23 Nov
1997
23 Nov
'97
9:40 a.m.
Scott Walde wrote:
I also got 4 'MSD Super Disk Drive' model SD-1. These look similar in
design to the external TRS-80 drives (except they're cream coloured).
They have two 6-pin DIN plugs and an IEEE-488(?) plug. Are these what I
think they are? (Drives that will work on the VIC-20/C-64 and PETs) I
don't have any 6pin cables to try these on a VIC. I haven't tried them on
a PET yet, either. Any idea what format these would be? (2040, 8050?)
The MSD drive will definitely work with a C-64. By extension, I belive
this means it will also work with the VIC-20. Not sure about PET
compatibility, though I believe the IEEE-488 interface was provided for
PET's.
I had an MSD for my C-64 years ago. It was an SD-2; you guessed it; a
dual disk drive of the same style you have. It read/wrote nearly all
native 1541 disks. The only exception was that a few of the more brutal
copy protection schemes used on some software (particularly games) did
not work on the MSD drive. These copy protection systems usually
involved bad tracks and/or sectors purposely being written on the disk.
The software would check for the appropriate error code when it read
these tracks/sectors. The MSD would not always return the same error
code the sofware was expecting, causing the software to assume it was
being loaded from a copied disk.
I paid $1,000.00 CDN for mine in 1984! Sounds brutally expensive, but
at the time, 1541 drives were famous for blowing their power supplies.
The MSD is fairly bulletproof, and never gave me any problems.
If you run across any SD-2's in your travels, I would be interested in
re-aquiring one.
Grant Zozman
gzozman(a)escape.ca