Xref: utzoo comp.sys.cbm:1466 comp.sys.ibm.pc:16196 Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!umd5!uflorida!ukma!simon From: simon@ms.uky.edu (George Simon) Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: is it possible to read/write Commodore disks on an IBM PC? Message-ID: <9519@e.ms.uky.edu> Date: 2 Jun 88 18:06:55 GMT Article-I.D.: e.9519 References: <4760@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <719@lakesys.UUCP> <10473@ism780c.isc.com> Reply-To: simon@ms.uky.edu (Simon Gales) Distribution: comp Organization: U of Kentucky, Mathematical Sciences Lines: 50 In article <10473@ism780c.isc.com> mikep@ism780c.UUCP (Michael A. Petonic) writes: >In article <719@lakesys.UUCP> rickm@lakesys.UUCP (Rick) writes: > >In article <4760@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> andytoy@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Andy Toy, Applications Support Group) writes: > >>Does anyone have any software that will read/write/diskcopy/filecopy > >>commodore format floppies on an ibm pc? I want to download stuff > >>to a IBM PC and then write them to floppies that commodore drives > >>can read without getting someone else to download the stuff for me > >>since I don't have a modem for the commodore. > > > >I think what you need to find out is if your Commodore drive can read ibm > >formatted disks since the the ibm cannot read the commodore format. > >Almost no chance that you can read IBM diskettes in a Commodore disk drive. >There's a better chance that you can write Commodore disks on an IBM IBM drives use an MFM floppy controller. Commodore disks are made using GCR encoding (rather than MFM), so there is little chance of doing anything with a commodore disk on a Pc without reprogramming the controller to do GCR. I guess someone out there could build a GCR floppy controller for a Pc, but there is an easier way. >... The reason for this is because the Commodore disk drive has the >controller built into the disk drive, thereby making it a "smart" disk >drive. "Smart" disk drives rarely provide operations other than >read sector, write sector, format, etc. No low level interleave/sectoring >commands. Have you ever played with the Commodore 1571 disk drive? > >I know this is so for the Atari 800 lines, and I'm 98% sure this is >true of the Commodore. That's why copy protection was so easy to >defeat in the early Atari 800 disk releases, and why it was so >hard to beat when the software manufacturers started customizing their >disk drives to produce the distribution diskettes. > >-MikeP Hmmm. I think the 1571 can read/write a standard 360k dos floppy, and even does a couple of dozen Cp/m (MFM) formats. As a matter of fact, I've done so, and it works quite well. The 1571 can do both MFM and GCR (Commodore) encoding. The Pc drive controllers normally only do MFM. Has anyone ever heard of a GCR controller? Does anyone use GCR besides Commodore? - Simon. <--------------------------------------------------------------------------> <--- Simon Gales@University of Ky 254-9387/257-3597 ---> <--- [simon@ms.uky.edu] | [cbosgd!ukma!simon] | [simon@UKMA.BITNET] ---> <-------------------------------------------------------------------------->