Like David Tubbs said, the easiest solution is a serial lead between
PC and QL.
If you are using SMSQ/E on the QL, the microdrives don't work under
SMSQ/E, so that rules out the other option of SERNET to MDV on the QL.
Can't remember if the MDVs work on a Super Gold Card QL with QDOS
(e.g. version JM or JS), but if they do that would help if you are
going to transfer via floppy. If the QL microdrives only work without
the SGC, you could try David Tubbs's suggestion of serial cable and
manual COPY direct from MDV to QPC2. Microdrives do work with most
disk interfaces under QDOS.
FORMAT RAM1_MDV1 or FORMAT RAM1_MDV1_ is indeed the best and fastest
way to copy from microdrive to ramdisk. It also has the advantage of
working on QDOS and SMSQ/E (only on expanded systems, but not on
unexpanded QL, microdrive imaging is provided int he disk interface
eprom) and flags errors in files by appending an asterisk '*'
character to filenames having bad sectors, e.g. 'quill*'. If the QL
system does not support microdrive imaging (e.g. it does not work on
an unexpanded QL), you'll have to manually copy all the files from
MDV1 or use WCOPY MDV1_ TO RAM1_ if the system has the TK2 command
WCOPY.
If you have trouble getting a microdrive to read in one drive, try the
other. It is also worth moving the cartridge slightly in the drive
while it is running. My QL used to do this - if the cartridge was all
the way in, it wouldn't read properly. If the cartridge was pushed in
and pulled out half to one millimetre it would make quite a difference
to readability. You could acxtually hear the difference it made as the
cartridge ran, it all sounded smoother with the cartridge very
slightly out. Those were the days 20 years ago...struggling with
MDVs!!!
You can indeed network between QLs to get from a working MDV on an
unexpanded QL to a floppy drive on another QL. There was an article on
QL networking in QL Today Vol 9 Issue 4 (Nov/Dec 2004) page 24. It is
a bit long winded, but can work around the problems of being unable to
get a working combination of disk drives and microdrives on the same
QL.
Disk interfaces in general do not stop MDVs working as such. There is
no MDV sup[port in smsq/e. One possibility is that if your QL has some
form of power regulation or the PSU is near the end of its life, the
system cannot cope with a rapid surge in power requirement. I remember
this happening years ago on a QL with a Care Electronics or Sandy
Q-Power regulator (can't remember which of the two companies produced
it). The QL would not work at all if a Trump Card or Gold Card was
plugged in, but would work with an older CST disk interface. Stuart
Honeyball suggested that as some Miracle interfaces needed a good
surge of power as they started up, this was being suffocated by the
Q-Power Regulator, so the system was unable to start up properly at
all. Shouldn't be a problem with a Sinclair PSU.
--
Dilwyn Jones
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Gilpin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "ql-users" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 11:52 PM
Subject: [ql-users] MDVs Versus FLPs
Here's one for the hardware boffins out there:
Like Geoff W, I am attempting to transfer some programmes and data
from
Microdrives to the hard drive on my PC (running QPC2 V3.3)
Q 1 Am I correct in saying that the most straight forward way of
doing this
is to first of all make a copy of the Microdrive into Ram1_ using
the
command "format Ram1_mdv1_" - see Tony F's recent email (and was
there a
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