INSTALLING A 3 INCH FLOPPY TEAC DRIVE "B" ON A PC AND USING CPDRead, CPDWrite AND 22DISC TO READ & WRITE EINSTEIN DISCS.

By Chris Coxall

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.

DISCLAIMER

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"

CPDRead & CPDWrite can be downloaded from a number of sites:

http://tacgr.emuunlim.com/utilities/utilities.html
http://genesis8.free.fr/frontend/EMU-UTI.HTM
http://www.classicgaming.com/caprice/downloads.htm

Installing CPDRead & CPDWrite

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.

The "cpdread.cfg" needs to be edited for the 3" drive as:

; 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 to return to DOS. The cpdread folder should now contain the the 3" disk image in a file with the filename used and the extention "*.DSK".

CPDWrite. For writing 3" image to a 720k 3 .5" floppy.

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" . In the DOS window the track being written and head used will be displayed. Finally the program will return to DOS.

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" .

To CPDRead disc images from an Einstein, Spectrum & CPC6128 single sided formatted 720k 3.5" floppy in a 1.4mb. drive.

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" .

Using Sidex 22DISC

Note:

I had put the below 22dsk definition for an Einstein 3" drive using Xtal dos 3.1 on the site in good faith believing it to be fully working. I tested it many times by transferring small files back and forth and these appeared to work. Unfortunately I've found larger files become corrupted during transfer. There cannot be a hard ware problem because Amstrad CPC definitions work well with the 3 " drive. I have left the definition on site so others might see where the error lies.

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.

Installing 22dsk on the PC (a 486 recommended)

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.

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