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Posted By

JamesC
on 2017-05-07
23:56:35

Re: identify drive #

Did you receive a 1541 Test/Demo disk with one of your disk drives? On that disk, the UNI-COPY program is a file copier (you can choose which files to copy to another disk). It supports the C16, as well as one or two disk drives.

It would be helpful to know which disk drives you have, whether you're trying to copy individual files or an entire disk, and if you have any other Commodore equipment available.

Posted By

SmileBr\e
on 2017-05-07
23:27:13

Re: identify drive #

Anything like a NTSC16 copy program for un-expanded model ?
I attempted a program called Duplicator, it offered two different copy choices...
either I don't have a device drive with two floppy spots, or maybe I thought it was for a data cassette . At least it is clear that the DEVICE# is for each drive, and a UNIT# is for multi drive.
---- there are some c16 programs that say they use copy command, but some of them also have DOS command in the menu list. I felt there was a way to use a UNIT to copy a file, but I only have attempted this on the same floppy. Actually have found copy seq and copy rel ; but as far as I can tell this is only for one disk, and furthermore, I haven't got a rel file, and the seq files are hard to use.

Posted By

SVS
on 2017-05-02
14:53:17

Re: identify drive #

Only a few words I can add to the good explaination of JamesC:

The 1551 drive has its dedicated command to modify the UNIT #:

OPEN 15,8,15,"%" ---> This command toggles between 8 and 9
OPEN 15,8,15,"%9" ---> This command sets 9

Posted By

JamesC
on 2017-05-02
06:56:00

Re: identify drive #

First, let's start with some simple definitions:
UNIT is the disk drive, such as a Commodore 1541, 1571, or 1581.

DRIVE is the number assigned to a slot WITHIN a disk unit. If there's only one slot to hold a diskette, then that slot is always DRIVE 0, you cannot change this. If there are two slots within the same unit, then one slot is DRIVE 0 and the other DRIVE 1.

Let's not use the word DEVICE, because Commodore documentation defines that as ANY input or output ... well, device. You input from device 0 (the keyboard) and output to device 3 (the screen), for example. A printer is a device, a modem is a device. So is a tape drive (a Datasette).

Now, the next thing you need to know: every disk drive is UNIT 8 from the factory. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. If you have two disk drives, one of them needs to be told to answer to a different UNIT number.

If one of your disk drives is a Commodore 1541-II, a 1571, or a 1581, then changing the UNIT number is easy. Look at the dip switches on the back of the drive, and set them like this:
UNIT 8: both switches up
UNIT 9: left switch down, right switch up
UNIT 10: left switch up, right switch down
UNIT 11: both switches down
Turn the drive off and on again to finalize the change.

If both of your drives are Commodore straight 1541s (including the VIC-1541 and 1541-C) then you'll have to soft-mod the UNIT number for one of them. (By soft-mod, I mean a temporary change. When you reset the drive, or turn it off, this change is lost.)

To soft-mod a 1541, be sure that the one you want to be UNIT 8 is turned off. Turn the other one on (the one you want to answer to UNIT 9), and run this program:
10 N = 9
20 OPEN 15,8,15 : PRINT#15, "M-W", CHR$(119) CHR$(0) CHR$(2) CHR$(N + 32) CHR$(N + 64)
30 CLOSE 15
Put a formatted disk in, and DIRECTORY U9 to verify that the soft-mod worked. If so, turn the other drive on (the one that stays UNIT 8). Now you can run your file copier program.

If you have a Commodore 1551: the first 1551 is always UNIT 8, a second 1551 will magically configure itself to be UNIT 9.

All that is on the hardware side. For the software side:
1. the COPY command in the Plus/4 only works on the same UNIT. Use this to duplicate a file on the same diskette, such as COPY "MY DATA.FILE" TO "MY DATA.BACKUP" ON U8.
2. you cannot use the BACKUP command to back up a diskette in one UNIT to a diskette in another UNIT.
3. to get around these restrictions, you need a file copy program (or a diskette copy program). Depending on your goal, one of the copier programs on your 1541 Test/Demo diskette might work.

@gerliczer -- there were a few serial drives in North America that answered to D1. The MSD SD-2 is a complete dual drive; the Indus GT has a phantom D1 in ROM that holds C64 disk manipulation programs.

Posted By

gerliczer
on 2017-05-02
00:57:26

Re: identify drive #

Do you have a drive that has two drive mechanisms installed? You can't use any device that is physically not there. Device number is the ordinal number of a drive built in the same unit. AFAIK, there are only old IEEE-488 drives that are manufacturered this way.

Posted By

SmileBr\e
on 2017-05-01
19:16:22

identify drive #

I was going to use a program, or a simple command to copy files from one drive to another drive serial connected , but I found out that my drives were connected to D0 and the unit# was ok with that. I want to know how to re-name a drive as another device.
directoryD0,U9 worked ...... how is DEVICE 1 used ?