CPDRead & CPDWrite download sites.
Installing CPDRead & CPDWrite.
I have installed a Teac 3" drive which originally came with Einstein TC01 as drive "B" in a DEL 425s/L 486 PC. The drive has a 34 way edge board for data cable connection and a power connection that is the same as a PC's 5 1/4" drive including the appropriate 12volt and 5volt power configuration. To install it into my "DELL 425s/L" 486 PC I connected up the cables just as though it were a 5 1/4" drive. (No alterations to the cables were necessary.)
The PC bios was set "Diskette Drive
B: 5.25 inch, 560 KB". The jumper settings on the drive were
set to "DS1" and "USI".
The software I use to read 3" discs is CPDRead. The software was written by Ulrich Doewich, Ontario, Canada for CPC6128 and Atari ST but Spectrum+3 and Tatung Einstein 3" disks were also successfully transferred onto the hard drive as disc images. A disk image being a single MS DOS file which holds the format and files of a disc read from a PC floppy drive.
CPDWrite (also by Ulrich Doewich) was used successfully to write the format and files within a disk images back to one side of 720k 3 1/2" floppy in the 1.4mb. floppy drive "A". The transfered files on the 720k disks were opened and run successfully on the Tatung Einstein and CPC6128.
The disk images were also successfully used for an Einstein, Spectrum+3 and a CPC6128 emulator on the PC.
The above fitting of a three inch drive and the below software configurations have worked successfully for me without any hardware or software damage. Whether this will be the case over time or if this would be the case with other computers I can not say. Therefore I disclaim any responsibility for others using the above hardware and below software. It has been said trying to access the 3" drive from windows could crash the computer. Trying to access the drive from DOS with "dir b:" or "b:" will report "General drive failure: Abort, Retry, Fail:" but no harm seems to be done.
I have used a faster AMD K6 500hz PC to successfully read a 720k 3.5" Einstein fomatted floppy from a 1.4mb. floppy drive using CPDRead. Trying to write back the image to another 3.5" floppy with CPDWrite reported a "time out failure"
http://tacgr.emuunlim.com/utilities/utilities.html
http://genesis8.free.fr/frontend/EMU-UTI.HTM
http://www.classicgaming.com/caprice/downloads.htm
I use the DOS supplied by win95 to use CPDRead & CPDWrite. I either boot into dos from a floppy or exit from win95 with "Restart in MS-DOS mode". I do not use the Win95 dos prompt.
A new folder each for CPDRead and CPDWrite needs to be created on the hard drive. Initially the four files downloaded in the zip folders need to extacted to their respective folders.
; CPDRead.CFG - defaults for CPDRead v3.xx
#tracks = 40 ; valid range is 1 - 80
#drive = B ; A or B
#sides = 1 ; 1 or 2 (both)
#step = 2 ; number of tracks to advance for each stepping pulse
#media&type = 2 ; drive media and type used..
; 0 for 1.2MB 5.25" floppy in 1.2MB drive
; 0 for 1.44MB 3.5" floppy in 1.44MB drive
; 1 for 360KB 5.25" floppy in 1.2MB drive
; 1 for 720KB 3.5" floppy in 720KB drive
; 2 for 360KB 5.25" floppy in 360KB drive
; 2 for 720KB 3.5" floppy in 1.44MB drive
; 2 for 720KB 3.5" floppy in 720KB drive
To create a disk image of the 3" disk in drive
"b" at the DOS prompt c:\CPDREAD> use the command
line "cpdread filename" a file name extention is not
needed. The program presents a very good easy to understand
display and will finally report "transfer complete"
press
The disk image to be written needs to be in the "cpdwrite folder" For writing the disk image to a 720k 3.5" floppy in a 1.4m 3.5" drive "A" the "cpdwrite.cfg" needs to be edited as:
CPDWrite.CFG - defaults for CPDWrite
#tracks = 0 ; valid range is 1 - 85, 0 = use tracks value from image
#drive = A ; A or B
#step = 1 ; number of tracks to advance for each stepping pulse
#media&type = 2 ; drive media and type used..
; 0 for 1.2MB 5.25" floppy in 1.2MB drive
; 0 for 1.44MB 3.5" floppy in 1.44MB drive
; 1 for 360KB 5.25" floppy in 1.2MB drive
; 1 for 720KB 3.5" floppy in 720KB drive
; 2 for 360KB 5.25" floppy in 360KB drive
; 2 for 720KB 3.5" floppy in 1.44MB driv
At the dos prompt "C:\CPDWRITE>" use the command
line "cpdwrite filename.dsk"
To write an image back to the second side of a 720k 3.5"
disk the parameter "S" is needed. At the dos prompt
"C:\CPDWRITE>" use the command line "cpdwrite
filename.dsk S"
The CPCRead.cfg needs to be:
; CPDRead.CFG - defaults for CPDRead v3.xx
#tracks = 40 ; valid range is 1 - 80
#drive = A ; A or B
#sides = 1 ; 1 or 2 (both)
#step = 1 ; number of tracks to advance for each stepping pulse
#media&type = 2 ; drive media and type used..
; 0 for 1.2MB 5.25" floppy in 1.2MB drive
; 0 for 1.44MB 3.5" floppy in 1.44MB drive
; 1 for 360KB 5.25" floppy in 1.2MB drive
; 1 for 720KB 3.5" floppy in 720KB drive
; 2 for 360KB 5.25" floppy in 360KB drive
; 2 for 720KB 3.5" floppy in 1.44MB drive
; 2 for 720KB 3.5" floppy in 720KB drive
To read an image from the second side of a 720k 3.5" disk the parameter "S" is needed. At the dos prompt "C:\CPDREAD>" use the command line "cpdread filename.dsk S" .
If you have the answere for the problem please send it to E-mail This Web Site
22disc can access the 3" Teac drive
installed in a PC and read Einstein formated 3" discs.
22DSK144.zip can be downloaded from-http://tacgr.emuunlim.com/utilities/utilities.html
& http://genesis8.free.fr/frontend/EMU-UTI.HTM.
22disc does not create disk images as CPDRead does but once
installed on a PC with an Einstein TC01 definition it will read
the directory of a 3" disc, copy an Einstein file text or
binary to a MS-DOS file on another PC drive, copy a MS-DOS file
from another PC drive to the Einstein 3" formatted disk,
delete a file on the 3" floppy and Eistein format a 3"
floppy.
Create a directory "MY22" on the PC hard drive. Download 22dsk144.zip, unzip and extract all files to the "MY22" folder. The 22dsk installation already comes with numerous CP/M definitions for other CPM machines in it's CPMDISKS.DEF. Time could be spent reading the 22dsk.doc file on how to add the Einstein definition to the current "CPMDISKS.DEF" file. To get some thing up and running to read & write to the 3" Teac drive for Einstein 3" floppies I suggest deleting the current "CPMDISKS.DEF" file and leaving it backed up in the zip folder. To create a new "CPMDISKS.DEF" file soly for the 3" Teac drive and Einstein disks open a text editor i.e. MSDOS's EDIT.COM and type or select, copy and paste the text configuration blow into the editor.
BEGIN EIN EINSTEIN TC01 ----SSDD 100 tpi 3" DENSITY MFM ,LOW CYLINDERS 40 SIDES 1 SECTORS 10,512 SKEW 5 SIDE1 0 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 BSH 4 BLM 0FH EXM 0 DSM 05EH DRM 03FH AL0 080H AL1 0 OFS 2 END
Save this as EINDEF.TXT in the MY22 folder. In the MY22 folder at the dos prompt "C:\MY22>" type the command "genindex eindef.txt cpmdisks.def file" <ENTER> this should create a new "CPMDISKS.DEF" for just 3" Einstein disks. For correct operation of the 3" Teak drive a "DISKETTE.CFG file needs to be created in the MY22 folder. For the setup of a 1.4mb 3.5" drive "A" and the 3" Teac drive "B" in a text editor enter the lines below:
A: BIOS 0 UNIT 0 1.44M CHANGE
B: BIOS 1 UNIT 1 360K SEEK 12
Save it into the "MY22" folder as "diskette.cfg". (If a different drive set up is used refer to the 22DSSK's "CONFIG.TXT" file. The important element for the 3" Teac drive is that the "SEEK 12" is added.
I have not yet been able to get a definiton for 22disk to read or write to 720k 3.5 Einstein formated disks.Comments E-mail This Web Site
Copyright © 1995 Chris Coxall
Last Updated Current Date 25th. February 2001