Msg: 5816 *Conference*
05-24-95 22:25:06
From: RICHARD HANSON
To : BILL BUDENHOLZER
Subj: REPLY TO MSG #5815 (WANT TO BUY)
Bill ... I took your package down to UPS earlier this week. You should have it either late this week or early next week. I shipped UPS due to the weight of the magazines. > By the way...I just got the TPDD2(?) but it is missing the user's manual. You really don't need the manual. If you can get your money back from Rat Shack let me know. I have plenty of extras and will gladly just send you one. > In the box was the drive, the cable and a Utilities disk. Should there > be a cassette too? There was never a cassette. > Do I need to type some magic command to tell the 100 about the drive. Booting the TPDD2 is VERY EASY. Download file #11 in the (H)elpfiles off the top menu. > My Ultimate II ROM doesn't want to talk to it (works fine with the > original drive though). Okay ... let's cover some basic facts about the URII, the TPDD with FLOPPY.CO (Rat Shack No. 26-3808) and TPDD2 with FLOPPY (Rat Shack No. 26-3814), and a bunch of stuff about TS-DOS v4.0. TS-DOS is actually DOS100.CO for the Model 100/102, DOS200.CO for the Model 200,and DOSNEC.CO for the NEC PC8201A. The URII for a Model 100/102 has a loader that looks for a file called DOS100.CO ... it loads it and runs it. The URII for the Model 200 looks for DOS200.CO. The URII for the NEC PC8201A looks for DOSNEC.CO. Version 4.0 of TS-DOS will read both the TPDD and TPDD2 without any intervention from you. It contains the code for both the TPDD and TPDD2. This is a very powerful feature. If you had a TPDD and had TS-DOS for the TPDD, then the URII would be able to load and run the DOS100.CO file from your TPDD. Now, here's the first kicker: A TPDD2 will read files from a TPDD disk. Thus, your URII should easily read the DOS100.CO file from your TPDD2 diskette without a hitch. Now, here's the second kicker: If you rename FLOPPY.CO on a disk to DOS100.CO, the URII will read it just as if it was TS-DOS ... from either drive if the diskette is TPDD format. Following all this is the fact that even though FLOPPY.CO can be loaded and run from a TPDD disk in a TPDD2 drive, FLOPPY.CO (regardless of how it's renamed) will not read a TPDD2. The TPDD2 is readable by FLOPPY or TS-DOS v1.4. Questions, questions, questions, followed by answers, answers, answers. Ain't technology grand? :) -Rick-