How to attach a 3" disk to a PC
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Subject:  3" drives and IBM PC-compatibles
See also: CPCEMU documentation, and these newsgroups
          comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc     \
          comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage  | Not very helpful really!
          comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc              /
Author:   David Cantrell

    Porting files across from CPC to PC  for use in CPCEMU is easy, at
least, if you have a DDI-1 disk  drive  it's easy!  You need to follow
these instructions.  Follow them  exactly.   As  is  usual with things
like this, you do everything entirely  at  your own risk.  I have done
this on my own PC without damaging  it,  but can not guarantee that it
will work with yours.  If  you  do  damage  your  computer, it is YOUR
FAULT.
    These instructions only apply to the DDI-1 package.  They MAY work
with the FD1 3" second drive,  and  will  definitely NOT work with the
internal drives on 6128s, 664s, and 6128+s.

    Install 22DISK!  You will need to  tell  it  you have no A: drive,
       and that B: is a 360K  drive,  physical  unit 0, on the Primary
       adapter, with step-rate  of  12  milli-seconds.   You will also
       need the CPMDISKS.DEF file from CPCEMU.

    Open up your PC, following  all  usual precautions such as turning
       off the power and  discharging  any  static electricity on your
       body!

    Unplug any floppy drives.  This step is important.  (See note 1)

    Find the connector  which  is  meant  for  the  B:  drive.  (It is
       probably on the same cable as  the  connector for the A: drive.
       The A: connector has a twist  in  it.   The B: connector is the
       other one!)

    Plug it into your DDI-1  drive  unit.   You  may  have to file the
       keyway on the  connector  off.   (Different  PCs have different
       keyways on their connectors, so you  may  not have to attack it
       with a file.  So much for standardisation!)

    Turn the DDI-1 drive on  first,  then  the  PC.   When it does the
       Power-on test, press DEL to enter  the setup menu (you have got
       an AMI BIOS haven't you?)  Tell it  you  have no A: drive and a
       360K 5.25" B: drive.  (See note 2)

    Use 22DISK to read,  write,  and  format  your  3"  disks  to your
       heart's content!  You could also use ANADISK I suppose.

    When you've finished, restore the machine to it's original state.

As well as using CPC disks, you'll probably be able to use Spectrum +3
disks if you have an appropriate  CPMDISKS.DEF.  If of course you want
to use Speccy disks...

Note 1:  Amstrad's disk drive  is  reasonably standard, but not quite!
When you install it, it claims  to  be  both your physical drive 0 and
physical drive 1.  As such, if you expect  it to be just drive 1 (B:),
and leave unit 0 (A:) still plugged in, it will promptly ram the heads
of unit 0 hard against the end stop, promptly trashing your unit 0.  I
found this the hard way, and had to buy a new 3.5" floppy drive.

Note 2:  If you don't have an  AMI  BIOS, then this will be different.
You may have to run a program from  a system disk which came with your
computer.
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