+3e 8Bit IDE (how to get snaps onto the HD)

edited July 2011 in Hardware
Hello there my fellow WoSer's

I have been playing around a lot with this under-emulation as well as building some prototype IDE interfaces.

I would like to get snap-shots on the simple-8bit interface, but I am having a bit of a face-palm moment in getting them to the disk (CF Harddisk)

Now using the DivEN +3e ROM, (DivIDE +3e ROM) and the DivIDE (16bit IDE) I have been able to format and partition a 64MB CF Card and put snap-shots onto the unit with 3e strowstraw (+3e File Browser ) - It wascertainly a joy to type the following on a taget machine (my +3)
SPECTRUM "C:SCRUE128.Z80"

And in under 15 seconds the game fully loaded at the intro screen =)


However, its the 8bit version that causing me a bit of a problem. Unfortunately 3e strowstraw wont allow for half-cluster size, so HDF's made under the 8bit IDE +3e ROM are not compatible..

So how do I get a multitude of snap-shots onto this 8bit formatted device?


What have I tried?

I have used eightyone to create a 32MB HDF, using the SM8EN +3e ROM.

I have sucessfully partitioned created basic programs, loaded and saved etc. I have also been sucessfull in using a pre-prepped tools HDF.

What I need to be able to do is

1. Add snapshots to an 8bit +3e (half-cluster) formatted HDF
2. Add snapshots to an 8bit +3e (half-cluster) device.

Any help / ideas would be welcome.

Thanks for reading.
Post edited by Zetr0 on

Comments

  • edited July 2011
    got an external floppy attached?

    If so stick your z80 snaps on a 720k dos floppy, then copy them to the hard disk using garry's MSDOS utility

    alternatively create a 720k +3DOS format floppy and transfer the files onto that on the PC with an appropriate utility. Then you can just copy b: to c: on the +3
  • edited July 2011
    Thanks Guesser,

    would there be any other ways?

    perhaps under emulation?
  • edited July 2011
    Hi

    Zetr0 wrote: »
    Hello there my fellow WoSer's

    However, its the 8bit version that causing me a bit of a problem. Unfortunately 3e strowstraw wont allow for half-cluster size, so HDF's made under the 8bit IDE +3e ROM are not compatible..

    Thanks for reading.

    There isn't any simple way to do it :-(

    I use a CF 8bits version in my spectrum +2E and I always wish someone make this application (I don't have this knowlegde).

    The only way I found is:

    Make z80 files with a emulator.
    Use CPCFS to pass files to a dsk http://hardware.speccy.org/temp/cpcfs.html
    Use eightone emulator to pass dsk to real CF http://hardware.speccy.org/temp/eightone.html

    Bye

    Jos? Leandro
  • edited July 2011
    Could Gasman's recently-updated hdfmonkey be used for this?
  • edited July 2011
    Zetr0 wrote: »
    Thanks Guesser,

    would there be any other ways?

    perhaps under emulation?

    simply use a +3dos disk image in place of the +3dos floppy in my second suggestion.
  • edited July 2011
    zxbruno wrote: »
    Could Gasman's recently-updated hdfmonkey be used for this?

    I don't think so, as I understand the +3e uses its own filesystem format based on +3 DOS, whereas hdfmonkey only works with FAT. I could be wrong though...
  • edited July 2011
    gasman wrote: »
    I don't think so, as I understand the +3e uses its own filesystem format based on +3 DOS, whereas hdfmonkey only works with FAT. I could be wrong though...

    Yes, the +3e uses +3DOS partitions on an IDEDOS partitioned hard disk. It's rather a shame that the 3E utility can't work with half sector disks. I don't know if it's still being developed, but if not the source is available so perhaps someone could add support.
  • edited July 2011
    What about this?
    Update - 27 July 2009

    An exciting new utility is currently under development by Miguel Angel Rodriguez Jodar. Named 3e, this is a command-line utility allowing you to copy files between your PC (Windows, Mac or Unix) and a hard disk/card or HDF file formatted for use on the ZX Spectrum +3e. Although this is currently only alpha software, and has several restrictions, it is already an extremely useful utility. You can find the latest version at http://www.zxprojects.com/images/stories/3e_card_manager/3e.zip

    Miguel Angel is McLeodIdeaFix. Miguel, any chance your utility could be used for what they need?
  • edited July 2011
    zxbruno wrote: »
    What about this?



    Miguel Angel is McLeodIdeaFix. Miguel, any chance your utility could be used for what they need?

    Aha, it's McLeod's utility. Now I know who to pester :)
  • edited July 2011
    I think I better disappear for a couple hours...

    /me runs
  • edited July 2011
    zxbruno wrote: »
    I think I better disappear for a couple hours...

    /me runs

    rofl :lol:
  • edited July 2011
    About the "3e" utility. Halved sized sector devices is WIP. I got a binary image of a Compact Flash device formatted and used this way (I only have +3e with DivIDE and ZXMMC). If such update hasn't been already performed is only because halved sized sectors require a rewrite of the low-level functions that perform sector read/writes, so the accesses are "sector size independent". Well, and because I'm too lazy :D
  • edited July 2011
    About the "3e" utility. Halved sized sector devices is WIP. I got a binary image of a Compact Flash device formatted and used this way (I only have +3e with DivIDE and ZXMMC). If such update hasn't been already performed is only because halved sized sectors require a rewrite of the low-level functions that perform sector read/writes, so the accesses are "sector size independent". Well, and because I'm too lazy :D

    I feel your pain, I have the opposite problem, all my code is only tested on half sectors as I have no 16 bit device :D

    Oh, while I remember, there's another "feature request" from someone on irc. That is IDEDOS system partitions starting on Head 1 rather than Head 0. i.e. disks with an IBM PC MBR on C0,H0,S1
  • edited July 2011
    guesser wrote: »
    there's another "feature request" from someone on irc. That is IDEDOS system partitions starting on Head 1 rather than Head 0. i.e. disks with an IBM PC MBR on C0,H0,S1

    Ok! Yes, you're right. The so called DOS compatibility mode that Garry introduced so that you can share a CF/SD with DOS partitions and IDEDOS volumes...
  • edited July 2011
    Ok! Yes, you're right. The so called DOS compatibility mode that Garry introduced so that you can share a CF/SD with DOS partitions and IDEDOS volumes...

    Yup, he had to hack a fixed offset into the code to get at his partitions which was a bit clumsy :)
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