Disk Manager versions

[Count9929A]

I am a real newbe concerning floppies, as I am starting only in these days to make real use of my PEB. Experimenting various managers, I became curious about the differences among the versions of the TI Disk Manager. At first sight, it seems to me that they only differ in minor details.

The menu structure seems the same, however I see that in DM3 one selects commands by just pressing numbers, while in previous versions it is necessary to press the number + ENTER.

The only difference that I spotted between DM1 and 2 is that in the catalog command, after answering all questions (select drive, etc) it is necessary to press PROC'D before the list of files is displayed on the screen.

 

Apart from interface differences, feature-wise I noticed just one difference: DM3 seems to support up to 4 drives (a TI99/8 feature?), the other just 3.

 

Is there more that I have not yet discovered?

 

One more question: was DM3 officially sold by TI before retiring, or it is just a pre-release version that was discovered in the archives?

Probaly this has been said many times, but I could not find any info about DM3

 

 

 

 

 

[Shift838]

The DiskManager 3 is decent and yes it supports up to 4 drives provided you have a disk controller that will support of to that many.  the original TI FDC only supports 3.  There is a version of the TI FDC (never released, but a few are floating around out there) that support up to 4 drives and are DS/DD.

 

As far as Disk Managers are concerned for the TI, my go to is Fred Kaal's DM2k.  Much more versatile than and of the TI Disk Manager (1, 2 or 3).

 

It runs from EA or off a FlashROM or Final GROM board as well as other cartridge boards it can be loaded into.

 

I don't recall DM3 actually ever being sold by TI as a release.  I have had it for quite some time, the first time I think i saw it was on one of my hacked Super Extended Basic cartridges that came in a TI lot i purchased years ago.  It had DM3 and Editor Assembler.  It was kinda cool, but you can tell it's a home DIY job of someone.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Shift838

[atrax27407]

 Fred has released V3.0 of DM2K 

[+arcadeshopper]

diskmanagers:

TI: DM1(released with the sidecar dc), DM2(relased with the pbox dc), DM3(pretty sure never released or just prototyped but is for use with the ds/dd controller) 

Myarc: MDM (up to version V(5)) (disk based sold with their disk controllers/hfdc)

Corcomp: CCDM (disk based sold with their pbox and sidecar ds/dd controllers)

DM1000: PD disk based also included in rom format for GK packers and other multicarts/suites

DM2000: (DM2K) By Fred Kaal, disk based available also in rom and on multicart/suites.. latest version is 3.0  also is the only dm being currently developed

CFMGR: patched version of dm1000 for nanopeb/cf7 management

 

did I miss any?

[atrax27407]

Disk Utils V 4.2

Disk Review (in the F'web package)

[+Ksarul]

On DM3, most copies in circulation are prototypes (assembled on EGROM boards). There was a qualification run done near the end using actual GROM chips, but I have only seen a few survivors of the 150 or so made to do the qualification run. I have one, and I believe @acadielhas another one of the qualification units. The EGROM versions actually come in two variants: one with the standard title screen and one with a banner stating it was for the Dallas TI Engineering User's Group at the top, but which is otherwise identical to the others. Counting the qual unit, I have all three variants.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Disk One, by John Birdwell.  Sadly, it was left unfinished due to his passing.  It worked similarly to Disk Utilities (file manager  and sector utilities)  except it worked with floppy and hard disk devices.

[Casey]

DM3 was going to be bundled with the Hex Bus floppy disk controller/drive, right?  (That’s my recollection from reading the manual a while back).  The Hex Bus controller was designed for 4 drives also?  (1 drive/controller, and 3 drives without controllers?).

 

I do wish the Hex Bus interface and peripherals had been released for the 99/4A.  Would have made for a much more cost effective system.

[+acadiel]

On DM3, most copies in circulation are prototypes (assembled on EGROM boards). There was a qualification run done near the end using actual GROM chips, but I have only seen a few survivors of the 150 or so made to do the qualification run. I have one, and I believe [mention=22866]acadiel[/mention]has another one of the qualification units. The EGROM versions actually come in two variants: one with the standard title screen and one with a banner stating it was for the Dallas TI Engineering User's Group at the top, but which is otherwise identical to the others. Counting the qual unit, I have all three variants.

Yup.

[Fritz442]

Does anyone have a version of 'Super Disk Manager v4.0' that can be burned to a eprom to use

on a cart board like a Red Board. I would like to have it as a single cart like 'Disk manager 2'.

I have only found a grom version 'Super Disk Manager v4.0 (1984)(99-4A Users Group).G.BIN' and

and a Gram Kracker dump. Or can these be converted to that?

It is on my Finalgrom cart but would like it as a separate cartridge.

[+Ksarul]

Since it has a GROM, you could put it into an UberGROM cartridge to make a standalone cartridge out of it. You would just have to load the data into the appropriate number of the Atmel 1284P GROM slots using a programmer capable of writing to it. That would make a permanent cartridge of the program.