[net.micro.cbm] Using CP/M on the Commodore 128

jds@rayssd.UUCP (Jeffrey D. Struven) (07/21/86)

   My brother recently bought a Commodore 128.  He messing around with
CP/M and is having a little trouble with it.  It seems that there was a
CP/M disk included with his computer.  It has a bunch of useful programs
on it.  Some on side 1 and the rest on side 2, every time he wants to
change the date or use the functions that are not on the boot side of the
disk he has to flip the disk.  This doesn't make any sense to me because
I understood that the 1571 disk drive has to heads.  Shouldn't the disk
drive be able to access both sides of the disk without having to flip
the disk.  I am not too familiar with the C-128 so any information on
this dilemma would be greatly appreciated.

				    Thanks,
                                 Jeff Struven


    (Please excuse any random entries you see from me in netnews.  This
     should be my first legitimate entry but I've made many a mistake
     in trying to learn the ins and outs of netnews.  I apologize for
     any inconvenience it might have caused.)

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prindle@nadc (07/22/86)

From: prindle@NADC

Yes, Jeff, the 1571 drive can read/write both sides of the diskette in CP/M
mode.  The software distributed with the C128 assumes that the user may not
have a 1571, but only a 1541, thus uses only single side format.  Tell your
brother to format a new disk (enter: FORMAT), selecting C128-Double Sided
format.  Then he can use PIP E:=A:*.* to copy all the stuff from one side
of the original, and repeat that to copy all the stuff from the other side.
The resulting disk will contain everything and be double sided.
Frank Prindle
Prindle@NADC.arpa

grwalter@watmath.UUCP (Fred Walter) (07/22/86)

In article <2459@rayssd.UUCP> jds@rayssd.UUCP (Jeffrey D. Struven) writes:
>
>   My brother recently bought a Commodore 128.  He messing around with
>CP/M and is having a little trouble with it.  It seems that there was a
>CP/M disk included with his computer.  It has a bunch of useful programs
>on it.  Some on side 1 and the rest on side 2, every time he wants to
>change the date or use the functions that are not on the boot side of the
>disk he has to flip the disk.  This doesn't make any sense to me because
>I understood that the 1571 disk drive has to heads.  Shouldn't the disk
>drive be able to access both sides of the disk without having to flip
>the disk.  I am not too familiar with the C-128 so any information on
>this dilemma would be greatly appreciated.
>
>				    Thanks,
>                                 Jeff Struven

The disk was organized like that so that people without a 1571, but who had
a 1541, could use CP/M. The first thing I did when I started to play around
with CP/M was to copy both sides of the disk onto one 1571 CP/M format
disk. (I think they even tell you how to do this in the User's Guide that
you get with the C128).

					fred