Reading TRS-80 discs (was RE: Archiving old discs...)

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Tue Sep 14 19:08:15 1999

<So, bottom line, if I find a floppy card that appears to conform to one of
<the favorable ones on that list from comp.os.cpm, stick it in a PC and use
<something like 22DISK, I should be able to make a physical backup of a TRS-
<disk? Is there some other piece of software I should use? Unless Teledis
<will produce an uncompressed image, it won't help me. I can process the d
<images once I get them onto the hard drive, that's the easy part.

... Maybe. It's possible to create disks especially those created using
some of the more oddball marks the 1771 can do. In that case only a system
with a 1771 can read those disks.

It's important to note that all of the PC controllers use some chip that
is 765 at it's core and will only read S34 and S3740 compatable format
sequences. The 1771 can generate many non conforming formats that even
the 1793 in FM mode CANNOT read. So just doing fm is not the total answer
as even the hard sectored Northstar* controller was FM.

There is a long list of things you can do with the 1771 and to a lesser
extent in the way of making formats that are "unique".
 
Allison
Received on Tue Sep 14 1999 - 19:08:15 BST