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Have a working "Option Board", but no clue how create disk image files

P

Peter z80.eu

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2016
Messages
84
Hello all,

meanwhile I have inserted in my Compaq Portable (the first one) an Option Board from Central Point, and it works well for duplicating 40 tracks DD floppy disks (with TransCopy).
But it would be much more interesting to get disk image files from it. I've read, there was a patched Transcopy version named "OPTIONP", but the program looked almost identical compared to the not patched original TransCopy software. Also, there was no option to save an image file (even with the "OPTIONP" version ... named "option pirate"). Is there any software existing for the Option Board which makes it possible to create such floppy disk image files ?

Edit later: I own the very first version of the Option Board. I can't run newer Transcopy version like 5.x ...
 
Last edited:
I have COPYIIPC v3.08 and v5.00 and I have TransCopy v2.7 and v4.3 if any of those are of interest.

Can't you make an image of the floppy after you have copied it?
 
Stone said:
I have COPYIIPC v3.08 and v5.00 and I have TransCopy v2.7 and v4.3 if any of those are of interest.

Can't you make an image of the floppy after you have copied it?
Click to expand...

I don't understand.... I wrote already I have a Compaq Portable with only 2 floppy disk drives, an Option Board (non Deluxe, just the first one) and some TransCopy version below 5.x.
I can make duplicates of a floppy disk, so as a result, I get another 2nd floppy disk which works well, but isn't an image file still.
How can I make an image file with TransCopy from a copied Kaypro disk for example ??
 
I guess you're not the right person to answer my question. Regardless of this, I have the solution for my problem - just with two floppy drives it isn't possible to make image files. I've connected a ZIP drive at the Parallel Port (there is a special DOS driver which runs with XT compatibles so this works even with the Compaq Portable) and tried to use C: as the target drive. NOW it asks me for a filename. Solved.
 
Peter,

You need a hard drive ...

The image files generated by Transcopy are larger than what fits on a floppy disk. On a hard drive equipped system you'll see an option to read and write from image files on another drive.
 
Stone said:
Really?

I've made image files with just ONE floppy drive. :)
Click to expand...


How is one supposed to stuff a 1MB+ image of a diskette onto a 360KB diskette?

Transcopy doesn't work that way. The images are much larger than what a single diskette holds. I don't know what you did, but it doesn't make much sense.
 
Stone said:
I didn't say I used Transcopy or 360k diskettes to make the images.
Click to expand...

The original poster is specifically asking about the Option Board, which implies that they want to make images using the Option Board. Anything else is off topic and irrelevant.

Please, do not interject in conversations this way. It is not helpful.
 
mbbrutman said:
How is one supposed to stuff a 1MB+ image of a diskette onto a 360KB diskette?
Click to expand...
Realtime drive compression and an alternate 10-sector format bootsting the actual capacity to ~420k? :)

Might actually fit some times, but in this case, I think writing files to a second floppy drive while the software is running is likely impossible due to the funky things the software does. On top of that, the software already knows that so it will not give that option in the first place.

Peter z80, Just plop an XT-IDE in the system and solve all your problems. (is there a free ISA slot?).

A couple of other possibilities, if you want to do things the hard way, might include some kind of network drive, or a very large EMS card with a ramdisk.
 
A transcopy image of a DSDD 360K disk is roughly 1MB, so you will need a larger storage solution as previously mentioned. Hard drive, XT-IDE, ZIP drive, etc.

Most transcopy images floating around were made with the last version of the software. Images are not compatible between the Deluxe OB and the original OB, and the newest software only worked with the DOB, so hopefully you have a DOB.

Software and documentation here: ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/OptionBoard/
 
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