Yay, now I need some Osborne boot media!

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014, Peter Coghlan wrote: A little. Maybe a "strong recommendation". He would need a PC with a 5-1/4" drive for running XenoCopy. (Or Chuck's software. Or David Dunfield's software.), OR, he could write a PC emulator for something else that he owns. (XenoCopy could read Osborne1 DD disks while running under "Transformer" on Amiga 1000, . . . ) OR, once he gets the Osborne into a monitor program, and or booted and running DDT or other tools, then he could simply write the software needed to use the Osborne to be his creator of 5.25" disks. (A PC emulator running on the Osborne might not be practical, particularly for current Windoze) I'm not aware of any software currently extant for using Osborne for disk manipulation, but it would certainly be capable of it. After all, "boot" in our business is short for "bootstrap", which is based on Baron Von Munchausen lifting himself out of the swamp by pulling up on his own bootstraps. Just because the tools aren't there doesn't mean that you can't write them; just because the tools to write the tools aren't there doesn't mean that you can't write them; just because the tools to write the tools to write the tools . . . Well before we get back to griping about how the list is not as perfect as it once was, . . . Elsewhere in another branch of this thread, there is mention of certain limitations of the PC hardware, including the difficulties with Single Density, and with 128 byte sectors in Double Density. I love that discussion, because 30 years ago, I spent a ridiculous amount of time convinced that I was doing something wrong when I was trying to read 128 byte sectors. It is such a relief to find out that, besides the many things that I was doing wrong, that the problem was actually stuff that others had done wrong before me. Sure woulda been nice if I had known Chuck THEN! (I had finally figured out why I couldn't do single density by staring at pin 26 of the NEC765 in the schematics in the IBM PC Technical Reference Manual.) The flamewar about RX02 is based on defining what is meant by the phrase "MFM floppy"! Nobody is "wrong", they just aren't recognizing each other's definitions. The RX02 is NOT an "FM floppy"; the RX02 is NOT an "MFM floppy". It is a hybrid. It took an FM low level format, and rewrote the data area of each sector with MFM, resulting in a disk that is about 1/3 FM, and 2/3 MFM. In terms of the floppy ITSELF, disks rated for FM or rated for MFM should both work, but there might be better reliability using the MFM rated disks. AND NOT the 600 Oerstedt "1.2M" disks! THOSE might seem to work, but will be blank again before you need to reread the disk! BTDT. And, NO, the 765 can't be tricked into reading RX02. Or can it? PROVE ME WRONG - write the code to do it! But, lest we forget, . . . the OP wants Osborne disks. The PC has no major problems reading, writing, and formatting DOUBLE DENSITY Osborne disks [with appropriate software - you shoulda bought a copy of XenoCopy when it was available, to keep me in business, and to write Osborne disks for the OP] IF the OP wants SINGLE DENSITY Osborne disks, as were used in the original Osborne Computer (before it had a number), they are NOT 128 byte sectors, just a fairly ordinary single density (FM) 256 bypes per sector with 10 sectors, which can be done with TRS80, or with a PC with certain specific FDC chips, OR a PC with certain [minor] modifications (go stare at pin 26 of the FDC in the schematics!) such as what Flagstaff Engineering did to the original IBM FDC board. OK, NOW back to the list meta-discussions, "which was the first computer?", cars, guns, and storage space. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com