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DSKINI problems:

 I have seen many questions about DSKINI and RETRIEVE.
 The question are always the same type of questions so I made and posted
this faq.
 Please add to this FAQ and please post your changes or additions so we all
can see them.



DSKINI FAQ:


0001: Track zero error: Use a bulk tape eraser on those floppies. I've had 
disks fail track zero work fine again after bulk erasing them, as long as 
there's no physical damage to the floppy.

0002. I have found that using a Disk, Formatted first on the Pc, Does tend 
to make it very erratic , when used on the Coco 3, I have found formatting 
the disk first on the coco 3,  works 95% of the time better. A way to really 
make the disk work again, Put the disk on a very powerful magnet, this will 
Bulk erase it no sweat, Do this for 30secs, then format the disk on the coco 
3, Then use DSKINI.EXE on the Pc, to make the real disk copy.

0003: My question: How do I get the programs from a PC to a coco floppy 
disk? So far I've not used any of the coco Emulators. All help will be 
appreciated. This is a Very popular question. Here is the simple facts.

1. One way to make real copies any time, invest around $150US for a 
Catweasel Mark 4 card, That's what I did, and it's been the best $180AUS I 
have spent for Coco archiving purposes. Since by what I have read on the 
Web, Some PC Floppy Disk Controllers will not work properly , When used to 
make real copies, I Think Certain Panasonic Brands have a incompatibility 
problem making Coco disks. laters. Viva Le Coco.

2. Quite a few questions deal with using: PORT.EXE. How do I move files to 
and from real coco floppy disks? If you use port then first read the 
documentation that comes with Jeff's download and read all of it. Also look 
at the source code because there is no other better documentation then that. 
Get use to the interface and how the program works. Basically you can move 
files to and from real floppy disks but only from within a MS-DOS system. 
Nothing else will work. You must use MS-DOS. And you should actually run the 
coco3x emulator and any of the tools such as: dskini, retrieve, port, 
cas2rom, casin, casout, coco3x, external, and os9. Note* become familiar 
with any and all documentation  dealing with the above programs.

3. People want a easy way to get and put emulated coco floppy disks to a 
real coco floppy disk. There are several things you can do. You can buy 
OmniFlop and use it. You can use one of the several ways found on the news 
group list gmane.comp.hardware.tandy.coco. You can use dskini or retrieve 
but you must use a MS-DOS system. I have discovered a easy to use system 
already on the internet. I don't need a FAT 16 or a FAT 32 . However, I do 
need a 3.5 1.44 Meg floppy disk drive. If your computer does not have a 
standard floppy disk drive then you cant use this method and you'll need 
another alternative.

Down load the file describe below:

Taken and gleaned from gmane.comp.hardware.tandy.coco:

  John Collyer wrote (Sun, 7 Mar 2004 21:56:08):

  > I have saved my coco website to RTSI as johncollyer_website.zip it 
contains
  > all my work to date, for the coco community.
  >
  > I saved it in /RSDOS/incoming:
  >
  > -rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp       3596427 Mar  8 02:14
  > johncollyer_website.zip
  >
  > I want to wish you well and God Bless you.
  >
  > John Collyer

  -- 
  tim lindner                                          Bright


In that down load is a file named makeboot.exe and it will make a MS-DOS 6.2 
boot disk for booting tour computer into MS-DOS 6.2 FAT 16 system. The 
system has enough of a system to transfer virtual disk file to and from real 
coco floppies. But you must have a real floppy disk in your computer that is 
running MS- DOS. I can transfer virtual images from 1.44 Meg real disk to 
the RAM drive that this MS-DOS system run in and use the 3.5 inch drive for 
coco real floppies and 1.44 Meg for virtual floppy disks. I also had the use 
of my CDROM drive from MS-DOS. Since I only have FAT 32 and NTFS the MS-DOS 
system
only had the RAM drive as the C: drive and my CDROM drive as D:

Note* I did change the bat files to reflect the fact that there is no Hard 
Drive because MS-DOS FAT 16 can't see these partitions. I changed all ram 
drive occurrences to C: and all cdrom drive occurrences to D: and it worked. 
I like this system because it means I do what I want to do, that is transfer 
my virtual disk files to and from the real coco. When I am done there is 
nothing to do except boot back into Windows XP and the MS-DOS system I used 
is exactly the same with no changes waiting for my next flood of disk to 
disk coping.



ADD to this FAQ please!