1 hour. A 1581 with JD using 5 disks usually takes a lot longer. Finally, the new FCOPY is super and has all those enhancements I have wisked/asked for that make using the FD a breeze. The CREATE partitions utility is super too. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 20 Mon Nov 23, 1992 J.PEEPLES [CPM Survivor] at 20:48 EST New FCOPY?!? You gonna post it for the rest of us? (please please please whimper beg whimper...) ;) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 21 Wed Nov 25, 1992 HOWIE-CBM at 04:33 EST JBEE, You're not using the JD ROM based REL file copy routines, are you? JD equiped drives while running FCOPY are much, much faster. I haven't done any time studies but my quess is maybe by a factor of 20 or so. My RAMLink auto backup routines offer the option of backing up the REL file with JD, or manually with FCOPY. So, if I am around, I'll go with FCOPY. The JD routine is convenient when I'm leaving, and time is not a factor, to get it all done on auto. Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 22 Wed Nov 25, 1992 C128.JBEE at 18:31 EST I am using Fcopy and the FD-4000 which has JD built in. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 23 Wed Nov 25, 1992 D.WITMER2 [Snogpitch] at 23:18 EST Now that I have my FD-4000 I have a couple of questions. First one, I didn't receive a registration card with my drive. Was my signature obtained by UPS adequate for warrantee purposes? If not, I need a replacement card. Second question concerns time-stamping of files. My drive doesn't have the RTC option, but I do have the RTC in my Ra. In Geos, I get a time stamp, but in regular basic I don't. Is there a way to save files that fetch a time-stamp from the RamLink? And finally, how can the RTC be accessed from CP/M? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 24 Thu Nov 26, 1992 CMD-DOUG at 04:33 EST Apparently production was so happy to have drives to ship, that they forgot to put cards into the first hundred or so. We're filling out cards automatically for those particular units, so not to worry, you're covered. As for the T/D Stamping, there is no way for that to happen on its own without the RTC in the drive. You could write a utility to do it for you, but if you really wanted that feature you probably should have ordered the option. The only way I know of to access the clock from CP/M is via the SPORT.COM utility in our library. Couldn't tell you how to transfer that into the CP/M clock, though I've heard of it being done through the console. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 25 Sat Dec 19, 1992 C128.JBEE at 02:13 EST I just finished using and testing the FD-4000, works fine in CP/M mode using a 1581 formatted disk. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 26 Sun Jan 03, 1993 C.OGLE2 [breadstick] at 20:31 EST This is kinda' off the subject, but sometime back I heard a Rumor that after the CMD released the FD series drives, they would consider making a high density version of a 5.25 floppy drive. Has anybody else heard this? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 27 Mon Jan 04, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 01:23 EST Nothing but pure rumor. We won't attempt a 5.25" drive, as real compatibility isn't possible without licensing Commdore's 1541 or 1571 DOS, something Commodore has never been willing to do for the purpose of putting it into a third party drive. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 28 Wed Jan 06, 1993 C.OGLE2 [breadstick] at 20:47 EST Sigh, a pity. I like my 1571's just fine, but don't like the limitations that commodore had imposed upon them (like lack of sub-directories, small storage space, etc.) TheyThey were okay back in the early 80's, but using my CMD devices over the last year has really spoiled me so much that I begin to dislink even picking up a 5.25 disk any longer... ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 29 Sun Mar 07, 1993 B.SKELLY [Bruce] at 17:54 EST Hi All, Have any of you had any problems with your FD-4000 locking up during reads of a 1581 CP/M disk. Every once in a while mine locks up. Activity light is off, but access (amber) light is on. No matter how long I wait the amber light doesn't go off. Rebooting the computer clears the problem, also ejecting and re-inserting the disk clear the problem. This is only in CP/M mode as I said, and the only 'quirky' behaviour I had from an otherwise outstanding piece of equipment. Bruce ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 30 Sun Mar 07, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 21:08 EST Bruce, Is that FD-4000 equipped with an RTC? Let me know so we can look into this. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 31 Mon Mar 08, 1993 C128.JBEE at 15:12 EST This sounds like what happened to me with the "old" rom. Do you have the newest version? Remember to use @p0 if you have a Ramlink before booting CP/M. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 32 Sun Mar 28, 1993 B.SKELLY [Bruce] at 22:49 EST JBEE, Doug, Yes to both (It is RTC equiped, and I did remember to '@p0'). After I put in the previous question at the begining of the month, I feel that the problem might be related to my CBM1581. It is out on the end of my CP/M setup (Drive 'D', Unit 11). I've had several problems with it 'hanging' the serial bus. I pulled the cables off of it the other day and my system seems to be rock solid again. It looks like I'll have to move it to Unit 9, and put the FD4000 out at Unit 11. I'll let you know if I have another occurance of the disk not reading. Talk to you later, Bruce ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 33 Sun Apr 04, 1993 B.SKELLY [Bruce] at 14:34 EDT Doug, It happened again. This time I had removed the 1581 from the daisy chain (no serial cable attached). The drive activity was lit. The light on the drive itself was lit. The lower right hand corner of the screen displayed something like RB57 9. I ejected the disk, re- inserted it, and everyting continued just fine. I will keep trying to get a better difinition of the problem. Any tests you want me to perform? Thanks, Bruce. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 34 Mon Apr 05, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 00:27 EDT Let me pass the info on to Mark and see if he has any ideas. He was looking into lockup problems that two other users had experienced, though I don't recall CP/M being involved with the others. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 35 Thu Apr 08, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 18:54 EDT Bruce, Mark wants to know if this is happening right after putting a disk into the drive or if it is after it has been accessing the disk for some time. Also, what version of FD-DOS does your FD have? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 36 Sun Apr 11, 1993 B.SKELLY [Bruce] at 11:04 EDT Well to be exact it always happens when I'm in the middle of reading a large file. I use David Goodenough's (GEnie CP/M Sysop) mail program to read the mail and news I picke up from UUCP. The file might be from 25KB to 200KB in size. I'll be reading along, hit the space bar for the next screen...nothing. hit space bar again ... samething. eject disk and re-insert.. screen start scrolling as soon as the drive does a seek to the track to read. Listen, I have a bunch of 1581's here (well 2 anyway) so let me subsitute a real 1581 so that I can limit some of the variables. This doesn't happen all the time -- maybe twice a week, if that often. I'll let you know after I try swapping some stuff around. Bruce ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 37 Sun Apr 11, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 12:16 EDT Okay Bruce, and be sure to get the FD DOS version number for us as well. Doug ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 38 Tue May 11, 1993 D.WITMER2 [Snogpitch] at 22:26 EDT I've got a problem with my FD-4000 that can be very upsetting considering it just happened to my FD-utilities master disk (and stupid me didn't make a backup!). So far it has only happened to two disks, the first one I just trashed in in the bin since there was nothing of any importance on it. But now that it has happened to two disks, I'm becoming concerned. It seems to happen after I have file copied files using the new f-copy file copier. The directory is the first clue that something is wrong: I get a directory that looks something like: 0 "SYSTEM" EL>< 16390 "1581 DISK *REL Nothing can be loaded from the disk, nor copied from the disk. Could this be a bug with F-copy, or the Dos? Like I said, both times I was copying files, so I have a reason to doubt the program rather than the drive, but on the other hand, it only happens when copying onto the FD not anay of the other drives. Maybe I could send in my disk so you can get a first hand look of the end result? Since it does me no good, now. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 39 Wed May 12, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 00:09 EDT COULD be a DOS problem if you have the original version. Let me know what version you have, or what the revision sticker on the bottom of the drive says. We have also seen something like that pop up a couple of times in a rather unrepeatable manner, but in this latter case the disk isn't actually bad... just seems to be some pointers messed up in the drive, and powering it off then back on cures it. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 40 Thu May 13, 1993 D.WITMER2 [Snogpitch] at 00:21 EDT OK, here's the scoop: It has 1.28 for the DOS and revision 1A on the bottom of the unit. As far a powering it off, I did do that, but the disk is still unrecoverable, as far as I can tell. I even unplugged the wall plug for good measure. By the way, it does not have the RTC option. While I'm at it, what do I need to do to get a replacement utility disk? I checked the Library for the files I remembered on the disk, but the only ones to be found are F & M copy. Eventually I'm going to need FD Tools, which I use quite regularly. How about putting these online, too? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 41 Thu May 13, 1993 C128.JBEE at 07:30 EDT >looks something like: 0 "SYSTEM" EL>< 16390 "1581 DISK *REL This is exactly what happened to me with the FD-4000 and old roms when using 1581 formatted disks in the drive and the older version of FCOPY. This was posted way back. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 42 Sun May 16, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 00:30 EDT Yep, you need the new ROM. Just call CMD Tech Support, and they'll send you one if you mention the version number and nature of the problem. As far as replacing the utlities disk, you'll have to order it. We can put most of the files up here eventually, but some are not available to everyone who has access to our private library, so can't be put there. Cost on backup disks is $10 + $2 s/h. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 43 Sat May 22, 1993 C128.JBEE at 17:53 EDT Doug, if I want to make FD-2000 or FD-4000 sized partitions on my Ramlink or HD, how big do I make the native mode partitions? Just so I can use MCOPY without worries about losing data etc? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 44 Sat May 22, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 21:48 EDT 12,800 blocks for the FD-4000 size, and 6,400 blocks for the FD-2000 size. BTW, a quick run of FD-TOOLS with such disks using the VIEW PARTITION TABLE would show you the sizes. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 45 Sun Jun 06, 1993 R.ALBRECHT3 [CommieUser] at 01:46 EDT Have you ever heard about a problem with the FD series floppy drives that involves locking up the serial bus? I know of a guy that had that problem using an FD drive on his BBS. He would wake up every morninto a locked up BBS. He said that he sent the first one back to CMD and got another, only to have the same problem. He also uses a CMD hard drive with no problem. I was thinking of buyng both a hard drive and a floppy but I don't want that problem. I'll be using it on a BBS.. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 46 Sun Jun 06, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 18:29 EDT Well, I've heard of 1581 drives locking up BBS's as well. To my knowledge, there is no such intrinsic problem with the FD itself - it usually has more to do with the way the code was written or serial bus (over)loading. What BBS program is your friend using? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 47 Sun Jun 06, 1993 R.ALBRECHT3 [CommieUser] at 20:50 EDT I'ts his own program "EBBS128", so far it's worked on all of my drives, so I think I'll still get an FD series drive for use with this BBS. Thanks for the reply.. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 48 Wed Jun 09, 1993 B.ENNIS1 [Torby] at 04:33 EDT My main complaint about the FD is that I own an FD-4000, and it doesn't like cheap disks. If it's a quality disk it will work fine, but if it's an inexpensive or old disk, it will either not format, or have lots of errors on the disk. The funny thing is that when I format these same disks in the IBM, it likes them fine. Why is the FD so picky? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 49 Wed Jun 09, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 21:59 EDT The mechanism is no different than one found in an IBM. The difference is that the FD formats in ISO standard, which is one more sector per track than the IBM. The extra density must be too much for your disks. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 50 Sun Jul 11, 1993 MRABOY at 08:26 EDT I am having difficulty using Mcopy(1992 version) when copying a partition from ramlink to FD4000. I keep MCopy in Ramlink, but to get it to work I have to keep reloading it from my floppy back to RL. When it fails it loads accesses drive 9 (FD-4000) but then no transfer takes place. If i then reload Mcopy from my 1581 drive 10 everything works fine. If I replace Mcopy and try again from RL it works fine. Nothing else gets corrupted on RL and Bcopy works fine. Mike Raboy:) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 51 Sun Jul 11, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 20:45 EDT Well, the MCOPY in your RL is OBVIOUSLY getting corrupted. Is this in a partitioned area of the RAMLink that might be getting clobbered during swaps to DIRECT mode to make use of an REU from time to time? Or is it perhaps in a partition that gateWay touches now and then (if you use it)? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 52 Sun Jul 11, 1993 MRABOY at 21:27 EDT I have Gateway in another partition. ~S ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 53 Fri May 28, 1993 R.ALBRECHT3 [CommieUser] (Forwarded) Well, I don't know if i'm in the right section, but I want to know what's the deal with these high capacity Floppy drives CMD has out. Is this true? and what are the capacities? I read a messge about them that was old (last year) and I hav'nt been keeping up on the commodore hardwae re scene so I don't know if I'm understanding this right. I would like a CMD hard drive, but I might go for a H high capacity floppy also if they are available. How much do they cost? and also, do you have any more of the 20 meg CMD units? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 54 Sat May 29, 1993 CMD-DOUG (Forwarded) The FD Series has been out for quite awhile. There are two drives, the FD-2000 and FD-4000, with maximum capacities of 1.6 and 3.2 MB, respectively. The FD- 4000 is also downward compatible with the FD-2000, and both are downward compatible with the 1581 (800K). The prices are $179.95 (FD-2000) and $249.95 (FD-4000), add $20 to either for the real time clock option. The HD-20 drives are not generally available anymore. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 55 Wed Aug 11, 1993 D.TUOMI [Doctor] at 07:21 EDT Recently I had my FD-4000's RTC to die on me. For almost no reason at all it just stopped working. It's symptoms were that it would not allow you to read the clock, and the time/date stamp would be wrong. Since my drive was out of warantee, the solution I opted for was to purchase a no-slot clock from a local IBM shop. This clock cost about $30 and was completely pin compatible with the CMD RTC. It worked out nice, and since the no slot clock came with software for the PC, I got a free disk. :) Doc. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 56 Sun Oct 24, 1993 MRABOY at 12:14 EDT Doug, I have noticed that certain programs written to a 1581 dd disk on the FD- 4000 won'T read on my 1581. This disk was formatted on the FD-4000. I mcopied the disk to a disk on the 1581 (formatted on 1581) and the program works fine. This disk also works on the FD-4000. Mike :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 57 Sun Oct 24, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 13:27 EDT Mike, Can you tell me EXACTLY what happens when you try to use such disks on your 1581? Might also help if you can supply us with such a disk. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 59 Sun Oct 24, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 20:15 EDT True. And FD disks formatted at 800K should be formatted as 'true 1581' disks if they are to be read in a 1581. An 800K FD disk with a single 1581 partition on it is still slightly different than a true 1581, though they can sometimes be read on a real 1581. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 60 Sun Oct 24, 1993 MRABOY at 22:25 EDT It has happened twice today. I take a fuji mf2dd disk that I have been using in my fd4000. It works fine. Disk was formatted in fd-4000. When I ran the directory in my 1581 no problem. When I tried to load a program it would not load. I get a load error. I will send you the disk if you like. In both cases I mcopied these disks to th 1581 on disks formatted on the 1581 and they worked fine on both drives. Mike :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 61 Sun Oct 24, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 23:50 EDT Starting to sound like it might be a difference in tracking between the drives, Mike. It is possible that some parts of a disk could be readable whereas others might not, and that wouldn't suprise me a lot if it were the case. But yes, by all means do send one in for me to check, and I'll be sure to return it after determining what is going on (heh, provided I can duplicate not being able to load the programs on our 1581!). ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 62 Mon Oct 25, 1993 MRABOY at 21:37 EDT Doug, if it helps the 1581 that I am using has the old controller chip. I've never had a problem before. I have the chip, but I have never bothered to put it in. Also, I tried to use mcompare, but it did not seem to work or how long does it take to compare data on 2 1581 disks. Mike :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 63 Tue Oct 26, 1993 H.HERMAN1 at 01:04 EDT This sounds similiar to a prob I used to encounter with ms-dos' HD drives. It has been so long since solving this one that I forget if it was because an ms-dos HD drive reformatted a HD disk into a DD, or simply tht a DD disk was formatted by an ms-dos HD drive. Anyway, I have made a point when swapping disks with dos computers to do the ms-dos formatting on my 1581. This way the 1581 read/writes the disk just fine, and so does the dos computer. Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 64 Tue Oct 26, 1993 C128.JBEE at 01:19 EDT Whenever you format a low density disk on a drive that supports a high density disk you run the risk of read/write errors by the low density drive. Same is true when using a 1571 to write a 1541 disk because the 1571 head (pattern or whatever) is narrower than a 1541, even though both are double density. So, when I want to format disks that will be exchanged with others I always use my MSD drive! ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 65 Tue Oct 26, 1993 CMD-DOUG at 01:35 EDT That is probably sound advice - any disks to be interchanged might better be formatted on the 1581 itself. But I'd also recommend changing out that chip, regardless of whether you've had problems due to it up until now or not - it's like a time bomb, ticking away... ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 66 Wed Feb 02, 1994 C128.JBEE at 06:23 EST >R.SMITH32 >OK, the part I'm still a little fuzzy on is 'copy your file format to the >partition' and 'create a file from your file format (copied from your data >disk)'. Instead of creating a new file and trying to import the data into that, which can be chancy if you happen to make a typo and not copy it correctly, copy the format file. This is the file that is saved when you create the format for the file, for the first time. It most likely has the same name as the "file" used in your "startup.p" or "start.p" program. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 67 Thu Jul 07, 1994 R.VARNUM [Ron V] at 21:36 EDT Hello Doug I have two questions about my FD-4000. First of all, I can not find a Serial Number anywhere on it. It has a small white sticker on the bottom with FD- 4000 RTC and REVISION 1E on it, but I can't find anything else on it. I have looked all over it. Second I have noticed that if I use the FD-4000 the user drive in Desterm 128 I can not get a clean download. Every second or third block will be duplicated. Every things works fine if I use the RamDrive or the HardDrive. Can you give me any ideas on this? Oh, by the way I am using a CMD RamLink with 1meg and a GeoRam 512, and an HD-40. Both were ordered and received this year. This is going into a 128 with 16k VDC. I also have a JiffyDos FSD-1 and a JiffyDos 1541, both of which are rarely turned on. But I have tried it wit them both on and off. Still the same problem. I would really like to use the FD as the user drive if I can get it to work, so any help will be appreciated. ***Ron*** ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 68 Thu Jul 07, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 22:16 EDT The engineering dept. said FD's don't need serial numbers... so they didn't get one. They rely strictly on revision numbers to determine the vintage. What version of Desterm are we talking about here? Long as you're replying, let me know what revision number the FD is. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 69 Thu Jul 07, 1994 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 23:40 EDT Doug... I have the same problem with downloading with my FD 4000 when using Desterm V2.01 (the ramlink edition). If I download to my ramlink there is no problem, but if I download to the fd4000 I get mucho errors. My FD drive is a REV. 1E. (just got it last month) Also, I normally use Ymodem Batch for downloading files. Bob ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 70 Fri Jul 08, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 16:00 EDT Have you tried this with Desterm V2 (the normal release)? If that version works with the FD, then I suspect you should be talking to Steve Cuthbert instead of us. I'll make an attempt to check out V2 myself this weekend, but I do not have an official copy of 2.1 to test with at this point. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 71 Fri Jul 08, 1994 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 22:12 EDT Doug, Good advice. Version 2.0 of Desterm downloads fine for me.... The Ramlink version (2.01) must have a bug in the protocol. Bob ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 72 Fri Jul 08, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 23:38 EDT Probably forgot to do an UNTALK or UNLSN somewhere in the drive code. Some devices are more forgiving on this than others, which is probably why it's only showing up on the FD. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 73 Sun Jul 17, 1994 R.DAY at 14:49 EDT On the FD drives, the HD disk have a hole on the left top side I guess to say they are a HD disk. On a ED disk that hole is down more then the HD hole. Can the FD drive know what type of disk is in it by this hole? Or do you all was have to formate with @n0:disk name,id,dd. dd=disk dencity. Or can you do a formate that will formate it for that type disk? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 74 Sun Jul 17, 1994 D.TUOMI [Doctor] at 19:51 EDT As far as I can tell, the FD doesn't care what sort of disks you have in there. I have formatted low density disks to be high density. I've even formatted high density disks to be enhanced density. I don't think it checks or cares what sort of disk is in the drive. I doubt there's a place in memory where it stores the info since it doesn't seem to use it. Doc. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 75 Sun Jul 17, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 22:03 EDT Doc is right. Since we didn't plan to use that info, and because we had other uses that required all the I/O lines available in the FD design, we didn't bring the lines that report the media type into the controller. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 76 Thu Aug 11, 1994 J.STEPHENSO1 [Jimbo] at 02:06 EDT I may have discovered a bug in the DOS of the FD-4000 I have. I was trying to copy all of the CS-DOS doc files into one huge text file (personal use only, mind you) by using the JiffyDOS copy command: @c:newfile=oldfile1,oldfile2,oldfile3,oldfile4,oldfile5 Now, the FD manual says that you can do a max of five files at a time