XU1541 drive compatibility

[+OLD CS1]

I recently received my XU1541. After a few years of using an XM1541 cable with Windows XP x64, I found this no longer worked under Windows 7 x64 due to driver signing requirements. The only way to get this old parallel cable to work is to put Windows 7 into an insecure operation mode.

 

I ran into a problem initially with the remnants of the drivers from XP x64 after using PC Mover to migrate to the new OS. (PC Mover, though it has numerous quirks, is a great program.)

 

What I had to do was search for all *cbm*.* files in C:\Windows and remove them (some DLLs, and an INI, in system32 and syswow64.) Then after running the CBMXfer installer per instructions all has been working great. The GUI is nice, though I often fall back to the command line (cbmctrl, d64copy, etc.)

 

All of the programs mention specifically 1541 compatibility: cbmformat, cbmctrl, d64copy, for instance. The formats are fast and the D64 transfers are very fast with the 1541 and 1571, but hang on the MSD SD-2. As well, cbmctrl -detect returns an unknown drive.

 

Does anyone have any specific knowledge of using the MSD SD-2 or Enhancer 2000 with the CBM tools? I do not really want to throw one of my real Commodore drives to this setup, as I would rather have them in my 64/128 stacks.

 

BTW, if you are using a 1571 with the CBMxfer GUI, when you format a drive it will ask if you want to format double-sided so you can still easily format 1541-compatible disks.

[+OLD CS1]

I was finally able to answer my own question: no, the Enhancer 2000 is not recognized by the utilities. Too bad; it is a nice, sleek little unit. In fact, unlike with the MSD-2, any attempt to use the Enhancer 2000 in any capacity (format, read directory, etc.) resulted in a lock-up. At least with the MSD-2 I could do pretty much everything just not with turbo.

[+OLD CS1]

Just a quick update. I recently picked up an Indus GT and found that it works great with the XU1541 and the OpenCBM tools (including the CBMXfer GUI.) It is still not as fast as the 1571, but it works well. Of course, the nice thing about the Indus GT is the track display, so when creating or writing images you can see the current track in the event of a problem.

[+OLD CS1]

I had an interesting experience today. While sorting through my drives I needed to determine which ones worked, did not work, and which were JiffyDOS. I connected one of the 1541-IIs and...

 

C:\CBMXfer>cbmctrl.exe detect
9: JiffyDOS 1541

 

WHAT? It actually recognizes JiffyDOS. It did not do this with a JiffyDOS-enabled 1571. I did some testing and, sure enough, D64 transfers work perfectly. Interesting, I says as I scratch my chin.

 

Now I am curious as to what can and cannot actually be recognized by OpenCBM. Therefore, I shall be testing every single drive I have, JiffyDOS and otherwise, and create a table of compatibility information.

[Oge]

Enhancer 2000 (also known as Oceanic OC-118) works with XM-1541 under Windows. Grat drive, BTW, reliable and capable of sector-per-sector checking while dumping using CBM4WINGUI.

[+OLD CS1]

Are you sure you are not thinking about the Excelerator+?