Coco III & HXC SD emulator

[mlaferriere]

Hello Folks.

Does anyone have a guide or walkthrough for using an HXC floppy emulator with the CoCo's? I am able to make a blank disk (image) for the HXC, format it, Dir it, save to it etc. But once back on the PC I don't appear to be able to read from or write to the HFE file?

I have the opposite issue when using a download DSK image for the CoCo. I can see it from Windows, write to it etc, extract the .BAS file(s) but am unable to read them on the CoCo.

Is there an intermediate step I need to do to transfer files between a workable HFE image and a downloaded DSK?

Somewhat on the same subject, does the stock controller dos only support 35 track SS/DD? I seem to recall being able to use 1.2MB drives or was that OS/9?

 

[mlaferriere]

Also, since the DSK images are much larger than the HFE file I created, I imagine they are in an 80 track DS/HD or at least 40 Track DS/DD format which the Coco may not be expecting...?

I only have the FD502 disk interface on the Coco III at this point which then plugs into the HXC Floppy emulator.

 

[NF6X]

You are correct that the stock Disk Extended Color Basic only supports a 35 track SS/DD format. Back in the early 80s, my dad got an aftermarket disk drive system for our Color Computer from J&M, with a 40 track DS/DD Teac FD-55B drive. The J&M ROM supported the normal Radio Shack 35 track SS/DD format, as well as J&M's own 40 track SS/DD and 40 track DS/DD formats.

I believe that OS/9 can handle >35 tracks and double-sided drives, but I'm not an OS/9 expert yet.