TDD2B.THD --- Copyright 1987 by Phil Wheeler An original compilation of Compuserve Model 100 Forum messages for use by Forum members only. This is a collection of message re the TDD2, gathered over a week's time. topics include: o FLOPPY for TDD2 (recovery from killing menu program and calls available from Ba or CO programs, and general info) o Disk Power 100 with TDD2 o TDD1/TDD2 disk format difference o TS-RANDOM -- TDD2 compatibility, and other stuff Of interest to all TDD2 users! Message range: 155295 to 155817 Dates: 8/21/87 to 8/28/87 --------------------------- Messages on FLOPPY for TDD2 --------------------------- Fm: DEBBIE CYRONAK 74016,643 To: ALL I RECENTLY BOUGHT A TANDY PORTABLE DISK DRIVE 2. AND I JUST MADE A GIANT MISTAKE I KILLED FLOPPY WITH THE KILL COMMAND AND CANNOT LOAD IT AGAIN TILL I RUN FREMEM.BA. CAN ANYBODY FIGURE OUT A WAY THAT I CAN CLEAR MEMORY WITH THIS PROGRAM OR ANOTHER WAY!!! Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: DEBBIE CYRONAK 74016,643 Debbie, so long as you still have the REAL FLOPPY in memory, you can run it without the one on the menu. Just go into basic and type 'CALL MAXRAM'. That will get you into the program. Then you can load FREMEM and reboot. The menu program FLOPPY calls the running version in high memory and does an integrity check. It's well to use it, but the above approach will work in a pinch. By the way, how did you manage to kill the menu FLOPPY? Fm: DEBBIE CYRONAK 74016,643 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 I JUST TYPED KILL "FLOPPY" IN BASIC. I WAS IN A HURRY FOR SOME FREE SPACE TO GET ANOTHER PROGRAM RUNNING AND NEGLECTED TO CHECK WHAT I WAS DOING FIRST Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: DEBBIE CYRONAK 74016,643 Debbie, did my advice reach you in time and do the trick? Fm: DEBBIE CYRONAK 74016,643 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 YES IT DID! I WAS SO SURE I BROKE IT AND THERE WAS NO WAY OUT! THANK'S FOR THE HELP!! Fm: BOB H. 76626,225 To: ALL HAS ANYBODY DONE A LISTING OF THE CALLS FOR FLOPPY2 AND WHAT THEY DO. Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: BOB H. 76626,225 Mark, see the TD2TIP files. Also my RECOV2 & TD2MON -- all in DL9. Actually, studying BACKUP.BA on the utility disk will yield the most info. And -- in one TD2TIP file is some info that I found to be wron in doing RECOV2/TD2MON re the sector access read or write (forget which). Fm: John Burns 70307,272 To: MIKE PHILLIPS 70116,1076 Where to get description of TDD2 software. And is Tdd2 relocatable or can it be loaded down so other himemsoftware can run Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: John Burns 70307,272 Not sure exactly what you mean... What "TDD2 Software" do you want a description of? If you mean commercial software, perhaps contacting the company that sells it would be a good idea. -- If you mean a description of the DOS that comes with it, FLOPPY, there isn't one that I know of. There are some review files in DL13 from users of the TDD-2 disk drive that might help. FLOPPY, a machine language DOS program that comes with the TDD-2 is not relocatable as it comes! A smart machine language programmer can probably relocate it, but to what purpose? You'd have to relocate it to several different addresses, depending on what other ML programs you wanted to use. ... It would be easier to relocate the other programs. Also, be very careful about relocating programs that use system hooks as part of the way they "hook into" the normal operating system. If more than one ML program wants to use the same hooks, it's cold-start city. --------------------------------------------- On Disk Power 100 from Ultrasoft and the TDD2 --------------------------------------------- Sb: #Ultrasoft Loader, TDD2 Fm: Mark Earle 73117,351 To: 73117,351 Here we go again... no one at ultrasoft knows about the tdd2, so with permission, sysops (kill if this ain't "cosher" I present a problem... The program comes on tape, they say run"cas" to get it going. Fine. It loads a loader in to do the work of getting the program into the compuer. Copy of loader presented below. I'd like to know how to change the loader to do the following. I get the usc100.co loaded to and from disk, but when I put cursor over that file name at main menu it just beeps at me... any thoughts? Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Mark Earle 73117,351 Will take a look, Marke -- but more info would help: what computer, what accessories? Is this the orig DP100 (or DP200) and nwo you are trying it with TDD2? Seems there is something on this in one of the TD2TIP file or TDD2?.THD files in DL9. Fm: Mark Earle 73117,351 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 OK, Phil, here it is if SU command works right I'm using a Mod 100, TD2 with standard Tandy operating system software (Flopy2.sys) and Node 256k Ram with the RamDisk 1.5 ROM. If I do the following trick I can get it to work 1. Load US in to ram from tape as normal specify 62960 as maxram. BEFORE putting cursor over USC100.CO, save to disk or expanded RAM. 2. CLOAD just the loader. 3. Now, kill USC100.CO from menu. 4. Copy it back to main menu from disk or expanded ram. 5. edit line 5 to change the cas: to any dummy file name. Run loader. IT halts with about 6k memory gone. 6. Put cursor over usc100.co. Hit enter. USC100.CO now works! 7. Goto basic, kill USC100.CO and LOADER.BA. Aparently, the loader wants cas only, but doing the above tricks it into reading the program in from ram.. aparently USC100.CO that shows up on the main menu is not a loader, but the object code? Also, they state that in the docs, one copy only is needed. After a normal tape install, one can safely kill the USC100.CO from main menu to free RAM, a copy hides in hi memory they say. So aparently this is like the original FLOPY.CO? Thanks, Mark 0 'Ultrascreen 100/102 Loader/Relocator 1 MAXFILES=1:CLS 2 INPUT"Install under address? (Max=62960 Min=38455)"; E:S=E-2789 3 IF S>60171 OR S<35666 THEN BEEP:PRINT"Illegal Value!":GOTO 2 4 CLS:PRINT@120,"Loading Ultrascreen Please Wait...":PRINT "Completed: %":CLEAR 256,S:IF PEEK(1)=51 THEN F$="100" ELSE F$="102" 5 S=HIMEM:D$="CAS:":OPEN D$+"TXT"+F$ FOR INPUT AS 1 7 A$=INPUT$(2,1):IF LEFT$(A$,1)<>"$" THEN GOSUB 10: POKE S,A:S=S+1 ELSE A$=RIGHT$(A$,1)+INPUT$(3,1): A$=RIGHT$(A$,2)+LEFT$(A$,2):GOSUB 10:A=A+HIMEM:GOSUB 11: POKE S,A2:POKE S+1,A1:S=S+2 8 Z=(Z MOD 2)+1:PRINT@170,INT((S-HIMEM)/27.89);:IF NOT EOF(1) THEN 7 9 CLOSE:Q$=CHR$(34):R$=CHR$(13):Z$="Savem"+Q$+"USC"+F$+Q$+ ",Himem,Himem+2788,Himem+52"+R$+"Load"+Q$+D$+"Font"+Q$+R$+ "Save"+Q$+"Font"+Q$+R$+"Menu"+R$+CHR$(0):Z=VARPTR(Z$) :POKE63020,PEEK(Z+1):POKE63021,PEEK(Z+2):END 10 A=0:FORX=1TOLEN(A$):B$=MID$(A$,X,1):A=A*16+ASC(B$)-48+7*(B$>="A"): NEXT:RETURN 11 A1=INT(A/256):A2=A-(A1*256):RETURN ---------------------------------------- On TDD1 and TDD2 Disk Format Differences ---------------------------------------- Sb: #TDD1 vs. TDD2 Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To close out the track width question raised last week: TDD1 is 67.5 tracks per inch; TDD2 is 135 tpi. No way a TDD1 could read a TDD2 disk, since the head will see two tracks at once, or worse. TDD2 being able to read a TDD1 disk makes sense, and does work. Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 OK... that's interesting. That works differently than the old Shugart drives where "double Density" meant that you packed twice as much data into the same amount of space with the disk controller. It appears that in the TDD series, they have gone the hardware route, rather than software. In that case, I can see why a TDD-1 won't read TDD-2 disks. ---------------------------------------------- On TS-RANDOM, Generally and TDD2 Compatibility ---------------------------------------------- Sb: #100K/200K Drives Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: David C. Ridge 70416,1435 Yes, can read TDD1 disks with TDD2, but not the other way. Check the various TD2TIP files in dl9 for much info. Fm: David C. Ridge 70416,1435 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 Thanks for the info Phil. By the way, I am interested in one particular feature of the new DOS TS RANDOM. And that feature is the "snap-shot" of The entire RAM you can send to disk. I hate to buy the product just for this one feature. Is there anything on the sig that allows this? Later...Dave Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: David C. Ridge 70416,1435 One caution: I think that TS-RANDOM is for the TDD1 only. It uses TDD ROM sector access features, and these have changed forthe TDD2. Recent TS catalog re TS-RANDOM says "not available for the Tandy drive 2". But the Sall command is actually part of TS-DOS, of which there IS a version for the TDD2 -- but not in a ROM chip, only on disk for loading into RAM. I'm not certain how usefule that feature is -- since it saves all the high RAM pointers, hooks and everything -- not only the files -- as a single file on the disk. You must reload it all, or none of it. Clearly it does something pretty unique; the question is whether it is really what you want to do. DSKMGR (DL9) has a Sval key, which saves all the files in RAM to the disk. I think that is the closest thing in the DL's to doing what TS-DOS Sall will do. Fm: David C. Ridge 70416,1435 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 Great stuff Phil! That 's exactly what I wanted to know. Later...Dave Fm: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 Phil, Me again. The "snapshot" of RAM is one of the things I like about TS-RANDOM. It allows me to have _several_ M100's -- pointers, hooks and all -- for different applications. Much the way people with multi-bank memories designate different functions to different banks. If nothing else, it sure takes the sweat out of cold-starts -- if you've done a half decent job of backing things up. Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 (X) Agree with your comments re the Sall funtion -- for that purpose. In my case, with 8 banks, I might find it more useful than I have thought previously -- so I will look into it. BTW -- that is really a TS-DOS function, and all you really need is that program. Downside of that approach is that TS-DOS will always be in the RAM image you save; ROM approach is handier.