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COPY.COM for 8" disks

Nama

Veteran Member
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
851
Location
New Zealand
Hi,
I want to back up a small stack of 8" floppies, so I was wondering if someone could point me in the direction of a known good copy of 'DISKCOPY.COM' or 'COPY.COM' that works with 8" floppies.

I know both my 8" drives can read and write fine, but for some reason the 'COPY.COM' programs I've found don't seem to work, as it produces a non bootable disk. I was wondering if this was because the copy program I'm using was .5.25" specific???

Thanks.

Phil
 
If you're talking about a CP/M program, then your COPY.COM may not copy boot tracks. A whole-disk copy program is provided by individual systems vendors, not by DRI, so the situation varies all over the place.

If you've got your 8" hooked to a PC, try using Imagedisk (IMD), which usually does a pretty good job of things.
 
I have diskcopy.com but I can't say if it would work with 8" disks as I've only used it on 3½" and 5¼" disks. It's a DOS program and it generates images..
 
If you're talking about a CP/M program, then your COPY.COM may not copy boot tracks. A whole-disk copy program is provided by individual systems vendors, not by DRI, so the situation varies all over the place.

Yes CP/M.
Hummm...I was hoping that wasn't the case. Is it controller or drive specific?
 
I have diskcopy.com but I can't say if it would work with 8" disks as I've only used it on 3½" and 5¼" disks. It's a DOS program and it generates images..

Not sure that is what I'm looking for. I'm after a CP/M program that can duplicate a disk in drive A to drive B.
The System is a SOL-20 with Morrow DJ2D controller with NEC 8881 (FD1165 mechanisms) Drive.

Thanks

Phil
 
This is an image generator and is from Digital Research and runs under DOS. I believe it originally was part of their DOS release but it runs fine under MS-DOS. It seems to generate (and restore) Rawrite compatible images.
 
Yes CP/M.
Hummm...I was hoping that wasn't the case. Is it controller or drive specific?

Probably, yes to both. The issue is that CP/M doesn't make the physical aspects of the whole disk visible to applications. So, the boot track may or may not follow the same scheme that the rest of the disk follows--or not. On the other hand, if you can boot from the same format floppy that you're trying to copy, then the prospect of success gets to be better. Even if that doesn't work, you can always try the MOVCPM/SYSGEN method shown in the alteration guide.
 
It sounds like you are just having trouble with the copying of the boot tracks. You should be able to use the getsys and putsys programs to accomplish this. I don't know if Morrow included those programs with their distribution, but the idea is that getsys brings the first two track from the floppy into memory, and putsys writes it back to the first two tracks. You would have to copy all the files over from drive a to b with copy.com, then run getsys on drive a, and swap the disk from drive b to drive a and run putsys. That should make your copied disk bootable.
 
Peripheral Interchange Program (PIP) was a utility to transfer files on and between devices. Do you have PIP on a system disk?

SYNTAX:
PIP destination=source[switches]

Option Switches: Description (n - number, s - string)
A Copy files with the archive attribute not set and set the archive attribute after the file is copied.
B Buffer input until the buffer is full or an ASCII DC3 (XOFF 13h) character then write the buffer.
Dn Truncate input text line to n characters in length.
E Echo all data to the console device as it is copied.
F Remove form feed characters (0Ch) before writing destination.
Gn Look for source file under user area code n.
H Indicates an Intel hex file transfer. The stream is checked for correct hex format. If the format is not valid the copy is aborted.
I Drop "00:" records in a hex file transfer.
L Convert all upper case ASCII characters to lower case characters.
N1 Add two digit sequence numbers "xx:" to each line of text.
N2 Add sequence numbers "xxxxxxxx, TAB" to each line of text.
O Indicates a binary transfer ASCII SUB (^Z 1Ah) is not the end of the file marker.
Pn Insert a form feed every n line of text.
Qs Stop the copy when the character string s is written to the destination.
R Read the file even if the file has the SYS attribute set.
Ss Skip the input data until the string s is seen.
Tn Replace tabs with spaces to simulate tab settings every n characters. If n is not set a value of 8 is used.
U Convert all lower case ASCII characters to upper case characters.
V Perform a read verify of each block written to a destination file.
W Ignore the read-only file attribute on the destination file and do not prompt the user.
List of options that can be used in a PIP transfer command. If multiple options are used options are separated by a space character.

Device Direction Description
CON: source/destination current console device
LST: destination current printer device
RDR: source current reader device
PUN: destination current punch device

PRN: destination same as LST: with options [T8NP]
NUL: source 40 null bytes to advance punch tape
EOF: source single end of file character ^Z
INP: source user code at 103h in pip
OUT: destination user code at 106h in pip

TTY: source/destination hard copy terminal
CRT: source/destination video terminal device
UC1: source/destination user terminal device
LPT: destination line printer device
UL1: destination user printer device
PTR: source paper tape reader
UR1: source user reader 1
UR2: source user reader 2
PTP: destination paper tape punch
UP1: destination user punch 1
UP2: destination user punch 2


pip B:=A:[v]
pip B:=A:*.com[o v]

But, I seem to remember it being [ov] from my past experience with CP/M 2.2.

Larry
 
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Great!
Lots of things to try here.
Can't seem to find gutsy or putsys anywhere on the net!

Yes, I do have PIP, but I didn't know it could copy the boot tracks. Can it?

Thanks again

Phil
 
Thanks, Chuck(G). I did forget about using "sysgen" to copy the Boot Track(s) so the floppy would be bootable, and copying all the files with "pip".

Larry
 
Maybe I should take a step backwards and describe my problem, and what I want to achieve.

1) I have recently created a boot floppy for my SOL20+Morrow controller combo. I created this disk using SYSGEN.
As I move forward and populate the disk with programs, I wanted to be able to make a quick duplicate in case something goes wrong. (I do have a master floppy with just CP/M on it of course as an ultimate backup).

2) This is where it gets tricky as I'm not sure whats happening. I have some floppies for an IMSAI. I don't yet have the machine as it's in transit, on it's way to me. However I wanted to back up the disks I have, as I only have a single copy of each. In the mix I only 2 floppies labelled 'IMSAI CP/M 2.2 (128)', and backing these up to some new disks would be high priority. I'd hate to loose them as I'd then have to start from scratch ,boot strapping the IMSAI, and creating a new boot floppy.
I could probably use PIP to do this though.

Having said that, when I do a DIR listing on the two disks labelled 'IMSAI CP/M 2.2 (128)' I am unable to see anything. The SOL just seems to freeze up. If I do a DIR listing on the other IMSAI floppies (the ones NOT labelled CP/M), I am able to see the contents, and copy and launch them.
Trying to boot from one of the IMSAI CP/M disks also does nothing, and again everything seems to hang with the drive LED stuck in the READ state as before.
So basically I can't yet get anything off these disks. I wanted to try a COPY program in the hopes it would work in backing up these disks.

So that's where I was as of last night. I'm not sure what this all means. Maybe the two CP/M disk are bad, but that seems very unlikely considering all the other disks look good, either that or I'm just very unlucky.

One other thought is that the CP/M disks are in a format that my drive can not read, and is different from the other IMSAI program disks...just conjecture.

Any thoughts on why this should be?

Thanks again

Phil
 
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I have to admit that this one had me stumped. The original IMSAI 8800 floppy controller used standard A1 3740 format floppies--and at least for version 1.3-1.4 had the standard DRI SSSD/Intel MDS distribution layout--and, I suspect that 2.2 floppies are similarly formatted. I can't see how that would hang your system when doing a DIR.

On the other hand, if these were hard sectored (32-sector) floppies, I can see how one of those would drive a soft-sector controller nuts.

Since you have the IMSAI box on the way, do you know anything about what it uses for a floppy controller?
 
Not sure that is what I'm looking for. I'm after a CP/M program that can duplicate a disk in drive A to drive B.
The System is a SOL-20 with Morrow DJ2D controller with NEC 8881 (FD1165 mechanisms) Drive.

Thanks

Phil

Phil:

I have a program, DJCOPY.COM, which came with a pile of disks for an IMSAI, with a Morrow DJ2D controller. I've attached it to this message - see if it's any help.

Mike
http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
 

Attachments

  • djcopy.zip
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On the other hand, if these were hard sectored (32-sector) floppies, I can see how one of those would drive a soft-sector controller nuts.

Since you have the IMSAI box on the way, do you know anything about what it uses for a floppy controller?

I believe it's a Versafloppy 1 card.
 
I tried DJCOPY. It launches, and asks if what kind of copy you want (SYSTEM, FILES ONLY, ALL), but unfortunately whatever option you choose, it seems to do nothing. Sometimes dropping back to the CP/M prompt...It certainly looked promising :-(
Thanks anyway.
 
I tried DJCOPY. It launches, and asks if what kind of copy you want (SYSTEM, FILES ONLY, ALL), but unfortunately whatever option you choose, it seems to do nothing. Sometimes dropping back to the CP/M prompt...It certainly looked promising :-(
Thanks anyway.

It may be a problem with the ROM address setting for the DJ-2D. The system I got this from had the DJ-2D ROM at 0F800H. If you were to disassemble DJCOPY.COM and look for the ROM calls, you might be able to patch it for your ROM location.
 
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