Help with Memotech MTX disc format

anvil1man · **Joined:** Tue May 17, 2011 6:37 pm **Posts:** 30

Email bounced back. Not to worry, the 3.5" discs are being read (so far) I will have now try and image them all and then play to see what does and does not work.

anvil1man · **Joined:** Tue May 17, 2011 6:37 pm **Posts:** 30

Hi Jeff, I was wondering if there is a way to recover files from an image that suffers from bdos errors when used on the hxc2001. On the mtx disc itself it is often possible to push past the error and access the files that are ok but this is not seemingly possible on the images. Secondly I am looking at trying to create a twin drive system with the intention to create new images/discs and put across all files that are related, how do I go about creating a blank floppy to be able to be formatted? I can see the option on the software but it does not make much sense to me on how I set the settings up, any hope would be appreciated. Jim

Jeff · **Posted:** Tue May 24, 2011 9:01 pm

anvil1man wrote:

Hi Jeff, I was wondering if there is a way to recover files from an image that suffers from bdos errors when used on the hxc2001. On the mtx disc itself it is often possible to push past the error and access the files that are ok but this is not seemingly possible on the images.

mhhh what is a bdos error ?

anvil1man wrote:

Secondly I am looking at trying to create a twin drive system with the intention to create new images/discs and put across all files that are related, how do I go about creating a blank floppy to be able to be formatted? I can see the option on the software but it does not make much sense to me on how I set the settings up, any hope would be appreciated. Jim

The best way is to duplicate some MTX hfe files and use the same format as already present on the HFE files.

anvil1man · **Joined:** Tue May 17, 2011 6:37 pm **Posts:** 30

Hi, a bdos error according to the MTX manual is where there is a read error on the disc. Often on a real MTX when it comes up you can simply pressa key and get past it to be able to access some of the files from the discs themselves, this does not happen with the hfe files I have tried.

When you say to copy them and use the settings? not sure exactly what you are meaning here. I can simply copy the file in windows but am wanting a blank disc to be able to use, I hope to be able to set the MTX up to run with twin drives via the Hcx and use a new blank one to move filea around with. Unless of course there is some way of doing this with the images via windows then I would not need to do this on the real MTX?

Jim

K6dude · **Joined:** Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:57 pm **Posts:** 2

Hi all,

Is there any way of getting the 3 MTX formats implemented in the HXC "default list" as others have been?

I too have an MTX, but have the 5.25" Type 3 drives.

As I understand from reading this thread, it looks like I have to read the MTX disks on a PC with the reading software (in the raw image type for example?), and a 5.25" drive, then copy the images onto an SD card for use in the HXc when it is connected to the MTX system?

Regards and thanks

K6 :wink:

Jeff · **Posted:** Tue Oct 11, 2011 9:14 pm

K6dude wrote:

Hi all,

Is there any way of getting the 3 MTX formats implemented in the HXC "default list" as others have been?

mhh what is the "3 MTX formats" and the HXC "default list" ?

K6dude · **Joined:** Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:57 pm **Posts:** 2

To quote The Anvilman early in this thread..."Generally Memotech used three formats. Type 2 160k, Type 3 (most common) 320k and Type 7 640k (both 5.25" & 3.5" drives used this format)"

Is there a special "file type" that is to be used by the Memotech, such as .mtx .fdx .sdx .mem etc...or should we just keep using the raw file type? That is what I mean about being "added to the list" of supported machines....specific file types for the Memotech for example.

Like .ADF is for the Amiga etc.

Regards

K6dude

Jeff · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:19 pm

K6dude wrote:

To quote The Anvilman early in this thread..."Generally Memotech used three formats. Type 2 160k, Type 3 (most common) 320k and Type 7 640k (both 5.25" & 3.5" drives used this format)"

Is there a special "file type" that is to be used by the Memotech, such as .mtx .fdx .sdx .mem etc...or should we just keep using the raw file type? That is what I mean about being "added to the list" of supported machines....specific file types for the Memotech for example.

Like .ADF is for the Amiga etc.

Regards

K6dude

mhh in fact i don't know.
What do you subject ? is there a memotech file format commonly used ?

anvil1man · **Joined:** Tue May 17, 2011 6:37 pm **Posts:** 30

Update with the MTX disk info. I have managed to capture quite a few images using a 5.25" drive in my PC and the software provided. There is a problem when trying to write back to a disc using the HXC2001 what I never solved (It was not that important compared to backing the already iffy discs I had left) BUt what I would like to be able to do is provide these image files to a friend who has written an MTX emulator which can now deal with the main disc formats used by Memotech at the time. How would you go about reading in these images so they can be used in the emulator?

Any advice on a good place to start would be appreciated.

This is a link to Andy's site; here he goes into detail on the various MTX disc formats used and it may provide the info you need to help/advise.

http://www.nyangau.org/memu/memu.htm

Cheers, Jim

Jeff · **Posted:** Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:03 pm

anvil1man wrote:

Update with the MTX disk info. I have managed to capture quite a few images using a 5.25" drive in my PC and the software provided. There is a problem when trying to write back to a disc using the HXC2001 what I never solved (It was not that important compared to backing the already iffy discs I had left) BUt what I would like to be able to do is provide these image files to a friend who has written an MTX emulator which can now deal with the main disc formats used by Memotech at the time. How would you go about reading in these images so they can be used in the emulator?

Any advice on a good place to start would be appreciated.

This is a link to Andy's site; here he goes into detail on the various MTX disc formats used and it may provide the info you need to help/advise.

http://www.nyangau.org/memu/memu.htm

Cheers, Jim

if the emulator use a raw format, just export hfe files to the raw/img format with the hxc software.

stevendt · **Joined:** Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:33 am **Posts:** 16

Hi,

did anyone ever get the floppy emulator to write to Memotech formatted disks?

regards
Dave

Jeff · **Posted:** Mon Apr 22, 2013 6:19 pm

stevendt wrote:

Hi,

did anyone ever get the floppy emulator to write to Memotech formatted disks?

regards
Dave

Why ? you got some issues ?

stevendt · **Joined:** Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:33 am **Posts:** 16

Hi Jeff,

thanks for the reply.

I wanted to buy one of these for my Memotech FDX system. As you probably know, they are not very common machines and the only person that I know that has one and has tried to use it with the emulator can read, but not write, Memotech formats. He started this thread, and so far, has not been able to write successfully.

I would like to know that this is not going to be a problem before I take the plunge and buy one

regards
Dave

Jeff · **Posted:** Tue Apr 23, 2013 8:09 am

stevendt wrote:

Hi Jeff,

thanks for the reply.

I wanted to buy one of these for my Memotech FDX system. As you probably know, they are not very common machines and the only person that I know that has one and has tried to use it with the emulator can read, but not write, Memotech formats. He started this thread, and so far, has not been able to write successfully.

I would like to know that this is not going to be a problem before I take the plunge and buy one

regards
Dave

Should not be a problem.
But without any details (an HFE file, some error codes...), it will be hard to me help anyone. What error he got ?
(and this story was years ago... Things are probably different with the actual firmware...)

stevendt · **Joined:** Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:33 am **Posts:** 16

Hi Jeff,

I know that he still has the problem, I'll try to get more info

Regards
Dave

HxC Floppy Drive Emulator

Help with Memotech MTX disc format

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