saba@ihlpl.UUCP (Sabalaskey) (06/11/86)
I'm having trouble formatting a disk under OS-9 for my coco II. I would appreciate any help. Also, does anyone know of an easy way to change the disk device driver to get 40 tracks & double sided support??? My story continues ..... I just got my disk drives for my coco II. I have two Teac 40 track, double density, double sided drives, and the new J&M controller (switchable DOS) with both JDOS and RSDOS. I also have the OS-9 version 1 (1.01.00 I think). If if format a disk using DSKINI0 or DSKINI1 from JDOS or RSDOS basic, it works just fine. However, when I use OS-9 format command, the drive steps through formatting but seems to barf when it writes the system info. I get error #245 (write error) every time. I tried numerous diskettes. I also have some old 40 track single sided drives (complete with their own cables). I tried these too and I got the same problem. By chance, I also had two J&M controllers to try, both of which failed the same way. From all this experimenting, it seems not to be the disk drives or diskettes or the controller. What's left??? The OS-9 master diskette (I can't make a backup because of this problem), the multipak interface and the computer itself. The computer has not seemed flakey before (didn't use it much before the disk drives came. I can do dir's, mdir's, load's, and zillions of other OS-9 commands, but not format. Is there something in OS-9 format program that is picky about J&M controllers?? Anyone have any other ideas?? PS: if you know how to patch OS-9 to get 40 tracks & double density easily, please let me know. I have only been playing with OS-9 for a total of 4 hours now, so I don't know all that much yet (Yes, I'm trying to save myself the work of figuring out which bit to set in which byte where!) Unfortunately, I can't do this until I figure on how to make a backup of the system master. Bruce Sabalaskey ihnp4!ihlpl!saba
neals@tekigm2.UUCP (Neal Sedell) (06/13/86)
In article <998@ihlpl.UUCP>, saba@ihlpl.UUCP (Sabalaskey) writes: > I'm having trouble formatting a disk under OS-9 for my coco II. > I would appreciate any help. Also, does anyone know of an easy way > to change the disk device driver to get 40 tracks & double sided > support??? > > > My story continues ..... > > I just got my disk drives for my coco II. I have two Teac 40 track, > double density, double sided drives, and the new J&M controller > (switchable DOS) with both JDOS and RSDOS. I also have the OS-9 > version 1 (1.01.00 I think). If if format a disk using DSKINI0 > or DSKINI1 from JDOS or RSDOS basic, it works just fine. > > However, when I use OS-9 format command, the drive steps through > formatting but seems to barf when it writes the system info. I get > error #245 (write error) every time. I tried numerous diskettes. > . . . . . Well, this is quite interesting. This sounded just like the problem the COCO/OS-9 user at my friendly local RS store was having. I just called him up and it turns out that he has just the opposite problem, using OS-9 everything is OK but RS-DOS won't format! He has two CDC DS/DD 40T drives. Luckily for him, he can format under OS-9 and then wipe out the RS-DOS directory sectors and use the disk. Going the other way would be a real pain.... I would think. Is there a floppy controller expert in the house? I built my own from the RS schematic using a slightly different WD 279x chip and it worked, intermittently :-( I finally gave up and bought a HD Special- ties controller and haven't had a single problem since. Good luck! Neal "finally got my 02.00.00 OS-9" Sedell -- {zehntel | uw-beaver | reed | hp-pcd | hplabs | decvax}!tektronix!tekigm!neals
jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (06/17/86)
I have heard that there are
problems using the J&M controller and
OS-9 under JDOS. I think you might
be successful if you use Radio Shack
DOS.
Also, as long as you are using
Color Computer format, I think you can
format with DSKINIn and then backup
your OS-9 disk under Radio Shack DOS's
backup command. This is the recommended
backup procedure for all the floppy
disk software, such as Dynacalc, which
are actually OS-9 system disks.
Understandably, you'd probably want to
format and backup under OS-9, but this
much should help in the interim. Note
that if format loads under OS-9, it's
been CRC verified and is not likely
to be the problem unless you have
updated the CRC manually at some point.
I'm assuming you haven't done this.
Cheers! -- Jim O.
--
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
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