Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!chinet!fmsrl7!mibte!jbh
From: jbh@mibte.UUCP (James Harvey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: Woodpeckers inside 1541 drives (was cbm disks to DOS)
Message-ID: <2656@mibte.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jul 88 16:27:36 GMT
References: <935@flatline.UUCP> <168@lakart.UUCP> <19681@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Organization: Michigan Bell Telephone Company
Lines: 45

In article <19681@watmath.waterloo.edu>, kgdykes@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ken Dykes) writes:
> 
>  "is there a program/driver whatever, or otherwise is it straighforward
>     to read cbm disks on a dos machine"
> -- 
>           - Ken Dykes,   Software Development Group, U.of.Waterloo
>               kgdykes@watmath.uucp     kgdykes@water.bitnet
>               kgdykes@waterloo.csnet

I have done a lot of this type of conversion using my recently
aquired Amiga 2000.  I have a friend who has been after me for
some time to convert my C64 Printshop collection and also my
rec.humor collection to IBM disk format.

I used an external Amiga 1020 5 1/4 inch disk drive to read the
CBM disks into the Amiga and also to write out IBM compatible
files onto MS-DOS formatted disks.  There are two (at least)
programs for the Amiga that will read C64 formatted disks.  One
is Disk-to-Disk which doesn't work very well, the other is a
program named "Transfer" which comes with the "C64 Emulator 2"
which worked perfectly, and can even use the 1541 disk drive.

I used Dos-to-DOS to copy the files back to 5 1/4 inch IBM disks.
This works very well and is quite fast.

Your friendly local Amiga dealer may be able to help you with
your project.  It's a good demonstration of the capabilities of
the Amiga.  If you can't find an Amiga with the 5 1/4 inch disk
drive, you could use the "C64 Emulator" with your friends 1541
drive, and then copy the files back to 3 1/2" IBM disks.  It's
not too hard to find IBM PCs these days with the 3 1/2" drives.

I do not have a Commodore 128 with 1571 drive but there is a
package called "Big Blue Reader" that will read and write IBM
format disks on the 1571.  I have never tried this method.

-- 

Jim Harvey                        |      "Ask not for whom the bell
Michigan Bell Telephone           |      tolls and you will only pay
29777 Telegraph                   |      Station-to-Station rates."
Southfield, Mich. 48034           | 

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