Date : Fri, 14 Sep 2001 08:59:07 -0700 (PDT)
From : Thomas Harte <t.harte@...>
Subject: Re: Transfering data from the disk images to the real floppyquestion.
> But could you please kindly tell me is there any program
> around which can write the BBC disks on the PC disk drive
> from the common BBC disk images?
There are a few problems with 5.25" drives of different densities reading
each other's discs, but if you intend to use 3.5" or 3" drives, or even just
the same drive in your PC and BBC there shouldn't be any physical problems.
However there may be logical problems, since many PC's have cut down floppy
capabilities. There are many PCs which cannot natively handle single density
discs. But if you have the older 8271 based disc upgrade on your BBC, it can
only work in single density. Even if you have a 1770 and want to work with
the DFS rather than ADFS, you need to write in single density. I believe
single density writing can be achieved using a tiny logical trick on the PC,
but I don't know of any software that tries this.
>From personal experience, I've owned two PCs in the last ten years - an
Olivetti 486SX/25 which had an ISA disc interface card and worked fine in
single density, and a Dell Pentium 200, which has an ECP port (the modern
printer ports which do data in and data out, and can accept external disc
drives also) which also works fine in single density.
For reference, if you can hack a command line interface, the tool Microsoft
people usually recommend is FDC. However, it is a DOS tool and to say the
least 'highly unlikely' to work under Windows NT/2000/XP. UNIX people just
configure a /dev entry and use cp.
> I want to get the real
> disks on my real BBC but I want to download the BBC software
> from the internet archives. Also I want to know if it is possible
> to get the 3" floppy drive working with the BBC and will it work
> with the software from my first question.
All disc drives since nearly the beginning of time have exactly the same
connection pins. I don't know what form the physical connection between the
BBC upgrades and the floppy drives is, but basically you just need the
correct lead. Thats because floppy drives essentially don't do anything
except spin the disc at 300RPM, move the head back and forth and either read
or write flux states from the surface. Some Macintosh's can vary the spin
speed so you can't take a drive from them, but there shouldn't be a problem
with a PC drive. Or indeed an Amstrad style 3" drive (exacyly the same
connection again - you can fit these to your PC if you want) if thats what
you mean rather than 3.5".
For reference, I've had success with a PC drive on an Electron Advanced Plus
3. PC drives have a 34 pin arrangement on their reverse for interfacing,
which is what you'd connect to your BBC, and also the usual four fat pins
for the power supply. I'm assuming the power supply issue isn't a problem.
-Thomas
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