Only an fm drive can make a tppd disc. Mfm can't Do It. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Frequency_Modulation
Translation...a standard 3.5 drive can't work. But the idea of a program to make a boot disc is possible provided you have a good Tpdd. On Tuesday, May 29, 2018, Kevin Becker <ke...@kevinbecker.org> wrote: > Unless the pictures on eBay are wrong, mine is definitely a TPDD. > > > > On May 29, 2018, at 7:01 PM, Brian White <bw.al...@gmail.com> wrote: > > If what you have is a TPDD-2 and not a TPDD, I can supply a copy for > TPDD-2. Send me an address off-list and I'll mail it tomorrow. > > Conversely I would like a copy for TPDD myself if anyone is willing to > either make me one, or trust me with mailing me theirs and I'll mail it > back after making a copy myself. > > From what I've been able to tell, although people have tried and failed > for 30 years, it actually *should* be physically possible to generate a new > disk purely from a download, as long as you have a real drive and a working > special cable. After all, the included floppy dos + backup.ba does it, > and the drive is controlled entirely by mere serial communication which > anything can do. > > A little progress has been made recently wrt recording the entire serial > conversation during a backup, but it still has not yet gone all the way to > being able to generate a disk from scratch from a download. > I think the tools are there to at least work on it and eventually get > there. So if you want an interesting project that hasn't already been solve > at least 7 different times over the decades, yet looks within reach, there > it is. :) > > You absolutely need a working TPDD or TPDD-2 drive to make these though, > even if you use a modern pc to control it. It's not just a matter of an odd > number of tracks or sectors or other formatting. The raw magnetic format is > FM instead of MFM which all pc drives & drive controllers use. No amount of > special software can overcome that! > > > On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 4:58 PM, Kevin Becker <ke...@kevinbecker.org> > wrote: > >> A little deeper googling is leading me to believe there is a special >> floppy_sys file on the utility disk that nobody has figured out how to >> recreate. I'll try it anyway when it arrives but If that ends up being the >> case, then I wonder if there is anyone on the list who would be willing to >> make my a utility disk. I'd be happy to send a blank disk and a >> self-addressed stamped envelope. >> >> >> >> On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 4:38 PM, Tom Dison <fretina...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Ah that's a good question, is like to know also. >>> >>> On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 3:29 PM Kevin Becker <ke...@kevinbecker.org> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> I don’t mean with a PC. I should already be able to use the drive via >>>> TS-DOS so I’m assuming I can just copy floppy.co to my M102 using >>>> desklink and then save it to the TPDD. I’m just wondering if that is good >>>> enough or if there is some special boot sector magic necessary. >>>> >>>> On May 29, 2018, at 3:55 PM, Tom Dison <fretina...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> I don't believe you can create one with a PC floppy controller. I'd buy >>>> a copy off of someone is I could. For now, I'm planning on using the python >>>> library on Linux box connected to the drive to create the disk. I'd much >>>> rather just have the floppy. >>>> >>>> On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 2:31 PM Kevin Becker <ke...@kevinbecker.org> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> I've been watching eBay on and off for a TPDD or TPDD2 complete with >>>>> cable at a reasonable price for what feels like forever. I finally pulled >>>>> the trigger on one today but doesn't include the utility diskette. >>>>> >>>>> I already have a REX with TS-DOS and I know how to bootstrap TEENY if >>>>> necessary, but I'd like to have a utility disk with floppy.co just >>>>> for the fun of it. I believe I found floppy.co in an archive on the >>>>> Club100 site. Is there anything special about the utility disk or can I >>>>> just save floppy.co to any formatted disk and then be able to use it >>>>> to bootstrap floppy.co later? >>>>> >>>> -- >>>> Faith without Works is Dead... >>>> >>>> -- >>> Faith without Works is Dead... >>> >> >> > > > -- > bkw > >
