> On May 16, 2023, at 11:12 AM, Tony Duell via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
> wrote:
>
> As you know I've recently restored a couple of CP/M luggable
> computers. I also have many other machines with floppy disk drives,
> 3", 3.5", 5.25" and 8"
>
> The machine I connect to the internet with is a more modern laptop
> runnng Windows 8.1. Essentially its only interfaces are USB ports.
>
> I would like to be able to :
>
> Download disk images (I assume in .IMD or .TD0 format) and write them
> to real floppy disks to use in my old machnes
>
> ...
>
> So what I am asking is for people to describe what to do as in :
> Buy this microcontroller board ...
My advice: buy an old desktop computer. Buy a standard PC floppy drive (a dual
drive if possible to give both 3.5 and 5.25 support). Then run Linux, use the
"fdparm" tool to set the media format if necessary, and copy the image with
"dd".
Roughly speaking this is how I read and write RX50 floppies. More precisely, I
usually do it with my "rstsflx" tool, which (a) understands RSTS file systems
so I can manipulate things at that level, and (b) knows about RX50 interleaving
and how to issue the ioctl that sets 10 sector per track format.
paul
