Date   : Thu, 07 Jun 2001 09:13:18 +0000
From   : "W.H.Scholten" <wouter.scholten@...>
Subject: Re: Problems reading BBC disks on a PC

C Davies wrote:
> 
> I've managed to get it sorted.  This is fantastic - 2 for a 5.25" drive
> from eBay and I'm in retro heaven :o)  (Naturally, owing many thanks to the
> programmers of FDC and BeebEm).

Is it a 80 track drive? If so can you read 80 track discs with it on a
PC? And if it's a 80 track drive, what about single density 80 track
discs?

I tried a 5.25 dd 80 track drive from an amiga (originally external with
additional circuitry as usual, 880K amiga=720K PC) but couldn't get it
to work at all...

On a related topic: recently there was some discussion about 3.5 drives
on a BBC, well, I can't get 1.44 MB (or rather 1440K) drives to work at
all (attaching them to my opus challenger with wd1770).

On the other hand, I've got 2 external 3.5 drives from an amiga (720K)
which work fine. I just need a suitable case to put the challenger +
5.25 + 3.5 drive in...

Another thing I tried (few years ago) was using a 3.5 drive from an A310
(internal frontless drive). This worked for reading, for writing there
was some sort of timing problem: The first sector to be written (of the
file or the catalogue entry, not sure) was not written (or at the wrong
place perhaps). The 'solution' was to do *CAT (to spin up the disc)
immediately before saving. Not actually usable of course.

Finally: Anyone know if PC floppy cables work directly on the BBC? I had
a look at the pin connections on the diagram of the adv. user guide, and
they seemed to differ on a few pins with the connections listed in my PC
mainboard manual (shifted, so perhaps a bug in the adv. user guide
diagram?)

(If you're wondering: no I can't compare with the cable from a BBC to
its drive as I've only got a challenger here (1MHz bus)).

Wouter