Hello all.

I have a couple of CMD Zip-Drives and a couple of CMD-formatted disks.
I'm trying to format several more for use using "Create Sys", but have
thus far failed horribly.  WRITE ERROR 2, SCSI ERROR 2, and other
nonsense is plaguing all of my attempts.  I've tried numerous different
PC-formatted zip disks, and have tried on both of my CMD Zip Drives
(Both of which read and write my already formatted disks just fine).

Can *anyone* else with a CMD-Zip Drive offer a comment on this problem.
 Even if all you can say is "I run create sys on new disks all the time
and never have any problems", it would be very helpful.  I really need
some more disks set up to work with, and am at my wits end.

Heck, if nothing else, can someone suggest a way to copy my existing
disks?  That might be the short-cut around "Create Sys".

- Bo

wow i wish i could use my scsi zip drive with my commodore 64
i havent used it since 1998 when my dell came with a zipdrive

but i havent used my commodore 64 for quite a while about the same time
i threw away my 486 since then my x1541 cable didnt work anymore so i
quit copying downloaded games back to disk

i never found a working version of rygar and roadblasters for ntsc
commodre 64c

commie <bo@zimmers.net> wrote:
> Can *anyone* else with a CMD-Zip Drive offer a comment on this problem.

Bo, here's an exerpt from the HDZip/HDJaz manual addendum:

************************ snip

Have your computer powered up with a floppy drive containing the
HD Utilities disk. Load and run CREATE SYS. When the program starts
up, it will ask you to press both swap buttons while pressing reset
on the drive. Before doing this, insert the new disk into the drive
and just press and release the reset button by itself. You'll see
the activity lights blinking and the access light on the Zip or Jaz
mechanism will light up. You might also hear the disk spinning up
if it hasn't already. Now with the disk still in the drive, press
and HOLD the reset button. While still holding the reset button,
press and hold both swap buttons together. While still holding the
swap buttons, release the reset button. Within a second, the activity
lights should go out. You may then release the swap buttons. Your
drive is now in a mode that will allow you to install HD-DOS onto
the new disk.

Now press RETURN on your computer to continue with CREATE SYS. You'll
be prompted to enter a starting block. It's best to set this to '0'.
Once you've done this, CREATE SYS will continue to create a system
partition and install the DOS.

************************** end of snip

The key is in pressing the reset button by itself before putting
the drive into config mode. This gets the zip disk spinning. That's
an important part. Follow the above sequence exactly including the
exact method of pressing the reset button and swap buttons. Don't
delay for very long either. You have to do this whole process without
stopping. If you take too long between steps, the zip disk might
spin down and then the install will fail.

-Maurice

-- 
** Maurice Randall - Click Here Software Co.
** High-Performance for your Commodore
** email: maurice@cmdrkey.com, support@cmdrkey.com
** web: http://cmdrkey.com

Maurice Randall wrote:

>commie <bo@zimmers.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>Can *anyone* else with a CMD-Zip Drive offer a comment on this problem.
>>    
>>
>
>Bo, here's an exerpt from the HDZip/HDJaz manual addendum:
>
>************************ snip
>
>Have your computer powered up with a floppy drive containing the
>HD Utilities disk. Load and run CREATE SYS. When the program starts
>up, it will ask you to press both swap buttons while pressing reset
>on the drive. Before doing this, insert the new disk into the drive
>and just press and release the reset button by itself. You'll see
>the activity lights blinking and the access light on the Zip or Jaz
>mechanism will light up. You might also hear the disk spinning up
>if it hasn't already. Now with the disk still in the drive, press
>and HOLD the reset button. While still holding the reset button,
>press and hold both swap buttons together. While still holding the
>swap buttons, release the reset button. Within a second, the activity
>lights should go out. You may then release the swap buttons. Your
>drive is now in a mode that will allow you to install HD-DOS onto
>the new disk.
>
>Now press RETURN on your computer to continue with CREATE SYS. You'll
>be prompted to enter a starting block. It's best to set this to '0'.
>Once you've done this, CREATE SYS will continue to create a system
>partition and install the DOS.
>
>************************** end of snip
>
>The key is in pressing the reset button by itself before putting
>the drive into config mode. This gets the zip disk spinning. That's
>an important part. Follow the above sequence exactly including the
>exact method of pressing the reset button and swap buttons. Don't
>delay for very long either. You have to do this whole process without
>stopping. If you take too long between steps, the zip disk might
>spin down and then the install will fail.
>
>-Maurice
>
>  
>
Can that be accomplished by just running a program?

-- 
Payton Byrd
Homepage - http://www.paytonbyrd.com
Blog - http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/visualbasic/dotnet/
Store - http://stores.ebay.com/Collectible-Commodores-and-More

"Maurice Randall" <maurice@cmdrkey.com> wrote in message
> commie <bo@zimmers.net> wrote:
> > Can *anyone* else with a CMD-Zip Drive offer a comment on this problem.
>
> Bo, here's an exerpt from the HDZip/HDJaz manual addendum:
>
> ************************ snip

Hi Maurice,

What else is covered in the HDZip/HDJaz manual addendum?

I bought a second hand HD and installed the Zip drive myself. It took a bit
of playing around to figure out the steps to format a Zip disk (and you are
right about the timing having to be correct) and it was never easy to repeat
the process.

Is the Addendum available for separate purchase? I don't see it anywhere in
the store on the cmdrkey.com web site.

Thanks.

Bruce

Payton Byrd <plbyrd@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Can that be accomplished by just running a program?

CREATE SYS is a program. It has always required the actual user
to manually put the drive into configuration mode rather than give
software the ability to do this. It's sort of a safety feature.

With the Zip disk, there's an extra step involved and that requires
getting the zip disk spinning because the program and the routines
in the HD rom don't wait for the drive to spin up. CREATE SYS and
the rom routines were written for fixed hard disks which are already
spinning.

-Maurice

-- 
** Maurice Randall - Click Here Software Co.
** High-Performance for your Commodore
** email: maurice@cmdrkey.com, support@cmdrkey.com
** web: http://cmdrkey.com

Bruce Thomas <rbthomas59@shaw.ca> wrote:
> What else is covered in the HDZip/HDJaz manual addendum?

There isn't much, it's only 4 pages long. It educates the user
on the fact that if you change the zip disk, you must press the
reset button so the new partition table is read into memory and
also the fact that the device number might change if the user
configured different device numbers on different disks. It also
covers how to properly change disks from within Wheels, since
the reset button should not be pressed while the HD is used in
GEOS or Wheels.

-Maurice

-- 
** Maurice Randall - Click Here Software Co.
** High-Performance for your Commodore
** email: maurice@cmdrkey.com, support@cmdrkey.com
** web: http://cmdrkey.com