Article-I.D.: brl-adm.4269
Posted: Thu Feb  5 08:42:58 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Feb-87 11:33:50 EST
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 5

Can anyone point me to some software that will allow a Commodore 64 to
write a disk that can then be read by an Osborne Executive (or some
other ssdd cpm format?

 Thanks, Paul Woodie (Woodie -at dockmaster)

Article-I.D.: brl-adm.4272
Posted: Thu Feb  5 12:26:58 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Feb-87 12:28:25 EST
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 26

Unless you own the unlikely combination of a C64 and a C1571 (not 1541) disk
drive, you cannot write a CP/M diskette for Osborne, Epson, etc.  The reason
is that the 1541 disk drive *cannot* write MFM or FM format diskettes as used
by virtually every other system except APPLE.  These drives write only a form
of NRZ encoding called GCR (Group Code Recording) - totally unreadable by
any other drive without special hardware/controller.  This was the basic
reason why C64 CP/M never seriously caught on - there was no way, other than
via modem, to get programs in or out!  And even with a 1571 drive hooked to
a C64, I know of no utilities written explicitly for the 64 to do the necessary
copy.

On the other hand, there are several public domain utilities for the C128 with
C1571 disk drive, which will copy files from normal CBM format to any of a
variety of CP/M formats, Osborne MFM being one of the defaults.  I believe
the C128 CP/M program RDCBM20 (see [SIMTEL20]PD:RDCBM20.LBR) would
be the easiest to use, and it does the necessary translation for text files
from Commodore character set to ASCII.  The latest Commodore FORMAT.COM
utility will allow you to format an Osborne diskette too (not sure about the
Osborne Executive though - maybe just the Osborne 1).

So if this conversion you require is a one-time process, beg or borrow a 128
to do the job.  The 1571 will read the C64/1541 diskettes just fine.

Sincerely,
Frank Prindle
Prindle@NADC.arpa

Article-I.D.: csustan.437
Posted: Fri Feb  6 17:41:16 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Feb-87 02:56:40 EST
References: <4272@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: rayz@csustan.UUCP (R. L. Zarling)
Organization: CSU, Stanislaus; Turlock, California
Lines: 9

In article <4272@brl-adm.ARPA> prindle@nadc.arpa writes:
 >                                      The latest Commodore FORMAT.COM
 > utility will allow you to format an Osborne diskette too (not sure about the
 > Osborne Executive though - maybe just the Osborne 1).

I have not heard of a "new" FORMAT.COM before-- Where/how does one get it?
My 128 came with an old cpm version, and the FORMAT doesn't even do single
sided disks (the menu says it does, but...).  I presume that has been fixed,
too?