Date   : Sun, 24 Aug 1997 01:12:58 GMT
From   : adq@... (Andrew de Quincey)
Subject: BBC Micro Disk Drives and PC disk drives

Hi, I'm trying to connect a disk drive to a BBC B micro I have just
recieved. I've blown an EPROM with Acorn's DNFS (DFS v 1.20), and I'm
trying to use an old PC 5 1/4" disk drive (360k I think) with it.

I've connected the drive, but when I do *CAT on a disk, the drive
spins up, and just sits there... not moving it's heads or anything....

Does DFS 1.20 assume you have a 1770 disk controller? The machine has
a 8271 installed.. Does anyone know what DFS'es used the 8271? (I only
have access to the ROM images on The BBC Lives! site).. I was
considering trying Watford's DFS v1.4 from the site.... mainly because
it has a *FORM command in the ROM....

Or does anyone know where I can get my hands on a 1770 upgrade for the
BBC B? The upgrade manual  implies that the upgrade is a board with
several chips on it, i.e. not just as simple as replacing the 8271
with a 1770 chip...