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5.25" drive Error!

DataSette

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Oct 12, 2010
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Hello!
I have a Pentium1 Computer.
There is a: 5.25" floppy drive.
I put into it a commodor disk. I wanted to reformat the disk but did not allow!!
But this album works in a 1571-DiskDrive.

HELP!
 
In MS-DOS or similar, you probably will need to add the /U parameter to skip the checking of current format:

format b: /u /f:360

However you should be aware that a 1571 drive can not (*) read PC floppy disks, and the same is true in the other direction. In order to transfer data to and from a Commodore floppy disk, there are several alternative methods of which the X-series cables are the most common and easiest to get. If you run MS-DOS on your Pentium computer, you could get an XE1541 cable. If you run some Windows NT derivate (**) or Linux, you will want an XM1541 cable which is almost the same except two wires are swapped.

As a side note, back in the old days I found that floppy disks once used on a PC were almost impossible to reformat and use on e.g. a C64. Your milage may vary, but still to this day I try to keep apart disks used with a MFM encoding floppy drive and disks used with a GCR encoding drive. It may not make sense but we all have our little ticks and tricks - this is one of mine. :-D

(*) Ok, you can make an internal hardware modification and use Big Blue Reader, at least on a C128 but that might be a little out of scope here.

(**) I once ran Windows 2000 on a Pentium 166 with 64 MB RAM. It was not too bad, as long as you stayed away from starting Microsoft Office.
 
IIRC there's a new cable around that provides the best of both XE and XM cable worlds, can't recall what it's known as, though. There's also switchable adapters (this is what I have) that do both modes with a re-jumpering.
 
In MS-DOS or similar, you probably will need to add the /U parameter to skip the checking of current format:

format b: /u /f:360

However you should be aware that a 1571 drive can not (*) read PC floppy disks, and the same is true in the other direction. In order to transfer data to and from a Commodore floppy disk, there are several alternative methods of which the X-series cables are the most common and easiest to get. If you run MS-DOS on your Pentium computer, you could get an XE1541 cable. If you run some Windows NT derivate (**) or Linux, you will want an XM1541 cable which is almost the same except two wires are swapped.

As a side note, back in the old days I found that floppy disks once used on a PC were almost impossible to reformat and use on e.g. a C64. Your milage may vary, but still to this day I try to keep apart disks used with a MFM encoding floppy drive and disks used with a GCR encoding drive. It may not make sense but we all have our little ticks and tricks - this is one of mine. :-D

(*) Ok, you can make an internal hardware modification and use Big Blue Reader, at least on a C128 but that might be a little out of scope here.

(**) I once ran Windows 2000 on a Pentium 166 with 64 MB RAM. It was not too bad, as long as you stayed away from starting Microsoft Office.

I've got 1541 disks. Use in a 1571
 
IIRC there's a new cable around that provides the best of both XE and XM cable worlds, can't recall what it's known as, though. There's also switchable adapters (this is what I have) that do both modes with a re-jumpering.

What'S
 
I am not aware of this cable Raven mentions, but if you are interested about the X-series cables, you can visit this site:
http://sta.c64.org/xcables.html

This page is maintained by Kovács Balázs, i.e. one of your Hungarian landsmen which would simplify a bit if you feel the need to contact him personally about something, e.g. ask if he still has any cables for sale.
 
I am not aware of this cable Raven mentions, but if you are interested about the X-series cables, you can visit this site:
http://sta.c64.org/xcables.html

This page is maintained by Kovács Balázs, i.e. one of your Hungarian landsmen which would simplify a bit if you feel the need to contact him personally about something, e.g. ask if he still has any cables for sale.

If I recall properly the XA1541 (mentioned on that very page http://sta.c64.org/xa1541.html) is the one I was thinking of. It's supposed to be compatible in all of the XM and XE situations and *more*.
 
Hm, ok. I thought the XA cable only was useful with the handful of motherboards that has a non-standard parallel port which doesn't handle XE/XM cables. Then again, the only application I'm aware of that doesn't handle the XM cable would be the free version of 64HDD. I think for example Star Commander handles any cable.

The question is though if this is what DataSette is trying to do, transfer Commodore software from his PC.
 
Hm, ok. I thought the XA cable only was useful with the handful of motherboards that has a non-standard parallel port which doesn't handle XE/XM cables. Then again, the only application I'm aware of that doesn't handle the XM cable would be the free version of 64HDD. I think for example Star Commander handles any cable.

The question is though if this is what DataSette is trying to do, transfer Commodore software from his PC.

No.
I use just a disk if i geted in the net an 5.25" floppy drive. And i trying a C64 1541 floppy. IT'S NOT WORKING!!!
1block=?MB
 
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