Text 310, 90 rader
Skriven 2006-05-30 07:32:52 av Mike Luther (1:117/3001.0)
    Kommentar till text 306 av Ben Ritchey (1:393/68)
Ärende: Re: Convert CPM/86 to DOS diskettes?
============================================
Hello Ben ..

 BR> Boot up CP/M under DOS and copy to C: <g> I think I 
 BR> have a 2.2 emulator around
 BR> here somewhere ...

Now this might be just the way I need to solve this thing.  I have two Z100's
and tons of ZDS stuff including the hard disks which are for these two
classics.  But at this point neither of them is 'working'.  I also have a Heath
H89 pure floppy creation, but it also isn't working. One of the projects is
supposed to be to get the Z120 fixed and per the other gent's suggestion, use
the Heath program to do what I originally did so long ago to move from CPM to
first Heath, then .. to the MDOS for the whole show.

However, the need for access to a few files on these few disks is ahead of the
fixit project.

OK, if you do have an emulator and I can get a copy of it, then the next issue
seems to pop up out of the rabbit patch!  I've got one more classic computer
around here that is a DOS box, a Heath 386 unit if my memory is correct.  And
it is hard drive oriented as well.  I tried it a couple months back and it will
boot.  But you have to reset the CMOS every time you boot it.  In the cursory
'what do I do' question I asked on it, where is the BIOS battery that I looked
for and did not find, I got an answer.  The thought is that it has one of these
big BIOS modules with the built-in battery in it.  Haven't taken that whole
thing apart to see if I can either replace it, somehow, or maybe use an
external BIOS battery dongle, which I do have around here, to crutch it along.

If I can use this creature, then what you are suggesting is that I could then
use the emulator with this DOS computer?  And then we hit the next question.

Yes, I still have a plug-in pair of 8" floppy drives for the Z120 box. That's
what was on it way back when.  Also, since the Heath world was where I grew up,
there is the issue of the earlier 5-1/4" floppy drives and the diskette density
of the models.  I do know what density these floppies are writtne to as it's
been my habit all these years to tag each diskette where that could be a
problem with an identifying lable.

OK .. if I boot to DOS, then are we talking creating the CONFIG.SYS and
whatever to, perhaps, try to patch whatever floppy disk drive might be required
to this later Heath DOS computer?  And thence to get a copy from that added
drive to the C: drive and out to a modern day medium?

Or, are we perhaps better off to use what will be the BBS program for Fido that
I'm sure is on this older Heath DOS box,  Connect to the Fido interface here
with a modem.  Send the file data that way?

I also have paid for copies of LapLink and so on for DOS.  I actually have
LapLink on the modern boxes.  It is serial cable or parallel connectible.  And
the simplest thing would be to move the data to the real modern world from the
Heath DOS box this way?

Since you mentioned the emulator, you've also opened up a huge other
possibility for this job!  I'm a solid OS/2 operation here.  Which, of course,
has DOS in it that is, in my opinion, far better than DOS, grin! I wonder? 
Will this Emu (chuckle) pull it's head out and run under DOS in OS/2?  If so,
something Will Honea suggested in another post from months ago when I was
contemplating things like this is germain.

Will tells me that under OS/2, if you properly modify the floppy diskette
device driver with the correct command line additional parameters, you can
cajol OS/2 into customizing the floppy diskette interface for whatever track
and sector size is needed!  He told me that he has been able to actually attach
the old 8" floppy disk drives to the current OS/2 operating system operations
in this way!  That message after which I sort of gave up the original munch of
trying to get the old Z120 back working.

Now .. grin .. in that you've mentioned the issue of the Emu running under DOS,
I'm wondering BIG time here!

Might the real simplest way to play this stunt is to take a current OS/2 box? 
Cram the floppy disk drive track and sector count for even the oldest possible
interface I need for, say, the 5-1/4 inch floppy drive in the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS? 
Plug it in and boot up OS/2?  Then run the Emu you suggest under OS/2?  And get
to see CPM/86 run that way?  Or, even,try to find the Heath program cited by
the other contributor here and try to run it under DOS under OS/2 to get this
task done?

Thoughts, if you have time?



--> Sleep well; OS/2's still awake! ;)

Mike @ 1:117/3001



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