How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Hardware Hacking, Programming and Game Solutions/Cheats
Post Reply
User avatar
Stig
Posts: 74
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 4:54 pm

How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by Stig »

Hi all,

I recently got my Dragon disk drive working and I am looking for a way to put downloaded .VDK files on to actual floppy disks to use on my Dragon.

I have tried searching the forums but can't find any info. Is it possible for me to do this ?

I have an old win 95 PC that I could hook the floppy drive up to but not sure if that is a good idea or not ?

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

John
KenH
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:50 am

Re: How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by KenH »

The easiest way to transfer VDK files to a Dragon with floppy drive would be using pere's V2FLO dweeb and tormod's drivewire adapter.

V2FLO viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4968#p12107
Drivewire adapter viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4854
Alastair
Posts: 669
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:33 pm

Re: How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by Alastair »

John, if you've got a 5.25" drive in your PC you can use VCOPY.EXE to copy .VDK files to floppy. I'm guessing that it's probably better to buy a 5.25" drive to put in your PC rather than trying to attach the Dragon drive, but I have no experience in this matter so I may be wrong.
TomEG
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2015 7:55 pm

Re: How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by TomEG »

I second the uDW/V2FLO route. It works very well.

I downloaded every single .vdk file in the archive, and saved them to a microSD card. Put the card in tormod's uDW and used pere's V2FLO dweeb to copy them to floppys.

I also have tormods DWLOAD ROM installed, so then it's just a matter of putting the floppy in the drive, and type:
DLOAD"V2FLO""filename.vdk"

or even simpler:

DLOAD"V2FLO""filename

Tom
User avatar
robcfg
Posts: 1529
Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:16 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Re: How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by robcfg »

For those without DriveWire, I recommend Samdisk, Omniflop or even the HxC software. They all should work on a moder PC with a 5.25" drive.
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 409
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:22 pm

Re: How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by admin »

If you have an older PC with a BIOS that can support 720K drives then you *may* be able to connect the drive from the dragon and use VCOPY.EXE in MS-DOS (or Windows 95/98 DOS) to read/write disks. If I recall you need to change a jumper on the drive itself to switch into PC/XT mode rather than the older shugart mode used by the Dragon and older 8-bit micros - thus its easier to follow this route if you can get hold of a 720Kb PC drive.

As the others have stated above, we now have a number of ways of getting the images onto a dragon and from there written to disk by the dragon. One method I have used is to connect my HxC as Drive 1 and simply duplicate the disks from virtual to physical.
Simon Hardy
User avatar
Stig
Posts: 74
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 4:54 pm

Re: How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by Stig »

Thanks for all the help guys !

I'm not sure which method I will use. Getting an old floppy drive for my old PC will probably be the cheapest option but maybe not the most reliable lol
TomEG
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2015 7:55 pm

Re: How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by TomEG »

I forgot to say that when using he uDW route, all .vdk's will have to be "padded" to a filesize of a multiple of 256. But there's tool for that too.
KenH
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:50 am

Re: How to burn .VDK files to floppy disk to use on Dragon

Post by KenH »

Stig wrote:Thanks for all the help guys !

I'm not sure which method I will use. Getting an old floppy drive for my old PC will probably be the cheapest option but maybe not the most reliable lol
The advantage with the drivewire adapter option is that it has many uses beyond just copying files to floppy.
And I don't think you can find much cheaper options than the standard adapter that is $18 + shipping
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4270
Post Reply