>I don't know how big a minefield I am stepping into with this
question but -
>I have about 20 microdrive cartridges that I would like to try and
salvage
>and I really don't have $170 to spend on a QL ( I believe there are 2
on
>ebay ), so I am torn between cobbling up a microdrive on a breadboard
and
>doing my best to make it go, or finding a used but working model that
I can
>buy for cheap so I can see how many 'gravestones' I have. :)
>
>I very much like the idea of the 'QL on a Card', but it too falls
short in
>this category. I wonder if someone has actually made a
cartridge-to-floppy
>dongle. Any ideas would be very much appreciated..
>
>Thank you for your time,
>
>Zane - TS2068, IBM-XT, Amiga, Sinclair QL.. if it's an orphan, I
probably
>had it at one time
I guess you are in North America, there are plenty of QL users over
there who may be able to copy the files concerned to disk for you.
Probably the best way to do this is to use the FORMAT RAM1_MDV1
command on a QL which will quickly copy the content of the microdrive
cartridge into a ramdisk, then the files can be copied fromt here into
a disk. Any corrupt files will be flagged with an asterisk * against
the filename in the ramdisk. From there, if you have access to an
Amiga, PC, Mac or Linux machine, you can get a QL emulator in software
to run on those machines (links on my website, address below) and play
with the files to your heart's content. Probably a far easier answer
than trying to rig up a stand alone microdrive for another computer.
--
Dilwyn Jones
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.soft.net.uk/dj/index.html
