pjm@spuxll.UUCP (05/10/84)
If you are reading this article to get some answers boy are
you going to be disappointed. All I've got is more questions.
First of all does anybody have any information on the various
disk formats that Commodore has used. They seem to have
generic names like 4040 format, 2040 format, and 8050 format
in addition to whatever format the 1541 uses. A call to the
CBM technical info line revealed that these formats are all
at least "slightly" different, but some combinations are only
read compatible, while others are read and write compatible,
while still others are totally incompatible. Unfortunately
I have been unable to ascertain what combinations fall in what
catagories. The manual that came with my disk drive says
in the chart on page 55 that an ascii A is written in sector 18,
block 0, byte 2, and this indicates 4040 format. Does this
mean that a 1541 writes 4040 format, or do they both write an
A but are different, if so how different?
The ultimate goal of all this drivel is to attempt to
salvage some disks for my 64 including the data on them.
The format character on these disks is an E which CBM says
they "think" indicates 8050 format. When I asked CBM how
to recover these disks they said use the Wedge N command
(re-header the disk). When I got off the floor I told the guy
I was looking for a less volitale (sp) way of recovering the
DATA on the disks.
Ultimately if I could get enough data on the different formats
I would consider taking a stab at writing a utility to convert
from one format to another. Incidentally I got the idea for doing
this from the error description of the DOS MISMATCH error on page
46 of the 1541 manual. The that says that there is a utility
available to help do this. It seems that this utility has now
turned into a misprint (yes, kiddies that came from CBM technical info,
and no there is no santa claus).
Seriously, the purpose here is to see if anybody has any info and
not to poke fun at Commodore. I enjoy my 64 very much, and would
buy another one immediatley if anything happened to it. I do
hope that somebody has some of this info, and sends mail, phones,
posts, or otherwise communicates some info.
Paul Maioriello
AT&T ISL
spuxll!pjm
(201) 561-7100 x2328chris@proper.UUCP (05/25/84)
paul and others, i think that we all should go onto motherboard and yell at bruce takahashi and joel rubin for badmouthing VIP. the phone number is 415-352-8442 you will need to go into the discussion section, and then into discussion #14, i have entered 3 messages 30 lines long each talking about most ofthe features of the VIP terminal, but they still are persistent, i could understand bruce as he has written his own term pgm, and for him to say something is beyond his capability whould be like trying to get a moose to give birth to an elephant! the number once again is 415-352-8442 THX chris a.k.a. John