Date : Thu, 07 Jun 2001 10:36:07
From : "C Davies" <davies_@...>
Subject: Re: Problems reading BBC disks on a PC
It's a standard 1.2Mb 5.25" PC floppy drive. I bought it as-is from eBay
for £2 so I haven't got any docs about it - I can take it back out of the
computer to check for it's make 'n' extra details if you need them. So far
I've only had success reading ADFS files. I'm using the following options
in FDC -
BBC640
DDINHD
HEAD1ALIAS 0
READ IMAGE.ADL
I'm going to have a play around with it to see if I can manage 40/80 track
single/double sided DFS images sometime in the next couple of days.
>From: "W.H.Scholten" <wouter.scholten@...>
>To: bbc-micro@...
>Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Problems reading BBC disks on a PC
>Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 09:13:18 +0000
>
>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
>
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