Help with splitting images?

[sharp]

I have a .dim and I am trying to write it to a floppy for hardware. I need it to be .xdf. I have the files split across 2 formatted 2HD floppies. when the autoexec.bat starts, it works with everything on disk 1, but it fails to find the directories on disk 2. I have tried to alter the .bat adding "path a:;b:/directory1;b:/directory2". I also tried to use dpack, but dpack cant write a .dim to 2HD.

Does anybody know how to point the .x files to the correct directories on FDD 1 from FDD 0?
Thanks in advice

Oh, & Now is the time to the X68000 heart on fire

[neko68k]

a:\bar.x
b:\bar.x
a:\foo\bar.x
b:\foo\bar.x

it should also work fine if you have like:
path=a:\directory;b:\directory
foo.x
bar.x

[SuperDeadite]

Regarding dpack, the easy way to use it with dim files is via an emulator.
1. Load up an emulator and boot up from HDD as you normally would.
2. Mount your .dim images into the emulated floppy drives. (once mounted, the emulated computer sees them as real floppies, so image format does not matter)
3. Now run dpack and use it to dump the floppy drives into the HDD, giving you an HDD image with proper dpack friendly images inside.
4. Now write the HDD image back to flash, load up your real X68K, and use dpack again to write the new images to real floppy disks.

It's a bit time consuming, but it works.  Using this method I have been able to make fully working floppies from .dim files that use exotic formats such as 2HDE (Xak II) and 2HS (Illumination Laser).

[sharp]

a:\bar.x
b:\bar.x
a:\foo\bar.x
b:\foo\bar.x

it should also work fine if you have like:
path=a:\directory;b:\directory
foo.x
bar.x

Thank you Neko68k

well Im actually trying to do illumination laser
if I specified every file path, there are around 100 files between the directories
I have Object, Music, Sound on disk2.

so to be exact IIRC, I wrote
ECHO OFF
path a:;b:/Object;b:/Music;b:/Sound
float2.x
mcdrv.x -b56
I.x
mcdrv.x -r

when mcdrv.x -r goes through, or maybe its I.x? It seeks for those 3 directories, attempting to load "Object¥tmp00.spl" 1st I think? Im really unsure how it is addressing this, the autoexec.bat does not mention those directories, so I guess mcdrv.x or i.x is responsible? is there a way to find out how? like a config.sys file?

Thank you again Neko68k

Regarding dpack, the easy way to use it with dim files is via an emulator.
1. Load up an emulator and boot up from HDD as you normally would.
2. Mount your .dim images into the emulated floppy drives. (once mounted, the emulated computer sees them as real floppies, so image format does not matter)
3. Now run dpack and use it to dump the floppy drives into the HDD, giving you an HDD image with proper dpack friendly images inside.
4. Now write the HDD image back to flash, load up your real X68K, and use dpack again to write the new images to real floppy disks.

It's a bit time consuming, but it works.  Using this method I have been able to make fully working floppies from .dim files that use exotic formats such as 2HDE (Xak II) and 2HS (Illumination Laser).

Thank you superdeadite, see my problem is I lack the CF HDD solution, so Im hoping to get .xdf files so I can write a real floppy off my old PC using omniflop. When you say "write the hdd back to flash" what do you mean? I tried to use "dpack.x -u0 file.2HS" after 9scdrv/9scfmt but it fails using an .xdf made with emu. I figure that I would be able to write the .2HS file if I was using the x68000 drives with a real 5.25, but Im not unfortunately. I do have a computer with a parallel port... If all else fails, would I be able to use something like muterm to connect to my PC for writing the dpack backup back to a real floppy? Or is there a way using emu?

Other things I have tried: the IL floppy mastering.xdf that uses il_HDD.LZH, when using that, it fails to load I.x on the disk for lack of sectors I suppose. & when I manually tried to 9scformat a blank.xdf for .2HS, it fails with an error like "cant read sector 00".

Thanks again, the help is really appreciated.

[SuperDeadite]

My method assumes you have a real x68k with some kind of HDD installed.  Without that it's not going to work.

Anyway, xdf images are strictly 2hd images.  The xdf format does not support anything else.  dim images on the other hand support 2hd, 2hs, 2hde, etc.  Hence 2hd dim images can be converted to xdf, 2hs dim images can never be converted to xdf.

If you are trying to use dpack to turn xxx.2hs into xxx.xdf in an emulator this will not work.  However, it will work if you try xxx.d88 instead.   No idea if a d88 will help you with omniflop though.

[neko68k]

I'm just guessing but I'm willing to bet that IL expects those folders and files to be on a single disk. Whether it is a HD or FD might not be important but I'd be surprised if he wasn't just using relative paths instead of absolute ones. I doubt that you can do what you are trying with 2 disks without actually patching the game to support it.

Also, it's I.x that is searching for those files. 'MCDRV -r' just unloads MCDRV from memory after I.x, the game, quits.

[caius]

I'm currently on this.It seems I.x executable want the data on same disk.I was able to split the contents of the original .DIM image into two disk, disk A has main executable and data, disk B the remaining files.Doing so, it seems the loading procedure get completed but then it returns to prompt instead of enteriing in game.I think we should speak with the author MR.TERRA and ask him to prepare a two disk version in 1.2MB XDF format.

P.S.

It seems that the floppy mastering can work only on real hardware, trying it under emulator fails since 9SCFMT cannot format in .2HS format a 1.2 disk image (but it can using a 1.4MB one)