[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Conversion CP/M --> MS-DOS

lily@esat.kuleuven.ac.be (10/20/89)

Hello,

I've got a problem with CP/M diskettes. Somebody gave me a set of CP/M
diskettes (presumably from a Tandy 3000 or so), and asked me to try to
copy the text files that are on them to a MS-DOS diskette. I know of a
program called UNIFORM to temporarily change the drive parameters but
the real trouble is that the CP/M floppy's have 96 tracks. 
Without a 96T drive I can only think of one way to solve the problem,
connecting the printer port of the CP/M system to a PC and then print 
the files, capturing them on the PC's side with a communication program 
like Mirror or Procomm. This seems to be a very time consuming solution,
and I am not sure that it would work (not mentionning that I don't have 
a CP/M computer at my disposition).

Any help, please?

Dirk.  
Catholic University of Louvain
BELGIUM

EMail : lily@esat.kuleuven.ac.be

ritchie@hpldola.HP.COM (Dave Ritchie) (10/25/89)

>program called UNIFORM to temporarily change the drive parameters but
>the real trouble is that the CP/M floppy's have 96 tracks. 

  If you have access to a AT with a 1.2Mbyte drive, it will read 96 tpi
diskettes using UNIFORM.

				Dave

alz@tc.fluke.COM (Al Weiss) (10/26/89)

In article <1685.253ee834@esat.kuleuven.ac.be> lily@esat.kuleuven.ac.be writes:
>I've got a problem with CP/M diskettes. Somebody gave me a set of CP/M
>diskettes (presumably from a Tandy 3000 or so), and asked me to try to
>copy the text files that are on them to a MS-DOS diskette. I know of a
>program called UNIFORM to temporarily change the drive parameters but
>the real trouble is that the CP/M floppy's have 96 tracks. 
>Without a 96T drive I can only think of one way to solve the problem,
>connecting the printer port of the CP/M system to a PC and then print 
>the files, capturing them on the PC's side with a communication program 
>like Mirror or Procomm. This seems to be a very time consuming solution,
>and I am not sure that it would work (not mentionning that I don't have 
>a CP/M computer at my disposition).

There are various flavors of UNIFORM that run on many different computers,
both MSDOS and CPM, which allow you to copy from one format to gobs of others.
But if you do not have any machine with a 96 TPI drive, then you are in
trouble anyway.  If you still have access to the CPM machine with the 96TPI
drive, then get a version of UNIFORM for that machine, and it will write your
MSDOS floppies.  If you can find some other third machine, any OS, with 96TPI
and with UNIFORM on it then you can read the Tandy disks into the native
format and then in a second step write out onto an MSDOS floppy.  UNIFORM is
much preferable to a comm program when you have mass amounts to copy.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Al Weiss                   alz@tc.fluke.com                      206-356-5252
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.  MS269E   P.O.B. 9090   Everett, WA 98206-9090  USA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

wek@point.UUCP (Bill Kuykendall) (10/28/89)

>I've got a problem with CP/M diskettes. Somebody gave me a set of CP/M
>diskettes (presumably from a Tandy 3000 or so), and asked me to try to
>copy the text files that are on them to a MS-DOS diskette. I know of a
>program called UNIFORM to temporarily change the drive parameters but
>the real trouble is that the CP/M floppy's have 96 tracks. 

The 1.2 meg AT drives write 96 TPI just fine.  I've used Media Master to
write to Televideo 1603 disks many times.

---------------
Bill Kuykendall
Chicago, IL USA

jec@nesac2.att.com (John Carter ATLN SADM) (11/02/89)

In article <1685.253ee834@esat.kuleuven.ac.be> lily@esat.kuleuven.ac.be writes:
>I've got a problem with CP/M diskettes. Somebody gave me a set of CP/M
>diskettes (presumably from a Tandy 3000 or so), and asked me to try to
  ----------------------------^^^^^^^^^^
  This is an AT class MSDOS machine, not a CP/M machine.  It uses 1.2 meg
  high density floppies.  If it's a ** Tandy 2000 **, it's an 80186 MSDOS
  machine that uses 720K (96 tpi) 5.25" floppies.  You can read these
  disks on a 1.2meg drive.  I bought the Microsoft Pascal compiler for
  the Tandy 2000 for $10 (registration card still in the box) because the
  2000 is an orphan and not compatible with 'real' MSDOS machines.  I read
  the disks on the AT at work and copied them to 360K floppies.  Works great.
  I read this twice before thinking of the 2000 and its 720K disks, and I've
  been there before :-(.  Wonder how many other people don't remember that
  Tandy and CP/M don't mix - Pickles and Trout or Montezuma were the sources
  for CP/M on the Model 1, 2, 3, and 4, not Radio Shack.
>copy the text files that are on them to a MS-DOS diskette. I know of a
>program called UNIFORM to temporarily change the drive parameters but
>the real trouble is that the CP/M floppy's have 96 tracks.
  -----------------------------------------------^^^^^^^^^

If the original poster will contact me, I'll try to help him.
-- 
USnail: John Carter, AT&T, 401 W. Peachtree, FLOC 2932-6, Atlanta GA 30308
Video:	...att!nesac2!jec   ...attmail!jecarter    Voice: 404+581-6239
The machine belongs to the company.  The opinions are mine.