Disk-2-Disk Demonstration Notes and Manual Dear Amiga User, Greetings from Betty and George Chamberlain, Central Coast Software, authors of Disk-2-Disk. We made this copy of Disk-2-Disk available to you so that you can try it out, see how it works, and decide if the program will be useful to you before you buy it. Feel free to duplicate this demonstration version and pass it along to anyone else who may be interested. All we ask is that you don't modify the program in any way, and that you include these notes with all copies. What is Disk-2-Disk? Disk-2-Disk is a program written for the Amiga which lets you read and write Commodore 1541/1571 diskettes on your Amiga. Using Disk-2-Disk, you can bring over all your C64/C128 text and data files to your Amiga for use with Amiga programs. Disk-2-Disk converts Commodore "PET" ASCII files to Amiga ASCII. Does Disk-2-Disk let me run my C64 or C128 programs on the Amiga? No. Disk-2-Disk is a file transfer utility program only. It lets you transfer any type of C64/C128 file to the Amiga, including PRG files. But if you try to run a C64/C128 program on the Amiga, the program will "crash", and you will quickly be visited by the Guru! At the moment, we know of no program to emulate the C64 on the Amiga. What about programs written in BASIC? Can't I run them with Amiga BASIC? In most cases, yes. If you can LIST the program on your C64, you can write it out to your 1541 disk as a SEQ file in ASCII text form. Then you can transfer it to the Amiga using Disk-2-Disk, specifying upper/lower case ASCII conversion. Next use the BASDIF function to mark any differences between Commodore BASIC and Amiga BASIC. Then load the program into Amiga BASIC and look for any statements which must be changed, as marked by BASDIF. After you make all the required changes, the program should run under Amiga BASIC. Some commercial programs written in BASIC cannot be LISTed. If the program cannot be listed, then you cannot put it into a form for use on the Amiga. Can I use my 1541 or 1571 disk drive from my C64/C128 on the Amiga? No. You cannot directly connect these Commodore disk drives to the Amiga. With special hardware modifications it might be possible to do so, but at this time we know of no way to do this. Where can I buy Disk-2-Disk and what does it cost? Disk-2-Disk is priced at $49.95. It is available from many Amiga dealers, or directly from: Central Coast Software 268 Bowie Drive Los Osos, CA 93402 (805) 528-4906 Include $3.00 shipping/handling. California residents add 6% sales tax. We accept MasterCard and VISA. Why should I buy a 5.25-inch drive for my Amiga just to transfer a few Commodore files? You don't have to! Central Coast Software now offers a disk conversion service to transfer your 1541/1571 disks to Amiga 3.5-inch disks. Each 1541 or 1571 disk is converted to an exact equivalent disk image on an Amiga 3.5-inch disk. (We do not combine multiple 1541's to a single Amiga disk.) The service costs $15 plus $6.50 per disk. **************************************************************************** * CAUTION - WE CAN ONLY CONVERT C64/C128 DISKS WHICH ARE FORMATTED IN THE * * STANDARD 35-TRACK, 256-BYTE SECTOR SIZE. WE CANNOT CONVERT DISKS WHICH * * ARE COPY-PROTECTED USING NON-STANDARD SECTOR SIZES OR OTHER NON-STANDARD * * FORMATTING TRICKS. * **************************************************************************** With your 1541/1571 disk image on an Amiga 3.5-inch disk, you must then use Disk-2-Disk to convert the Commodore-format files into Amiga files, applying the appropriate ASCII conversion and BASDIF, if necessary. The 1541/1571 disk conversion service prices are based on the number of disks you want to convert, plus a $15 service charge (per order). The price includes a 3.5-inch diskette, and return shipping via UPS ground. California residents add 6% sales tax. We accept MC/VISA. NUMBER OF DISKS COST EACH 1 TO 10 $6.50 11 TO 25 $6.00 26 TO 49 $5.50 50 AND UP Contact CCS If you order Disk-2-Disk from Central Coast Software along with your disk conversion order, we will waive the $15 disk conversion service charge. The remainder of this document is the actual Disk-2-Disk manual. Disk-2-Disk V2.0 Manual/Release Notes May, 1987 OVERVIEW Disk-2-Disk lets the Amiga read and write files on diskettes from Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 computers. Disk-2-Disk is a file transfer utility program which runs on the Commodore Amiga under AmigaDOS. Disk-2-Disk requires that your Amiga be equipped with an external 5.25-inch disk drive. Disk-2-Disk transfers all standard C64/C128 file types to or from 5.25-inch 1541 (single-sided) or 1571 (double-sided) diskettes. Disk-2-Disk can read/write 1541 "flippies", but the disk manufacturers say that you should not use diskettes this way. Disk-2-Disk cannot read or write CP/M disks or Commodore 8050/8250 disks. Disk-2-Disk transfers data (binary) files and text (ASCII) files. However, Disk-2-Disk does NOT make it possible to run C64 or C128 programs on the Amiga. Disk-2-Disk does transfer C64/C128 program (PRG) files, but they will not run on the Amiga. A Commodore BASIC program that can be LISTed on the C64/C128 can be transferred as a sequential (SEQ) text file to AmigaDOS, where you can run it as an Amiga BASIC program. In most cases you will have to modify the program to run on the Amiga. The BASDIF utility included with Disk-2-Disk can help with these modifications by marking those statements in the program which must be changed. Disk-2-Disk uses the Intuition interface, windows, and the mouse. You can start Disk-2-Disk from the Workbench screen or from the Command Line Interpreter (CLI). When you start Disk-2-Disk, it is loaded into memory from disk and remains resident until you complete your file transfer session. This lets you change AmigaDOS disks without having to maintain a copy of Disk-2-Disk on each disk. This is especially helpful if you have only a single 3.5-inch disk drive on your Amiga. Disk-2-Disk accepts wild cards in filenames, according to the wild card conventions of the AmigaDOS operating system. If the file to be transferred already exists on the destination disk under the name you have specified, Disk-2-Disk asks you to confirm that you wish to replace the old file. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS Disk-2-Disk requires an Amiga with at least 256KB of memory, an external 5.25-inch disk drive, and AmigaDOS V1.1 or V1.2. The external disk drive can be configured as AmigaDOS drive DF1, DF2, or DF3. If you do not have an external 5.25-inch disk drive, and do not want to purchase one for your Amiga, Central Coast Software can copy your 1541 or 1571 disks to Amiga 3.5-inch disks as a disk image. Then you can use Disk-2-Disk to perform the conversion of individual files from the 1541/1571 disk image to Amiga format. Contact Central Coast Software for details. GETTING STARTED Kickstart your Amiga in the standard manner with either a V1.1 or V1.2 Kickstart disk. Insert the Workbench disk as directed. When the Workbench screen appears, remove the Workbench disk and insert the Disk-2-Disk disk. Click on the Disk-2-Disk disk icon with the left mouse button. Then click on the Disk-2-Disk logo icon to start Disk-2-Disk. From CLI, type Disk-2-Disk. When Disk-2-Disk displays its sign-on greeting, read the initial message, then click the box in the lower right corner marked PROCEED. Disk-2-Disk runs in its own window, which you can "hide" using the foreground/background gadgets in the upper right corner. All of Disk-2-Disk's functions are available in this one window. There are no drop-down menus to access. Note: Disk-2-Disk operates in 80-column mode only. If you have selected 60-column mode in Preferences, the Disk-2-Disk filename boxes may not look right. To correct the problem, you must change your Preferences setting to 'Text 80'. When it first starts, Disk-2-Disk reads and displays the directory of the C64/C128 disk (if any) in DF2, and also displays the current AmigaDOS directory. When you finish using Disk-2-Disk, click on the CLOSE gadget in the upper left corner of the Disk-2-Disk window to exit from Disk-2-Disk. SPECIFYING THE C64/C128 DISK DRIVE Disk-2-Disk initially assumes that disk drive DF2 is the 5.25-inch drive which will be used for all C64/C128 file transfers. If that drive is not correct, click on the drive code gadget in the C64/C128 filename box above the C64/C128 directory window to change the drive specification. If you select an Amiga 3.5-inch drive for C64/C128 file transfers, Disk-2-Disk looks on that drive for a file named DISK.IMAGE. The DISK.IMAGE file must contain an exact image of a 1541 or 1571 disk. Such disk image files are created by Central Coast Software as part of our disk conversion service, described above. Disk-2-Disk cannot utilize the Amiga 3.5-inch drives to access files on disks from the new Commodore 1581 3.5-inch disk drive. SELECTING A FILE The first step in processing any file is to "select" the desired file from one of the two directory windows. Move the mouse pointer over the the name of the file you wish to process, and click the left mouse button. If the desired file is "off screen", use the scroll gadgets at the right side of the directory window to move the filename into the window. You can select a file from either the C64/C128 directory or from the AmigaDOS directory. Files are listed in alphabetic order. The Amiga directory window initially displays the contents of the Amiga directory which is current at the time you start Disk-2-Disk. To change to another Amiga directory, click on the PARENT DIR or ROOT DIR boxes, or enter the subdirectory path into the Amiga filename box. To change to another Amiga device, including RAM:, enter the device name followed by a colon in the Amiga filename box. The Amiga directory window lists both file names and subdi- rectory names. Subdirectory names are highlighted in an alternate color. If you click on a subdirectory name, Disk-2-Disk displays the contents of that subdirectory. To return to the previous directory, click on the PARENT DIR box. Note: C64/C128 disks do not have subdirectories. When you select a file, Disk-2-Disk copies the selected file name to the filename box, highlights the name in the filename box as the "selected" file and sets the direction of the COPY arrow to reflect the selected file as the source file for the copy. The same name is moved into the destination filename box. If you want the destination file to have a name different from that of the source file, you can edit the destination filename or enter a different name into the destination file- name box prior to starting the copy. When you select an AmigaDOS file to be copied to a C64/C128 disk, Disk-2-Disk may not retain the full AmigaDOS filename, because the AmigaDOS filename may be longer than the maximum of 16 characters permitted in an C64/C128 filename, and may contain characters which are not legal in C64/C128 filenames. When this happens, Disk-2-Disk truncates the name to 16 characters, and removes any illegal characters. You may edit the name in the destination filename box, if you wish. Instead of selecting a file using the mouse, you can type the name of the desired file, complete with path, in the appro- priate filename box. If you have not already selected a file, the filename you enter is highlighted, and Disk-2-Disk sets the copy direction to show the new name as the source file. COPYING A FILE NOTE: The COPY function is disabled on this demo disk. You must purchase the Disk-2-Disk product to be able to copy your files. When you are ready to transfer a file, always select the source file first, as described above. Move the mouse pointer to the selected name and press the left mouse button. Or move to the filename box and enter the name of the file you wish to transfer. If you wish to give the file a different name on the destination disk, move to the destination filename box and enter the desired name. Otherwise Disk-2-Disk uses the source file name for the destination name. Next, examine the direction of the COPY arrow to be certain that the file will be copied in the direction you want. The direction of the arrow indicates the direction of the copy. To reverse the direction, click on the "TO" or the "FROM" or select a file from the opposite directory. Then, to start the copy process, click on the COPY "arrow" gadget. If you have not selected a file to copy, Disk-2-Disk cannot perform the copy operation. If the selected file name already exists on the destination disk, Disk-2-Disk asks if you wish to replace it. Note that you can suppress this message by clicking the "ASK TO REPLACE" box, which changes to "AUTO REPLACE". Disk-2-Disk provides three forms of transfer: straight binary (no conversion), upper case/graphics ASCII and upper case/lower case ASCII. You may have to experiment to determine which conversion is best for the file you wish to transfer. You can use the DISPLAY TEXT function to quickly see what the conversion would produce, even before you transfer the file. First select the desired file. Then select the desired conversion in the ASCII box before click- ing the DISPLAY TEXT box. Note: when examining the text on the screen, you can press any key to proceed. However, certain keys, such as the cursor arrow keys, produce multiple input characters, which can cause several pages of text to whiz by without stopping. This is not a bug, folks! Just press a different key! If the file must be converted from Commodore ASCII to Amiga ASCII (or vice versa) during the file transfer, you must select the proper ASCII conversion option before you click on the COPY arrow. When Disk-2-Disk copies an Amiga file to a C64/C128 disk, it must assign a file type (SEQ, REL, USR, or PRG). The type assigned is determined by the File Type box. You can use wild cards in the source file names, if you wish to transfer a group of files with a single COPY command. You must follow the appropriate AmigaDOS wildcard usage rules. For example, to transfer all files on a disk, use this form: #? as the file name. In this case, the source file name is always used for the destination file. When Disk-2-Disk transfers a group of C64/C128 files to AmigaDOS, Disk-2-Disk retains the original filename for each new AmigaDOS file. When Disk-2-Disk transfers a group of AmigaDOS files to a C64/C128 disk, the original AmigaDOS filename is truncated to 16 characters, and illegal characters are removed. Disk-2-Disk reads Commodore REL files, but treats them just like SEQ and USR files. When you transfer a REL file to or from a Commodore disk, Disk-2-Disk ignores any "side-sector" blocks. We suggest that you enable write-protection on the disk you are copying from, just to prevent accidents. COPYING BASIC PROGRAMS TO THE AMIGA You can use Disk-2-Disk to transfer BASIC programs from the C64 or C128 to the Amiga, where you can convert them to Amiga BASIC form and run them as Amiga BASIC programs. But remember: ************************************************************** * Disk-2-Disk does NOT make it possible to run C64 or C128 * * programs directly on the Amiga. Disk-2-Disk does transfer * * C64/C128 program (PRG) files, but they will NOT run on the * * Amiga. * ************************************************************** C64 and C128 BASIC programs are normally stored using the SAVE or DSAVE command in a compressed form on a disk as program (PRG) files. In such a form, they cannot be used on the Amiga. To transfer a BASIC program from a C64 or C128 to the Amiga, you must be able to LIST the program. Many commercial C64 and C128 BASIC programs are protected from being listed, and therefore CANNOT be used on the Amiga. If a program is written in BASIC, and you can LIST it on the C64/C128, you can transfer it to the Amiga as a sequential (SEQ) file in ASCII text format. First LOAD the file into C64 or C128 memory using the appropriate LOAD command. Then type LIST to display the BASIC statements of the file on the screen. If this works, then type the following commands to LIST the file to your disk as a SEQ file: OPEN 1,8,5,"filename,S,W" CMD 1:LIST These steps open a sequential file in write mode, and divert the output of the LIST step to the new file. If you want to list only a portion of the file, the LIST command in the second line can be any of the usual variations of the LIST command. When the flashing cursor returns, close the file with these commands: PRINT#1 CLOSE1 These commands cancel the CMD command and close the new file. Your file is now stored on the disk as a SEQ file containing ASCII text in Commodore ASCII format. Now you can transfer the program to the Amiga using Disk-2-Disk. Be certain to specify the UC/lc ASCII conversion option, described on page 6. Next, click the BASDIF box, described on page 8, to flag any Commodore BASIC statements which must be converted to Amiga BASIC. Finally, start Amiga BASIC and load the new BASIC program, or click the icon of the new program to run it. LIST the program under Amiga BASIC and search for lines containing REM***. In most cases you will have to make at least a few changes to the program before you can expect it to run properly on the Amiga. ASCII BOX A text file on the C64 or C128 is coded in one of two formats: upper and lower case characters, or upper case only with graphics characters. Neither of these two formats conforms to the standard format for text storage used by most computers, including the Amiga, which is called ASCII. Therefore, text files must be converted when they are moved between a C64 or C128 and the Amiga. The ASCII box selects the type of ASCII text conversion (if any) which Disk-2-Disk performs during the file transfer. Initially, Disk-2-Disk assumes NOT ASCII, which means that no text conversion is performed. In this mode, each byte of the file is transferred with no changes. If you click on this box, it changes to UC/lc 1 ASCII, which specifies that the selected file is a text file containing Commodore uppercase/lowercase characters which is to be converted to Amiga (standard) ASCII, or vice versa. If you click on this box a second time, it changes to UC/lc 2 ASCII, which is used when you wish to convert an Amiga ASCII file to a Commodore ASCII file with uppercase characters converted to the decimal range of 97 to 122. This option is seldom needed. If you click on this box a third time, it changes to UC/grph ASCII, which specifies that the selected file is a text file containing Commodore uppercase/graphics characters which is to be converted to Amiga (standard) ASCII, or vice versa. Note that this form of Commodore ASCII has no lowercase characters, so Disk-2-Disk converts all Amiga lowercase characters to Commodore uppercase characters when converting from Amiga to Commodore. Note that Disk-2-Disk cannot detect an incorrect conversion option, and must do the best it can based on your specification. Therefore, you should examine the C64/C128 file (see DISPLAY TEXT below) before you transfer it to the Amiga to determine if you have selected the correct ASCII conversion option. REPLACE FILE BOX Click on this box if you wish Disk-2-Disk to replace existing files without first asking. Note that the box changes to AUTO REPLACE. If you click on the box again, it changes back to ASK TO REPLACE. FILE TYPE BOX When Disk-2-Disk writes a file to a C64/C128 disk, it must assign a file type (SEQ, REL, USR, or PRG) to the file. The purpose of this box is to set the file type for files written to the C64/C128 disk. Initially, Disk-2-Disk assumes SEQ. If you select a C64/C128 file as the source, Disk-2-Disk automatically changes the File Type box to match the selected file. You can also change the file type by clicking on the box. Each time you click on the box it changes the file type. DISPLAY TEXT BOX The Display Text box displays the text of the selected file in a special window. It works with either AmigaDOS or C64/C128 files. For C64/C128 files (only), Display Text performs the ASCII conversion specified by the ASCII conversion box as it displays the text of the file. This can be very helpful in determining before you transfer the file which form of ASCII conversion you should use. Display Text was designed for use with ASCII text files. While you can use it with any file, it works best with text files. Disk-2-Disk converts tabs to single spaces for the purposes of display only. DELETE FILE BOX Click this box to delete (SCRATCH) the selected AmigaDOS or C64/C128 file from the specified directory. The DELETE command does not accept wildcards. If you wish to delete a group of files, you must do so one at a time. BASDIF BOX - Mark BASIC Differences Amiga BASIC is very similar to Commodore BASIC, since both were written by Microsoft. Commodore BASIC exists in two forms: BASIC 2.0 on the C64 and BASIC 7.0 on the C128. Neither of these dialects exactly matches Amiga BASIC. Some differences, such as keyword spacing and line numbers, are more cosmetic than substantial. Other differences are more significant. However, since BASIC is so popular on the C64 and C128, Disk-2-Disk includes a utility program which examines a text file and identifies Commodore BASIC statements which are not compatible with Amiga BASIC. The BASDIF function applies only to Commodore BASIC files in ASCII SEQ form after they they have been transferred to the Amiga. BASDIF cannot process PRG files or any file which is not pure ASCII text. Don't expect BASDIF to perform miracles. It does NOT translate Commodore BASIC programs to Amiga BASIC. It does look for and flag differences, and cleans up keyword spacing a bit. The input file MUST be in ASCII SEQ form. If you click on the BASDIF box, Disk-2-Disk asks which version of BASIC the file represents. C64 BASIC means BASIC 2.0, and C128 BASIC means BASIC 7.0. Disk-2-Disk then scans the file specified by the Amiga filename box looking for Commodore BASIC keywords. If it finds a keyword which is not valid in Amiga BASIC, it makes the statement into a remark, by placing the characters REM*** in front of the offending statement. This even applies to BASIC statements such as PEEK and POKE, which have identical syntax in Amiga BASIC, but obviously cannot produce the same result. At the same time, Disk-2-Disk inserts spaces between Commodore BASIC keywords and any operands, as required by Amiga BASIC. Disk-2-Disk does not remove line numbers, nor does it delete any text. It makes no attempt to translate Commodore BASIC keywords into equivalent Amiga BASIC keywords, since these steps depend to a large degree on the logic of the BASIC program being converted. However, by marking the differences between the various versions of BASIC, Disk-2-Disk gives you a good start toward converting your BASIC programs to run on the Amiga. Please note that BASDIF does not perform a full syntax check on each Commodore BASIC statement. You may find that Amiga BASIC detects other problems in the program beyond those flagged by BASDIF. BASDIF creates a BASIC program icon for the selected file, which it stores on the disk along with the marked file. This makes it easy to invoke the new BASIC program from Workbench, as you would any other Amiga BASIC program. FORMAT DISK BOX - Format 1541 or 1571 diskette Click on this box to format a 5.25-inch diskette in 1541 or 1571 format. Disk-2-Disk does not format AmigaDOS disks. If you need to format a disk for use with AmigaDOS, you must use the AmigaDOS format program. Before formatting the disk, Disk-2-Disk asks you for the name you wish to assign to the disk, and the type of disk (1541 or 1571). Note that formatting completely erases all data on the diskette. We restricted the Disk-2-Disk FORMAT function to tracks 18-35 (and 53-70) because we couldn't make formatting work reliably on tracks 1-17. This provides a formatted capacity of either 156K (1571) or 78K (1541). If this capacity is not sufficient, you can always format a disk on the Commodore machine and bring it to your Amiga. Even restricted to tracks 18 and up, FORMAT is very slow. But it works! Note that when Disk-2-Disk formats a Commodore disk, if does nothing to tracks 1-17 (and 36-52 if 1571). This means that if you attempt a READ CHECK on your newly-formatted disk, you may find read errors on these tracks. This is normal and can be ignored. DISK CHANGE BOX Click on this box whenever you change the C64/C128 disk. The Amiga cannot detect such changes automatically. There is also a Disk Change box for the Amiga dirctory. BAM CHECK BOX Click on this box if you have reason to suspect the integrity of the 1541 or 1571 disk you are attempting to use. Disk-2-Disk scans the directory of the disk and checks the blocks allocated to each file against the Block Availability Map (BAM) of the disk. If Disk-2-Disk finds blocks of one file linked into blocks allocated to another file, if warns you of the problem on the screen. You should not try to copy a corrupted file. READ CHECK BOX Click on this box if you wish Disk-2-Disk to perform a read check of a 1541/1571 disk. Disk-2-Disk reads every sector of the disk, to verify the readability of the disk, and stops whenever it finds a sector which it cannot read. You must then direct Disk-2-Disk whether or not to continue the test. If you experience problems reading a diskette, see the discussion of drive alignment in the next section. Note that a READ CHECK on a newly-formatted disk may reveal errors on tracks 1-17 and 36-52, since Disk-2-Disk does not write anything to these tracks during the format steps. DISK-2-DISK LIMITATIONS C64 and C128 program (PRG) files do not run on the 68000 micro- processor of the Amiga. Likewise, Amiga programs do not run on the 6510/8510 family of microprocessors of the C64/C128. Disk-2-Disk transfers program files, but you cannot run the transferred program on the destination computer. Disk-2-Disk works with 256-byte sector sizes, and 35-track 5.25-inch diskettes only. This means that Disk-2-Disk cannot read disks which are copy-protected using non-standard sector sizes or other non-standard formatting tricks. If you experience problems with a disk which is not copy- protected, try the BAM check or READ check boxes to verify the integrity of the diskette. Disk-2-Disk cannot properly trans- fer files from a disk which is corrupted. You may experience problems with diskettes formatted or written on 1541 disk drives. These disk drives are notoriously prone to alignment problems. You may experience difficulties reading 1541 diskettes on your Amiga which work just fine on your 1541 disk drive. Likewise, you may be unable to read a disk on your 1541 which was formatted and written on the Amiga. Although the Amiga Model 1020 5.25-inch disk drive seems to be fairly tolerant of diskette alignment errors, we cannot guarantee that it can read all disks. If you experience this problem, we suggest that you have your 1541 drive alignment checked at a competent Commodore repair center. Disk-2-Disk operates in 80-column mode only. If you have selected 60-column mode in Preferences, the filename boxes may not look right. To correct the problem, you must change your Preferences setting to 'Text 80'. Some Disk-2-Disk functions are very slow. We made it as fast as we could, but forcing the Amiga 5.25-inch disk drive to read/write the bizarre data format used by the Commodore disks was very difficult. Reading the Commodore format is much easier than writing it, and tracks 18 to 35 are much easier to process than tracks 1 through 17. Writing on tracks 1 to 17 is especially difficult. Disk-2-Disk allocates disk blocks from the high tracks to the low tracks, in order to minimize the chance of problems. We highly recommend that you transfer only a few files at a time to a Commodore disk, and don't EVER write onto a Commodore disk which you can't afford to lose. Format a new disk and transfer the files onto it. Please note: this comment applies only to WRITING to the Commodore disks. Reading from Commodore disks poses no such problems! Because of the problems described above, we restricted the Disk-2-Disk FORMAT function to tracks 18-35 (and 53-70). This gives a formatted capacity of either 156K (1571) or 78K (1541). If this capacity is not sufficient, you can always format a disk on the Commodore machine and bring it to your Amiga. Even restricted to tracks 18 and up, FORMAT is very slow. So is the READ CHECK function. Disk-2-Disk locks out interrupts for long periods of time (sometimes several seconds). You may observe erratic motion of the mouse pointer during file operations to the Commodore disk. This is normal for Disk-2-Disk. We know of no multi- tasking problems using Disk-2-Disk, but some other programs may not perform properly with interrupts locked out for long periods. Disk-2-Disk estimates Commodore file sizes and free disk space in units of 254 bytes per block. The actual file size is not available in the directory, and would require a lengthy file search to measure the exact size. Therefore, the size of a file on the Amiga side usually does not match the size of that same file on the Commodore side. However, be assured that Disk-2-Disk always transfers exactly the correct number of bytes, and not more or less. When you run Disk-2-Disk under AmigaDOS V1.2 with your 5.25-inch disk drive "mounted", Disk-2-Disk tries to stop the trackdisk driver task for the 5.25-inch drive. However, if the drive has not been used since you booted Workbench, the driver task will not be found. If you access that drive as an AmigaDOS device via Disk-2-Disk (or through some other program) the driver task may come active and interfere with Disk-2-Disk. To prevent this, you can avoid mounting the 5.25-inch device, or just don't enter that drive in an Amiga pathname. That's all for now. Enjoy! Betty and George Chamberlain Central Coast Software 268 Bowie Drive Los Osos, California 93402 (805) 528-4906 Disk-2-Disk is a trademark of Central Coast Software. Amiga, and AmigaDOS are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 are trademarks of Commodore Electronics, Ltd. April, 1987 -------------- Now what we REALLY need for the Amiga is . . . Is there some program YOU would like to have for your Amiga which isn't available or costs too much or doesn't offer the features you need? If so, let us know. We are always looking for ideas for new products, and we would like to hear from you. Drop us a line or give us a call at (805) 528-4906.