64 MB HD for your Adam

[Milli Vee]

http://smartbasic.net/2018/04/24/64-mb-hard-disk-for-your-adam/

 

Milli

[ValkerieSilk]

Very Cool... Thank You

[phattyboombatty]

Can you elaborate on the best way to use this technology? I understood some details about the 100 partitions when the VDD was announced, but what is the advantage of a 64 MB hard disk?

[Milli Vee]

Can you elaborate on the best way to use this technology? I understood some details about the 100 partitions when the VDD was announced, but what is the advantage of a 64 MB hard disk?

It's still early - but its like asking what the benefit of a HD was over a diskette. With a big image like this it opens up the possibility of a new DOS (or a real one) for the adam.

 

Milli

[phattyboombatty]

Thats a great point. I imagine that 64 MB is large enough for a decent OS for the Coleco Adam. Would this OS partition be able to access the other slices? That would be pretty sweet!

[Milli Vee]

Thats a great point. I imagine that 64 MB is large enough for a decent OS for the Coleco Adam. Would this OS partition be able to access the other slices? That would be pretty sweet!

There is no way to switch images so that would be a manual thing

[jblenkle]

I posted this over on Milli's page, but I'll post it here too...

 

OK, I gave this a test drive and was able to save and retrieve a couple of word processing files.

Then I loaded SmartBasic and did a directory and saw the two files there.

Then I copied some SmartBasic programs to the 64mb disk, loaded SmartBasic, and was able to run some of the files off the 64mb disk. Some wouldn’t run, but then I discovered they wouldn’t run on the original disk either. There was an inaccurate block count on the 160k disk leading me to believe it was probably incorrectly copied from a ddp.

It works!!!

But then it brought up a couple of questions:
1. How many files can be stored on this disk? On a regular disk there is only room for a certain number of file names in the directory. How big is the directory on this disk?

2. Is it good for anything else besides storing data or word processing files?

3. Haven’t tried it yet, but I be believe programs like SmartFiler create a data disk with entries limited by the size of the disk. Would this create a super-large database or would SmartFiler think it was a 160k disk?

 

Adding to this...would it be possible to create a SmartBasic bootable version of this disk, so you could have SmartBasic boot directly and then have lots of room to save files?

Edited April 24, 2018 by jblenkle

[Milli Vee]

 

 

Adding to this...would it be possible to create a SmartBasic bootable version of this disk, so you could have SmartBasic boot directly and then have lots of room to save files?

 

It should use the same process as copying the boot record and smart basic from tape to disk with the only caveat being you have to change the directory values. I used an 8 block directory not a single block like a disk

 

Milli

[jblenkle]

That's probably above my pay grade...

 

 

It should use the same process as copying the boot record and smart basic from tape to disk with the only caveat being you have to change the directory values. I used an 8 block directory not a single block like a disk

 

Milli

[NIAD]

Joe... it's simple. Just initialize the 64Mb HD image file on the VDD with an 8 block directory which it sounds like Milli has already done. Then copy block 0 from a disk version of SmartBasic to block 0 of the 64mb image file on the VDD. Then file copy the BASICPGM file from the disk version of SmartBasic to the 64mb image file on the VDD. All set!

[Milli Vee]

Joe... it's simple. Just initialize the 64Mb HD image file on the VDD with an 8 block directory which it sounds like Milli has already done. Then copy block 0 from a disk version of SmartBasic to block 0 of the 64mb image file on the VDD. Then file copy the BASICPGM file from the disk version of SmartBasic to the 64mb image file on the VDD. All set!

Let me know how this goes - I dont have a disk drive so I can't do it with just the VDD, at least I dont think I can - I havent found how to "disk swap" using file manager

 

Milli

[jblenkle]

I'll give it a try, but I've tried copying SmartBasic that way before and it never seems to work.

 

Joe... it's simple. Just initialize the 64Mb HD image file on the VDD with an 8 block directory which it sounds like Milli has already done. Then copy block 0 from a disk version of SmartBasic to block 0 of the 64mb image file on the VDD. Then file copy the BASICPGM file from the disk version of SmartBasic to the 64mb image file on the VDD. All set!

[jblenkle]

Nope...no luck...I took the 64mb disk image and copied Block 0 from a disk with SmartBasic on it to the 64mb disk. Then I did a file copy of SmartBasic to the 64mb disk and tried to boot it.

 

It just went to SmartWriter.

 

 

 

Joe... it's simple. Just initialize the 64Mb HD image file on the VDD with an 8 block directory which it sounds like Milli has already done. Then copy block 0 from a disk version of SmartBasic to block 0 of the 64mb image file on the VDD. Then file copy the BASICPGM file from the disk version of SmartBasic to the 64mb image file on the VDD. All set!

[NIAD]

I'll give it a try, but I've tried copying SmartBasic that way before and it never seems to work.

 

 

Nope...no luck...I took the 64mb disk image and copied Block 0 from a disk with SmartBasic on it to the 64mb disk. Then I did a file copy of SmartBasic to the 64mb disk and tried to boot it. It just went to SmartWriter.

I have used this method for far too many years to even remember. If I find some time, I will test things out myself and if it works... post the resulting 64Mb image file here.

[jblenkle]

If the Boot Block is 0 and there is an 8 block directory does the Boot Block know to find SmartBasic starting at Block 9 or does it need to be modified somehow to tell it to look there?

 

 

I have used this method for far too many years to even remember. If I find some time, I will test things out myself and if it works... post the resulting 64Mb image file here.

[NIAD]

If the Boot Block is 0 and there is an 8 block directory does the Boot Block know to find SmartBasic starting at Block 9 or does it need to be modified somehow to tell it to look there

Doesn't matter. The boot block for SmartBasic tells the computer to load the BASICPGM file... wherever it exists on the data pack, disk, image file, etc.