Subject: Re: how do i transfer disk image to apple][e?
Path: lobby!newstf02.news.aol.com!portc04.blue.aol.com!newsfeed.mathworks.com!cyclone.swbell.net!typhoon01.swbell.net.POSTED!not-for-mail
Message-ID: <372485F3.9E8EE1DD@swbell.net>
From: Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>
Reply-To: rubywand@swbell.net
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.51 [en] (Win95; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
References: <19990423211410.21245.00000800@ng-cd1.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 161
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 10:27:47 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.193.11.28
X-Complaints-To: abuse@swbell.net
X-Trace: typhoon01.swbell.net 925140100 207.193.11.28 (Mon, 26 Apr 1999 08:21:40 PDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 08:21:40 PDT
Organization: SBC Internet Services




Less Cash writes ...
> 
> how do i transfer disk images from winpc to apple ][e 5.25 floppy?

     Paul mentioned NULL modem. Some kind of NULL modem connection is
likely to be your best bet. "NULL modem" means "no modem"; a NULL modem is
just a connector or cable.

     A NULL modem connection is a way to directly connect one computer's
serial port to another computer's serial port without having to go through
the phone lines or use a modem. The typical NULL modem connection looks
something like this ...



  ____________                                                
____________ 
 |  PC or Mac |                                               |  Apple II 
| 
 |  running a |                                               |  running a
| 
 |  telecom   : Serial <--modem--> [NULL ] <--modem--> Serial :  telecom  
| 
 |  program   |  I/O      cable    [modem]    cable     I/O   |  program  
| 
 |____________|                                              
|____________| 
  

     On the PC side, the Serial I/O will be the Com-1 or Com-2 port. On
the Apple II side, the Serial I/O will be built-in port (as on the IIgs,
IIc+, or IIc) or a serial card for earlier Apple II's.


     The NULL modem connector mainly swaps around the Transmit and Receive
lines so that each computer's Receive is connected to the other's
Transmit. Some other status lines are swapped around, too. Basically each
computer 'believes' that the other computer is a modem. You can buy NULL
modem connectors or cables for a few dollars from places like Radio Shack
and ThinkStuff or you make your own.

     To do a file transfer via NULL modem, the usual method is for each
computer to be running a telecom program-- for example, the Apple II might
be running ProTerm 3 or Modem MGR or Z-link and the PC might be running
HyperTerm or Telemate or whatever. Settings for baud rate (e.g. 9600 baud)
and format (nearly always 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit = "8N1") need to
be the same for each program. 

     There is a more detailed discussion about setting things up and doing
transfers in the newsgroup Telecom-1 and 2 FAQs.


Csa2 FAQs Sites

Pure Text for downloading or Viewing via an FTP program ...
  ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Faqs/
 
Text formatted for on-line perusing via Netscape, etc. ...
  ftp://apple.cabi.net/pub/applegs/FAQs.and.INFO/A2.Csa2.FAQs/
  http://www.grin.net/~cturley/A2.FAQs.and.INFO/CSA2.FAQs/

HTML web site versions of the FAQs
  http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/A2FAQs1START.html
  http://members.xoom.com/apple_II/faqs.html



     Doing direct computer-to-computer transfers is pretty easy. The
reason the topic shows up so often is that there are a few places things
can get snagged. For IIe users who want to transfer disk image files
downloaded to a PC, one of the usual snags is disk space for the file.

     A .dsk disk image file normally requires 283 blocks of disk space at
the time of transfer. If you have a hard disk, or a large RAM disk, or a
controller + 3.5" drive, finding the space is easy.

     If, like most IIe users, you have just 5.25" drives connected, then
you probably know that a standard 5.25" diskette formatted for ProDOS does
not have enough space. This figures, since the .dsk is, after all, an
image of all of the data on a 5.25" diskette, including unused blocks.
Just the file is as large as the total capacity of a diskette (280 blocks)
and that is before you add the extra blocks needed to keep track of a
large file.

     One way around the disk space bottleneck is to use a transfer program
designed for moving .dsk files. ADT is a freeware package which uses a
pair of programs-- one on the PC and one on the Apple II-- to directly
transfer a 5.25" .dsk disk image from PC to a diskette in an Apple II
drive. It can also go the other way-- i.e. transfer the contents of a
5.25" diskette in your Apple II to the PC and end up with a .dsk file.

     A standard NULL modem connection works fine with ADT. One snag for
some IIe (and II+) users, is that ADT requires the Apple II to have a
Super Serial card or a card (or built in serial port) which is compatible
with the Super Serial card (at least as far as basic Send and Receive
functions are concerned). A very nice feature of ADT is that you do not
need to have any Apple II telecom software to get the Apple II part of the
program into your Apple II.


     A freeware package similar to ADT is ap2222pc. It moves .dsk files
using the Apple II Game port I/O-- so, you do not even need a serial card.
The 'catch' is that you need to build the cable to connect to your Game
port. The instructions are included with the software.

     There is more about ADT and ap2222pc in the Telecom FAQs mentioned
earlier. You can download ADT as file adt121.zip and ap2222pc as
ap2222pc.zip (both including directions) from the Asimov archive at ...

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/utility/ .  Use WinZIP to unzip
the files.

Note: When using a browser for downloading from an ftp site such as
Asimov, Ground, or Apple Cabi.net, the simplest approach is to right-click
(or shift-click) on the file you wish to download. Then, select Save Link
As from the menu and, in the Save window which appears, pick the
destination folder for the file on your hard drive.


     Another way around the usual IIe disk space bottleneck, is to get
more space on your disk. A 5.25" diskette in the standard Disk ][ drive
can have 288 blocks if you format an extra track. (By the way, 36 tracks
is about it for Disk ][ drives. At 37 tracks, operation is unreliable or
just plain not possible.)

     The basic scheme for squeezing more blocks from 5.25" diskettes was
described years ago in Beneath Apple ProDOS. Ross Holmes added some
helpful notes relating to later versions of ProDOS in Computist #76.
(These articles talk about getting 40 tracks-- requires a more modern disk
drive; but, the principle works fine for fewer tracks.)

     All that's required is to change two bytes in the FILER utility so
that it formats 36 tracks and sets media size to 288 blocks (and puts
another $FF in the allocation table to show 8 more blocks as available).
Since ProDOS needs some blocks to keep track of files, you end up with 281
free blocks.

     To get the extra few blocks required, you edit two sectors on the
newly formatted diskette to tell ProDOS to make do with one main directory
block and deallocate the now unused blocks. This gives you 284 free
blocks. The resulting diskette can be duplicated using fast-copy utility
which can copy 36 tracks such as most versions of Disk Muncher.

     You want your telecom program and other programs which may be used to
work with the .dsk file to be able to work with the larger diskette
holding it. This requires a single-byte change in ProDOS.

     Most of the above is already done in a group of files available on
Apple Cabi.net as PRODOS288blocks.sdk. at ...

ftp://apple.cabi.net/pub/applegs/Utilities/ .

     The advantage of PRODOS288' is that it lets IIe and II+ users employ
a standard NULL modem setup with any number of telecom programs and
interfaces. The package also includes versions of Shrinkit and DSK2FILE
which can run on a 64k Apple II plus directions.



Rubywand