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BBC(b) - Software at last!

T

tezza

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It's been a Vintage Computing Easter so far. Not only did I fix a BBC drive and took delivery of an IBM 5150, I also managed to get disk images across to my BBC(b).

Having given up on a serial transfer solution, I looked at making real 5.25 disk copies from images. Omniflop was the solution here. I found it made prefect 80 track, double sided DFS floppies from Disk Images. And it ran under XP. Hooray!

These disks run on the Beeb just fine. I now have an example collection to both play and show off my machine with.

As for the RS432 I had all that trouble with (explained in a separate post), I suspect it may not be broken at all. It could have actually been a software problem. It's not confirmed yet, but I'm looking more into it.
 

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Do you have a 360K or a 1.2MB floppy drive in your PC? I've read various stories that writing a 360K disk in a 1.2MB drive will work as long as you don't write to it again in a 360K unit. Personally I've got a 360K drive that neither Windows XP nor Omniflop can address properly, but it works fine in MS-DOS. Perhaps Omniflop works better if I bypass my CatWeasel card?
 
Hi Carlsson,

I've got a 1.2MB drive. The BBC drives are also both 80-track and double-sided so I guess this helps with compatibility.

I format the disks on the BBC(b) first (I use DS double-density ones, not pre-formatted High-density PC disks). Both sides, and 80 tracks each. Then, in the PC under XP, I write the DFS disk image to these pre-formatted floppies in my 1.2MB drive.

I can write a *.dsd images and *.ssd images just fine.

I'm astonished that it works so well, worked first time and was so painless. I hadn't looked at it before in any depth because I was under the impression that, DFS being single density, there was a snowflake's chance in hell that the format could be written out in a modern XP machine. Seems it does?!

I was fully expecting the process not to work and was very suprised when it did! Hats off to the writer of the software.

Tez
 
Good to hear! I've heard good things about OmniFlop, but I think I'll stay with Mbbrutman's Dskimage. It seems to do what I need it to, and then some.

On the note of 1.2MB drives, I have a very nice one here at the house. I can FORMAT 360K disks with it, write to it, and talk back and forth on it between my IBM 5150, Packard Bell Legend 2440, and my AT&T 6300. I still have backups just in case a disaster occours, but it seems to work. Another cool feature on this drive I've never seen on any other-- It has a mechanism in it, so that the heads will only go down when a disk is inserted in the drive.

--Ryan
 
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Yesterday I picked up another BBC Model B, one that both has DFS (I haven't checked which version or FDC chip) and a fully working keyboard! It has a funny looking UHF connector (however a proper RF modulator) but since I have a working RGB cable I don't bother with the antenna signal.

Now, I have put both my old BBC B (tape only, UK power cable) and my Master 128K (w/ DFS but some keys not working properly) out for sale. I'm sure I'll find some buyers, given how relatively uncommon the Acorn computers are in Sweden.
 
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