8bitfiles.net/archives

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

/ 8bitfiles.net/archives / archives.tar / archives / genie-commodore-file-library / Information / FD-DRIVEMSGS.ARC / 01FD-DRIVES.MSGS < prev

Wrap

Text File | 2019-04-13 | 25.4 KB | 685 lines

this way, so I broke the job down into 10 five file sections. Here's a directory fragment so you can see what's up: 10 "COPYRITE.TXT" SEQ 69 "INTRO.TXT" SEQ 51 "ARC128.TXT" SEQ 8 "ASSIGN.TXT" SEQ 11 "AUTOEXEC.TXT" SEQ 8 "BATCH.TXT" SEQ 5 "BEGIN.TXT" SEQ 8 "CHANGE.TXT" SEQ 13 "CHECK.TXT" SEQ 4 "CHANGEUNIT.TXT SEQ 11 "COMP.TXT" SEQ ... 3 "WEDGE.TXT" SEQ So I proceeded to do the following: @c:a1=copyrite.txt,intro.txt,arc128.txt,assign.txt,autoexec.txt @c:a2=batch.txt,begin.txt,change.txt,check.txt,changeunit.txt all the way through A10. Then I copied A1 through A5 to B1, and A6 through A10 to B2, then b1 and b2 to CSDOS.TXT. What I found was that the fifth file in every copy operation was replaced with AUTOEXEC.TXT, the fifth file in the subdirectory the files are in, and that when I did the A to B copying, the fifth ones there (A5 and A10) were also replaced by AUTOEXEC.TXT. This is the first time I've used the DOS copy command on the FD, although I've done this sort of thing on my HD-200 without problems. If it makes a difference, I have FD-DOS version 1.32 on the drive, the disk was a 1.6Meg native format, and I was in a subdirectory (the only one on the disk). Jimbo ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 77 Thu Aug 11, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 23:32 EDT I'm not aware of the bug, but will pass the info on to Mark for testing. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 78 Sat Sep 03, 1994 G.PYSKA [STROKER ACE] at 09:22 EDT I received my FD-2000 afew days ago. It's a very nice drive. you should of brought it out years ago. It might have kept me from buying my first Amiga,though I'm not sorry I did. Ineed to know if mcopy can copy two sides of a 1571 disk to the same partition without messing up the first or what would you suggest to get this done without copying each file individually. - >>>>> Stroker Ace <<<<<- ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 79 Sat Sep 03, 1994 THE.OUTLAW at 09:55 EDT Stroker - MCOPY = Mirror Copy you can only copy a 71 disk to a 71 partition, but not a 71 disk to an 81 partition. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 80 Sat Sep 03, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 15:51 EDT We disabled the ability to MCOPY disks/partitions to dissimilar types because MCOPY just blindly copies tracks & sectors from the original to the target. While we could allow a 1571 to be copied to 1581 in this manner, when you were done it would all be pretty useless since the directory data would be sitting on track 18, while the 1581's actual directory is on track 40. In other words, the files wouldn't show up. FCOPY is the only reasonable way to go between dissimilar formats. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 81 Sat Sep 17, 1994 D.PHELPS1 [Tim Phelps] at 22:09 EDT Which disks are the best to use with a FD? I've seen Sony, Maxell, Verbatim, BASF, 3M, among others. Thanks. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 82 Sun Sep 18, 1994 C128.JBEE at 04:57 EDT Sony and KAO are the highest quality brands as far as I am concerned. I have had trouble with Maxell, BASF, and 3M. I do not buy Verbatim. This applies to 5.25 DD, 3.5 DD, HD, and ED diskettes I have bought. If a diskette says "2.88 MB" that does not mean you will be able to reformat it to "3.2 MB" needed on a FD-4000. For some diskettes "2.88" means formattable to "2.88", don't try "3.2". I am glad I only bought a small amount of Maxell disks which avg a 1 out of ten reject rate on one purchase. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 83 Sun Sep 18, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 13:17 EDT I pretty much agree with JBEE's assessment on the disks. We've also had good luck with Toshiba ED disks. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 84 Thu Sep 22, 1994 J.BUTLER13 [JB] at 05:55 EDT what about FUJI DD & HD ? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 85 Fri Sep 23, 1994 C128.JBEE at 00:07 EDT Have not used enough to form an opinion of FUJI. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 86 Fri Sep 23, 1994 H.STEVENS5 [HaroldOH] at 19:19 EDT Hey, JBEE, I agree with you about Verbatim disks. I only have problems with this particular brand after I run my 1581 for more than 30 minutes (not continuously I should say, but turned on that long). I have found the best disk to use are those generic blue disks that are sold in computer stores like MicroCenter or CompUSA. --Harold ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 87 Sun Oct 02, 1994 C.BOZARTH at 12:33 EDT I have a problem that sounds similar to a few previous questions. I have an FD-4000 Rev 1D with RTC and FD-DOS v1.34. There are times under GEOS when the system freezes until I pop the disk out and back in. This has only happened when I've exited a program and gone back to deskTop. I looks like it stops about the time deskTop is getting the disk name. The other time this has happened is copying multiple files from RAMlink to the FD. This only happens when there is a disk in the FD. And this is not a consistent bug. Any suggestions? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 88 Sun Oct 02, 1994 CMD-DOUG at 22:11 EDT Not really. We've never been able to duplicate this in-house, and the fact that it only happens intermittently tends to indicate that it's either a very complex software bug, or possibly a hardware-induced condition. I can only recommend forwarding the details of the problem directly to Mark via an 'official' snail mail problem report. He can possibly suggest some things to try, and perhaps get you a later ROM revision to try to see if that resolves it or not. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 89 Mon Oct 03, 1994 M.RANDALL2 [Maurice] at 00:14 EDT My FD does the same thing on occasion. I believe that I have only had it lock up with ED disks with 4 1581 partitions. Just pop the disk out and back in, and the drive picks up where it left off. The only problem is that it will go to it's default partition when the disk is popped back in. If I am using GeoPublish at the time, then corruption occurs. So, to be safe, I use FD-Tools to change the default partition to the one I am going to be using, if I am going to be doing anything critical. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 90 Mon Feb 13, 1995 CMD-DOUG at 07:42 EST Just to let you all know: CMD has been forced to discontinue the FD-4000 drive. After a couple of years, the drive mechanism manufacturers have decided that the ED drives just aren't going to catch on in the MS-DOS market, and all of them have stopped production of these mechanisms. We've recently purchased everything we could find in the supply chain, and we'll continue to look for more to see if we can sqeak out a few more units, but we can no longer guarantee delivery on this model. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 91 Mon Feb 13, 1995 D.PHELPS1 [Tim Phelps] at 21:51 EST This is sad news. But could you tell me how long you plan to continue the FD2000 production? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 92 Mon Feb 13, 1995 CMD-DOUG at 22:24 EST FD-2000 production will continue as long as there are 2 MB floppy drives available. Since this is the de-facto standard on every other computer around, I doubt these will disappear until the day that software comes only in CD-ROM. I'd give this format at least 3 to 4 years, maybe more. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 93 Wed Feb 15, 1995 C128.JBEE at 07:04 EST Well, considering the bare bones 2.88 drives sell for $95 and they are selling 2x CD-ROMs for $109, it was no surprise. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 94 Wed Feb 15, 1995 CMD-DOUG at 17:35 EST Actually, there is some good news. We've found a good stash of mechanisms, so the FD-4000 will remain available for a limited time. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 95 Thu Feb 16, 1995 JON at 19:52 EST Is there any software (Commodore 64) that will allow the FD4000 to read and write to IBM/PC formatted disks? Or can a PC read disks formatted on the FD4000 in HD format? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 96 Thu Feb 16, 1995 E.BOURDON1 [C128-Eddie] at 21:56 EST With Big Blue Reader, you can read/write to a IBM HD disk, but it must be formatted by Big Blue Reader, not the regular dos format command. I've used BBR many time on a friends FD-2000, and it works just fine. From time to time, however, the IBM does have trouble reading files off the disk, but it is not very common. Hope this helps you out. BTW, I was using the 128 version of BBR. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 97 Thu Feb 16, 1995 C128.JBEE at 23:30 EST I have not heard of any software that supports reading PC ED disks on the C-128/64. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 98 Fri Feb 17, 1995 JON at 18:42 EST Thanks. Where can I find BBR? Can it be ordered online? It's the HD disks I would want to read/write to, but the program would have to run on th 64? ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 99 Sat Feb 18, 1995 ADAM.RT [ADAM/Geoff] at 02:13 EST I don't know if I said this already, but... I think the big problem with the ED disk drives is that the media costs three times more than HD disks, and do not warrant the added cost. Personally, I feel the manufacturers of these drives could have spent their time better on developing cheap floptical drives. :) *Geoff!* ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 100 Sat Feb 18, 1995 C128.JBEE at 09:20 EST I have tried changing Little Read Reader 128 this week and I am having problems. Works fine with my 720K disks and I do not need it so I am giving up :D Though someone with a good working knowledge of PC disks/DOS should be able to do it easily, for what it is worth. Works fine with a 720k disk using a FD-4000. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 101 Sat Feb 18, 1995 E.BOURDON1 [C128-Eddie] at 16:14 EST Big Blue Reader v4.11 (for the 64) can be ordered from CMD. The number is 1- 800-638-3263. The Price is $39.95 and includes a 64 version and a 128 version on one disk. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 102 Sat Feb 18, 1995 H.HERMAN1 at 17:54 EST Eddie, Is Big Blue Reader at version 4.11? The reason I ask is that mine says 4.01. Thanks! Howie ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 103 Sat Feb 18, 1995 JON at 19:04 EST Eddie, Thanks for the ordering information. I was hoping the ED format would catch on in the PC cummunity so the price of the disks would come down...oh well. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 104 Tue Feb 21, 1995 E.BOURDON1 [C128-Eddie] at 01:10 EST Howie: My Big Blue Reader versions are as follows: Side 1, BBR-128 v4.1 Side 2, BBR-64 v4.11 I purchased these from CMD about 6 months ago or so. -Eddie ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 105 Tue Feb 21, 1995 R.DAY at 18:18 EST My be the ED drives have not caught on because you can't get them any place but mail ordering them. I only seen them in a Jameco catalog and not the new one. For IBM's you have to get a card to use it too. I never seen ED disk in any store, but today I did. a place called Best buy had a box of 10 for 12.93 I got one box. They did not have to drive there. Looking at the drives I think I found out what FD stands for on your drives. Floppy Drive, right? Well I am happy I got a FD-4000 Floppy Drive 4000 Kbytes. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 106 Sun Feb 26, 1995 MRABOY at 20:24 EST I went to best buy and found TDK "ED" disks for 12.38 per 10. Thats in rockville MD Thanks to Ray for the tip ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 107 Fri Apr 07, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 22:45 EDT I just ordered an FD 4000 RTC. Is there anything I need to know? Does it work ok with disks formatted for the 81? Seems I read about something a long time ago but I can't remember the details. (I just saved the messages in this chain.) Where is a good place to get ED disks? Brenda ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 108 Sat Apr 08, 1995 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 00:02 EDT > I recently got a used 9 meg RAMLink... what do I need to know? It is You will love it > Will it work on an SX?? I have heard of problems with the RamLink working on a SX64 > Where do I get something so that an REU can lie > flat? Will SwiftLink, Stereo Sid, and Super Snapshot carts work with it? These Should all work Fine on the Ramlink. > BTW, I do not have the clip. On the 64 you may have to install the timing jumper for reliable operation. On the 128, I have never needed one. >I just ordered an FD 4000 RTC. Is there anything I need to know? You will love it almost as much as the Ramlink. >Does it work ok with disks formatted for the 81? Works great with 81 disks without the 81 bugs. >Where is a good place to get ED disks? -------------------------Text Import-------------------------- Hi Bob, I got some ED disks from MIDWESTERN DISKETTE they have an add in COMPUTER SHOPER. The price of their disks are: ED DISKS 1 to 49.........$1.39 ea. 50 or more.......$1.29 ea. HD DISKS 10 pack wht. box.$4.20 ea. 50 or more box...$3.60 ea. 50 or more bulk..$0.29 ea. Shipping.....$1.80 per 100 disks Processing fee $4.00 Phone 800-221-6332 Do not try to format a HD disk as ED. Doug Cotton says this is a no- no. The data wont last. Seeya, Ferd ----------------------------End----------------------------------- Even though it is recommended not to format your HD disk to ED, I have had reliable results so far doing this. Of course you wouldn't want to put real valuable data on those disks, but they are great for text files and such, and I don't do it much. Bob :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 109 Sun Apr 09, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 01:23 EDT Thanks for the info. Chatting in the BB tonight, I got nervous... is it true that ED disks are prone to problems? (I read about IBMs not going out that far, and if it says 2.88, it means it.) I'm wondering if it will be hard to get the disks, and hard to get repairs if something should happen. But the thing that worries me most is reliability. It's not the FD's fault if ED disks being meant for 2.88 on the IBM do not format to 3.2 on the C= but I don't want to lose my data. My FD hasn't come yet. Will I be able to send it back if I change my mind? I just ordered it spur of the moment when I was claiming my game, cause I always wanted one. Brenda ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 110 Sun Apr 09, 1995 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 11:20 EDT Barbara First I would ask myself "do these people have an FD4000?" if they do not then I would take their opinion differently then someone who owns one who has problems. I have never heard anyone complain about the performance of a FD4000, nor have I eperienced any problems with it. I have on the other hand had terrible experiences with the 1541- 1541 II, 1571, and the 1581. The FD4000 IMHO is far superior to these. There is a potential to lose data on any platform. The rule to follow when one has important data is simple... Backup. I have important customer data that I keep in my Ramlink for speed. Now we all know that if you don't have a RL Crash about once every year then you are walking on water. So I keep all files backed up daily. Not only should you keep a back-up copy, but you should keep a back-up of the back-up. This sounds silly, but someday you will be glad that you took the effort. Of course this only applies to important data (work related etc.). I wouldn't do this with games and such. As for the IBM machine only being able to use 2.88 megs of an ED disk shows you that the C= is quite a bit more efficient then that other system. I don't know CMD's policy on the canceling orders, but I would suspect that you would have better luck asking if you could exchange the 4000 for a 2000. Cmd will have no problem selling the 4000 to someone else. Of course by the time you pay for all the shipping costs and restocking fees you will probably have spent the same amount of money Yes ED disks are hard to find, But, CMD sells them right now. If there is a mechanical failure of the the 4000 then the wizards at CMD also have the expertise to repair the machine. Bob :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 111 Sun Apr 09, 1995 T.GOSSER1 [PowerUserMag] at 11:34 EDT MS-DOS formats the disk differently. I've had my FD4000 for a couple of years now and have used it extensively under GEOS and otherwise with no problems whatsoever. I would say they are very reliable, but this is just based upon my personal experience. They are a worthwhile investment. :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 112 Sun Apr 09, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 17:42 EDT >>First I would ask myself "do these people have an FD4000?" if they do not then I would take their opinion differently then someone who owns one who has problems. Yes, they do own a 4000. >>I have on the other hand had terrible experiences with the 1541-1541 II, 1571, and the 1581. I have never had a problem with anything but a 1581. I have problems with several disks on my 81. That is one of the main reasons for my FD purchase. re: Backup, backup, backup I agree. >>As for the IBM machine only being able to use 2.88 megs of an ED disk shows you that the C= is quite a bit more efficient then that other system. That is not the point I was trying to make here. If ED disks are only required to work to 2.88, they might fail when pushing the envelope to 3.2. This would not be the FD's fault. So not only do you have to be able to find ED disks, you have to find ones that can handle 3.2. How likely is this when the only system that uses 3.2 is the C=? "C= is quite a bit more efficient"... well, I credit CMD on this one :) re: 2000 vs 4000 I agree. >>If there is a mechanical failure of the the 4000 then the wizards at CMD also have the expertise to repair the machine. Not when they run out of mechanisms. BTW, I am not worried about reliability at 800k or 1.6. I'm not worried about the FD itself at 3.2. What I am worried about is ED disks only being certified to 2.88. (Is that correct?) Brenda ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 113 Sun Apr 09, 1995 C128.JBEE at 18:45 EDT I have bought about 100 ED disks so far and have used them fairly heavily. The only disks that would not format right out of the boxes were the Maxwells. I had a bad one in each ten disk box. Sony disks are known throughout the industry as being the best there is when quality counts. I have also had good luck with KAO. Even down to the 800k disks, I have had trouble with so called brand names such as 3M. In the FWIW department, my heavily used masters, both 5.25 and 3.5, are all Sony. I have learned the hard way about cheaper disks losing data at random after being heavily used or stored unused for a long time. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 114 Sun Apr 09, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 20:02 EDT I bought up a bunch of HD disks when they were on sale. (I knew I'd get an FD someday :) ) The brands I got were Fuji and 3M. They say they are good for 2.0 meg unformatted. Should these be safe? I've never had problems with generic disks. Should I no longer use them? Is the FD more sensitive to them? I have had disks go bad but it was from the 1581 itself. (ie the famous errors in the directory problem) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 115 Sun Apr 09, 1995 B.MASSE [BIG BOB] at 20:11 EDT Brenda, >>First I would ask myself "do these people have an FD4000?" if they do >>not then I would take their opinion differently then someone who owns one >> who has problems. BG> Yes, they do own a 4000. I find that interesting. I have read all the message bases and archived message bases concerning the FD drives and don't recall any negative reports about them. Nor have I ever heard an owner of one being unhappy with the purchase. BG> That is not the point I was trying to make here. If ED disks are only BG> required to work to 2.88, they might fail when pushing the envelope to Any disk on any format of any size may fail at any time. Murphey's Law. >> Not when they run out of mechanisms. This is a good point. But, on the other hand, when you are running a Ramlink in conjunction with your mechanical drive if you are like me, you do as little stuff on the mech drive and rely mostly on the speed of the Ramlink. I primarily use the FD to back-up stuff. The mech should last a long time that way. BG> BTW, I am not worried about reliability at 800k or 1.6. I'm not worried BG> about the FD itself at 3.2. What I am worried about is ED disks only being BG> certified to 2.88. (Is that correct?) I am not qualified to answer this question but it reminds me of the days of the single density disk and disk notcher that allowed you to use the other side of the disk. Those SD disks should never have been used on both sides but we did it any way. And with very reliable results. Bob :) ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 116 Sun Apr 09, 1995 MRABOY at 22:12 EDT I have had no problem with the fd-4000. Best Buy sells the ED disks for a good price TDK's I use superbase with ramlink and back up to fd 4000. Works great ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 117 Mon Apr 10, 1995 CMD-DOUG at 09:35 EDT When the FD was first released, there were some problems with reading some 1581 disks, and with copying to 1581. These problems were due to bugs which we were able to remedy quickly. Concerning reliability at 3.2 MB, the ED disks are rated at 4 MB (raw). Media is guaranteed to be good over the 'useable area' of a disk, and to do this, manufacturer's actually spread and process the coating well beyond this area. IBM's use 9, 18 and 36 sectors per track for their normal DD, HD, and ED formats (respectively). CMD uses the ISO specs to format to 10, 20 and 40 tracks instead. It's rare to find media that can't handle this, and if it can't, the disk wasn't 100 percent what the specs for the diskmakers says it should be. We do also push an extra track out of all media types when a disk is formatted as a CMD PARTITIONABLE disk type. This is for storing the partition table info. We did exstensive testing on this before deciding that it could be done this way. After testing media and drives from a dozen or so manufacturers, we discovered that failure only occurred when going beyond THREE extra tracks. I've only seen one case of a real reliability problem with an FD-4000. In that particular instance, the user was running his entire BBS from the drive, and using a single partition. It appeared that the drive head was improperly adjusted (oo close to the surface of disk) and that the constant reading and writing that occured to the single directory on the disks he used coupled with the poor head adjustment caused a groove to form in the media. After about 2 months of use, the disk would start to develop errors. We advised the user to send the drive in to be adjusted. ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 118 Tue Apr 11, 1995 B.GANN1 [Brenda] at 00:49 EDT I bought some 3M and Fuji HD disks when they were on sale a long time ago. Will I have trouble with the 3M? (There was a post saying 3M was a bad brand.) Are generic disks (DD,HD,ED) safe to use? I have lots of generic DD 1581 formatted disks. Thanks for the ED explanation. I've never even seen an ED disk. BTW, when I asked an IBM-er if he knew where to get ED disks, he asked what they were. When I told him they held *3.2 meg* on a COMMODORE, his eyes got big :) Course he had to quickly follow that up with, "No offense, but why would anyone want to upgrade a Commodore?" Didn't get my FD today... maybe tomorrow. Brenda ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 119 Tue Apr 11, 1995 C128.JBEE at 02:53 EDT Same reason someone would want to update a 386/486, because its $2000 less expensive then buying a Pentium and new software. Not to mention a lot more accurate :D ------------ Category 12, Topic 19 Message 120 Wed Apr 12, 1995 CMD-DOUG at 01:34 EDT With the exception of our original testing, we've never made extensive use of most brands other than those we've sold. We haven't gotten enough feedback from users to draw any conclusions concerning one disk brand versus another. We've used mostly KAO, Toshiba, and Flex disks in-house, and all of these have performed well for us. I've used quite a few 'unbranded' DD disks without problems, but most of these were actually KAO duplication quality disks. I've never really noticed any tendency for the FD's to like one kind over another. ------------ 12 |