Cromemco format

HxC Floppy emulator support for all others computers...
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bah
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:17 am

Cromemco format

Post by bah »

Hi,
I have been trying to get the HxC working on IMD images from a Cromemco system (C-10 in this case). I am thinking it might be due to the first track/side 0 being formatted in SD while the rest are formatted in DD. Is the HxC capable of interchanging density formats on a single disk image? I can image the (real) disks using IMD program of Dave Dunfield - but I have never been able to write a new disk from the resultant image because my computer can read SD but can't write them. Has anyone else had this issue and is there any solution? Thanks
Brett
PS. I have images if required.

Jeff
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Re: Cromemco format

Post by Jeff »

bah wrote:Hi,
I have been trying to get the HxC working on IMD images from a Cromemco system (C-10 in this case). I am thinking it might be due to the first track/side 0 being formatted in SD while the rest are formatted in DD. Is the HxC capable of interchanging density formats on a single disk image? I can image the (real) disks using IMD program of Dave Dunfield - but I have never been able to write a new disk from the resultant image because my computer can read SD but can't write them. Has anyone else had this issue and is there any solution? Thanks
Brett
PS. I have images if required.
Hi,

Please send me the IMD image, i will have a look.

About the SD/DD mix , i have a beta firmware supporting this.

Can you read the disk on with the HxC on the Cromemco ?

bah
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:17 am

Re: Cromemco format

Post by bah »

Hi Jeff
Thanks for the response. I have an imd of the system disk (just redid it to make sure it was all ok). It seems to have read fine on the PC I use to image. I have not been able to write a disk from these images, as my floppy controller only supports reading FM and not writing (a common problem on Pentium and greater motherboards). I am hoping that the HxC will be able to become my standard "floppy" drive on the old beast of a Cromemco C-10. Cromemco used this strange mix of SD/DD (first cylinder/side 0 being SD). Once the system read the first sector of the SD cylinder it could determine what the rest of the disk was (whether SD or DD and the size (I assume 5.25 or 8'') - a few characters at the end of the sector held the details). It seems like a good idea, but no one ever supported this strange format. The HxC will hopefully breath a bit of life back into it.
Thanks for your time,
Brett
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Jeff
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Re: Cromemco format

Post by Jeff »

bah wrote:Hi Jeff
Thanks for the response. I have an imd of the system disk (just redid it to make sure it was all ok). It seems to have read fine on the PC I use to image. I have not been able to write a disk from these images, as my floppy controller only supports reading FM and not writing (a common problem on Pentium and greater motherboards). I am hoping that the HxC will be able to become my standard "floppy" drive on the old beast of a Cromemco C-10. Cromemco used this strange mix of SD/DD (first cylinder/side 0 being SD). Once the system read the first sector of the SD cylinder it could determine what the rest of the disk was (whether SD or DD and the size (I assume 5.25 or 8'') - a few characters at the end of the sector held the details). It seems like a good idea, but no one ever supported this strange format. The HxC will hopefully breath a bit of life back into it.
Thanks for your time,
Brett
But can you read this image on the Cromenco with the HxC (you should be able to read it...) ?

bah
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:17 am

Re: Cromemco format

Post by bah »

Hi,
I was able to get the HxC to work on the Cromemco C-10. The problem was the pins from the 5.25 connector of the C-10 to the 3.5inch connector on the HxC. Once that was sorted out it worked like a charm.
So if you like you can add it to the list of supported formats. As the strange SD track 0/DD rest of tracks was a standard Cromemco format it should also work for the System 3's etc.
Thanks your time.

Jeff
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Re: Cromemco format

Post by Jeff »

bah wrote:Hi,
I was able to get the HxC to work on the Cromemco C-10. The problem was the pins from the 5.25 connector of the C-10 to the 3.5inch connector on the HxC. Once that was sorted out it worked like a charm.
So if you like you can add it to the list of supported formats. As the strange SD track 0/DD rest of tracks was a standard Cromemco format it should also work for the System 3's etc.
Thanks your time.
Ok thanks for the feedback.

Can you make some pictures of this computer ?

amouses
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:41 am

Re: Cromemco format

Post by amouses »

Marcus would comment that all the photos I have for the C10 are on my website here

http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/cro ... index.html

NOW I HAVE a related question ...

I'm having a mental challenge understanding how to create a blank mixed format diskette.
I am trying to use the HXCFloppyEmulator.exe v2.0.20.1

Using the LOAD RAW IMAGE button it seems to allow me to create a custom configuration

For all Cromemco diskette formats (except the not widely used and non bootable UNIFORM format) you need to have

track 0.side0 in FM format
track <everything else> in MFM format

I dont see how to use the RAW File Format configuration screen

to do this.

Anybody?



(I do have a work around which invovles reading a Dave Dunfield Image Disk .IMD format file) and exporting as a .HFE file. However this is a total kludge.
Surely I should be able to create a mixed density format diskette. Can somebody remind me how)

thanks marcus b
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Jeff
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Re: Cromemco format

Post by Jeff »

With the lastest firwmare you can format the HFE file with the machine.

Do you have a particular disk image for this machine ?

bah
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:17 am

Re: Cromemco format

Post by bah »

HI Marcus,
Yes that is somthing I could not do. The way I go around it was to use an IMD image, convert it to HFE, then format it on the C-10. I then ended up with an "empty" disk (in HFE), that I then copy and fill up from real 5.25'' disks. I have 1 or 2 real disk drives and the HxC attached (the C-10 could only have 2 real drives attached due to the power restrictions, but the HxC takes so little it makes not impact if I have 3 or 4 drives now). I basically Copydisk-ed all my old disks over to a smart card, but now use the HxC as my main disk. It is not any faster, but I think more reliable and easier to use. I have been tempted to write a program that would read/write the files out of the HFE file format (for C-10 anyway) so I could edit them on the PC. Anyway hope that helps
Brett

amouses
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:41 am

Re: Cromemco format

Post by amouses »

Brett,

It would be great if we could get in touch pls.

As a Cromemco enthusiast it would be good to exchange information and data. I'm curious if I have all the C10 software. I have most of it and use it under CDOS emulation under Cromix mostly.

Do you have a catalog of what you have and we can exchange. Perhaps a private message etc.

I'm glad you do the same as I for HxC i.e. Create a blank IMD and then convert. I thought I was going crazy, there not being an option to create a mixed format disk

My new HxC is up and as of tonight working with drives A C on the HxC. It took a long while to realise that I can support 2 simultaneous drives by selecting the drive by holding down the middle button, (to select the drive, and then the file for that drive) since I am convinced this is not in the user guide I read!

regards marcus b

PS: I tried to buy a C10 on ebay recently but of course they did not ship to Europe. Hmm

bah
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:17 am

Re: Cromemco format

Post by bah »

Hi Marcus,
Of course I am happy to supply any and all images I have. I think I am up to about 50-100 of them, but mostly CP/M programs from my BBS days. There are various C-10 CDOS disks and applications for the C-10. I was also able to get some disks from Dr Beer in Melbourne who wrote C-10 Encounters for IONews. He wrote several graphic programs for the C-10 which utilised the 160x72 pixel character set. He was generous enough to mail his last remaining disks to me, and he is happy for them to be distributed online. The one thing I wanted to do before doing such a thing was to get the HFE reader working so people could get individual files. I can get together a catalog of sorts (HFE filename is the best I can do at the moment). You can email me direct if you like: brett at getdata dot com.
Ciao
Brett

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