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External floppy drives on the Spectrum +3: Difference between revisions

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The +3 doesn't know about High Density (1.44MB) diskettes so you need to use Double Density (720K) ones, aka "blue floppies". These can be bought online, I don't know if they're still being manufactured anywhere or just new old stock. You can also cheat and tape over the hole on a HD diskette to make it appear as a DD one. This may or may not work, and the data may not stay forever (or it might be fine! but better safe than sorry if you save anything vaguely important on them). If you're just going to use a single diskette to "ferry" files from a PC to 3" disks then this is a perfectly adequate solution.  
The +3 doesn't know about High Density (1.44MB) diskettes so you need to use Double Density (720K) ones, aka "blue floppies". These can be bought online, I don't know if they're still being manufactured anywhere or just new old stock. You can also cheat and tape over the hole on a HD diskette to make it appear as a DD one. This may or may not work, and the data may not stay forever (or it might be fine! but better safe than sorry if you save anything vaguely important on them). If you're just going to use a single diskette to "ferry" files from a PC to 3" disks then this is a perfectly adequate solution.  


====Disk Images====
====Formatting====
There are various software tools to write DSK images to physical diskettes, and individual files to +3 formatted diskettes.
DSDD diskettes can be formatted as 720k DOS disks or with one of a variety of formats that the +3DOS can use.
The other option (if you just want to "ferry" files from the PC to the +3 and save them on drive A:) is to format the disks to 720k DOS format and use a tool on the +3 to copy the files from the DOS floppy to the +3 format floppy in drive A: (or to the ram disk and then back onto a +3 formatted 3.5" disk in B:)
 
=====+3DOS format disks=====
3.5" disks can be formatted in a variety of different capacities as CP/M disks. The +3 ROM cannot format 3.5" disks itself so either a utility is required on the +2 (such as [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/zxplus3e/software.html#mformat|The Spectrum +3 Multiformatter] by Garry Lancaster), or the disk must be prepared on the PC.
 
=====DOS format disks=====
to access a DOS formatted 720k disk on the +3 you can use [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/zxplus3e/software.html#msdos Garry Lancaster's MSDOS utility]
This will allow you to "log on" to a DOS format disk in drive B: and copy files from it to a +3DOS formatted 3" disk in drive A:


====Writing Images====
====Writing Images====
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====Writing individual files====
====Writing individual files====
To write individual files to a +3 formatted diskette (or dsk file) you can use [http://www.cpctech.org.uk/download/cpcxfs.zip cpcxfs]
To write individual files to a +3 formatted diskette (or dsk file) you can use [http://www.cpctech.org.uk/download/cpcxfs.zip cpcxfs]
====DOS format disks====
to access a DOS formatted 720k disk on the +3 you can use [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/zxplus3e/software.html#msdos Garry Lancaster's MSDOS utility]
This will allow you to "log on" to a DOS format disk in drive B: and copy files from it to drive A: