Standard bee and CIAB drive booting issue

[greg221b]

Chaps,

I've just got my standard 128K microbee and CIAB drive back from repairs by Ewan.  Ewan sent me a picture of the system working before he sent it back.

I don't have any old 3.5inch disks. Ewan suggested I try regular 1.44M floppies with the bottom-right hole taped over. These are read/written fine in the 256TC-SE  - where I've formatted them at both 400K and 800K - copied the system and the four system files to the floppies too.  (The 256TC-SE was booted using the default disk configuration that came on the SD card with the machine.)

My question is, should the 128K bee with CIAB drive boot from the disks I've made? The CIAB drive seems to spin up with both 400K & 800K disks and the light stays on, but I get nothing but a cursor in the top-left corner of the bee - and no action.  I thought with the system and system files that it would start up much like the 256TC-SE.

Could someone tell me if this is expected behaviour, or if I am missing something please?

Thanks,
Greg

[ChickenMan]

The CIAB floppy drive is Single sided so can only read single sided disks. As for 1.44m floppies, I've had very mixed results in the past, some work, some dont so have stayed away from them all together. Those that do work, try them in 6 months time, chance are they dont work.

[greg221b]

Thanks CM.
I tried two brands - Laser and Verbatim. There was no spinning at all with the Laser disk.
Can you or anyone else recommend a good source for 800k specific disks?
I found these on ebay - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/293123803615 - would these be suitable?
Greg

[MbeeTech]

Boot disks from the 256TC won't work on the standard 128k. It is a different BIOS and assumes that there is 256K of ram, and a different keyboard.
It will hang during the boot process if you use it on a 128k machine due to the different bank switching arrangement etc.
I can make a boot disk for you & send it to you.

[MbeeTech]

I found these on ebay - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/293123803615 - would these be suitable?
Greg

Yes, they would be suitable.
You would have to reformat them of course, as single sided 390k/400k Microbee format.

[greg221b]

Brilliant, thanks Ewan.
At the risk of asking another dumb question (I used to have a 64k bee with CIAB drive but have forgotten almost everything about it):
If I booted the 128K bee from the new boot disk from you, started the "Init" program, removed the boot disk & put in an ebay blank floppy, that new floppy would then be formatted correctly?
Greg

[MbeeTech]

Brilliant, thanks Ewan.
At the risk of asking another dumb question (I used to have a 64k bee with CIAB drive but have forgotten almost everything about it):
If I booted the 128K bee from the new boot disk from you, started the "Init" program, removed the boot disk & put in an ebay blank floppy, that new floppy would then be formatted correctly?
Greg

Yes, correct.

[MbeeTech]

Disk posted :-)

[greg221b]

Great, thanks again Ewan.

[someone]

Someone says that mould, fungi & grime on old diskettes can cause unwanted issues by depositing its muck on to the drive heads.
Make sure you clean the drive drive heads in case you've dirtied them & use new diskettes.
It make require the use of some isopropyl alcohol and cotton buds or cleaning diskette.

Someone then uses the monitor's XW & XR commands to test out the disk interface by
writing to a nominated sector (usually side 0, track 0, sector 1(NOT 0!)) and then reading it back.

Alternatively or also, obtain a Gotek/Flashfloppy - they're great for testing prior to progressing to using real drives.

Enjoy your bee!