Date   : Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:32:33 -0000
From   : "David Harper" <dl.harper@...>
Subject: Re: BBC Master 512 system discs

 "Hereward Hall" <hab_hall@...> wrote:
.
>    I was wondering whether anyone could help me ascertain 3.5" disc copies
> of the BBC Master 512 system discs. Already, I have used Omniflop and
> thought I had created generic copies, but I seem to have failed. When I 
> put
> in the boot disc in 512k mode(80186) nothing happens at all and I am later
> presented with a disc error message.

I am not quite sure what you mean by "nothing happens at all". You should at 
least get the opening screen flash starting "Acorn TUBE 80186 512K" and the 
disk should spin up. If not, then you have something other than a disk 
fault.

The 512's boot disk is a hybrid ADFS / DOS format disk. The 512's boot ROM 
uses ADFS to get started, so you must have ADFS enabled in the host machine. 
Make sure you start with an ADFS ("Large" - i.e. 640K) formatted disk, and 
copy the image to that.

I admit I haven't tried to boot from 3.5" disks - I still have 5.25" drives 
attached to mine!

> P.S. The first disc image is an adl one and this is probably where the
> problem lies.

I presume you meant "ADFS" here.

David Harper