MS Tools - WRITE and read MS DOS disks (long)

[mle@bbs.ausom.oz.au (Michael Levine)]

Here is a review of the new Utilities that appeared in the Ausom October
1993 Newsletter:


"MSDOS Write Read and More Shareware Utilities For GS V2.00 Reviewed By
Michael Levine, AUSOM (Apple Users Society Of Melbourne for the AUSOM October
1993 magazine) - Internet mle@ausom.oz.au - c/o PO Box 1071,
Narre Warren MDA, Narre Warren, Vic 3805, Australia.

Peter Watson has produced a number of shareware and freeware programmes for
the GS, many to be found on the PAW and Genius disks in the library. His
latest (and in my view greatest), is an improvement on the Apple MS Dos FST
(File System Translator) which takes the read only Apple FST and provides a
Peter Watson read and write and much more series of utilities in a simple
shell.

Let me first say that to use the utilities you need a SuperDrive or a PC
Transporter.

I have the latter, and this article concentrates on that set up. Bear with me
for a short discussion on my actual set up. I have a TransWarped 4meg Rom1
GS, PC Transporter 768k card in slot 6 and Quantum HD SSCI through an Apple
SSCI card which has been furnished with a 15meg partion for MS Dos through
the PC Transporter (the rest being given over to ProDos rather than any Mac
HFS partion which of course is also possible).

My 3.5 inch 800k Apple drive is connected direct to the GS side, and I have an
Applied Engineering two bay Transporter drive, with one 5.25 360k MS Dos drive
connected to the PC Transporter Card. The 768k of ram that came on the PC
Transporter card is (through the programme PCT.Swap) recognised as a Ram disk
in the Finder for Prodos, and the 800k ProDos 3.5 inch drive is recognised as a
modified MS Dos drive in the PCT transporter which will use it to read and
write 800k MS Dos files in a modified form which cannot be used on MS Dos
machines.

Using PCT.Swap and the MS Dos FST, the GS will recognise the 360k PC
Transporter 5.25 inch Ms Dos drive in the Finder and the 3.5 inch Apple drive,
with either ProDos (as normal) or as a modified MS Dos drive. The Apple FST
will only read the MS Dos files - no writing can be done.

This is where Peter Watson comes to the rescue!

Take any MS Dos file on any drive (including the ProDos partitions of your
Hard Drive AND the PC Transporter MsDos partion of your ProDos drive) which
you have downloaded from a BBS or if using the 360k Transdrive or a
SuperDrive with files direct from an MS Dos machine or from a BBS download
or a 3.5 drive directly connected to the PC Transporter and transfer (write)
them from one drive to any other.

If you feel like it, use the MFormat utility to format a disk in MS Dos, or
use MDir to get a directory of an MS Dos disk, or Cat for the ProDos disk.
Use GMCopy to copy from the GS to MSDos adding the binary command (/B) to
stop it being transferred as text, remove the disk put it in an MS Dos
machine (or use the PC Transporter) and run the programme. Use the Prompt
(/P) command to be asked if the process you want to undertake should be
prompted before each file is dealt with and answer the prompt with a
Y, N or Q. Of course you can Mcopy files from MsDos to GSOS!

While you are at it don't forget that any programme such as PCT.Swap can be
run from the shell just by typing its name. You can MDelete MS Dos files,
MDiskCopy MS Dos disks, MLabel change the MSDos volume label, MAttrib for the
attributes of an MS Dos file, MRename the MS Dos file, findMFM to see which
drive could contaim MS Dos files and MType the MS Dos file (that is show its
contents on the screen). Online will show which devices are on line.

You can use the GS programmes PMP Unzip, UnArj or Lhext to uncompress files
before transfer to MS Dos or after transfer from MS Dos (especially handy for
text files).

Operation is easy, the commands easy to learn.

One final note (if you are a purist do not read this). I had trouble with
System 6.01 conflicting with some of my DA's, inits etc, so I reverted back
to System 6.00, but kept the MS Dos FST with no problems.

Hey this is worth the $20 just to see what your GS can really do and to show
once again that the limits of this machine have still not been reached!
Add to that the functionality for any GS user who also uses MS Dos and you
have a shareware bargain.
"

FYI the files are at CCO and Grind and have been on Binaries.


Michael



-- 
_____Michael Levine on Internet through AUSOM - Apple Users Society_______
_______Of Melbourne, PO Box 1071, Narre Warren MDA, Australia 3805________
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