D64..yes G64.. no go anymore...
#1
So, it's been a number of years since I originally set up my SCP to back up my Commodore diskettes ( https://www.cbmstuff.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=278 ). In that thread I faced a number of problems that I in short order overcame. Fast forward to today, and I've run into something rather strange.

First off, I'll say that I have the exact same setup (that was working back when I created the thread), even the same PC (which I never update OS-wise), so I would expect it to work the same as it did. Now, that having been said, the only thing that's changed is that I've allowed SCP to update.

So... here's the problem...

I cannot create a working G64 anymore, and... the ability to create G64's (albeit non-functional) is inconsistent. And I'll explain what I mean. For a baseline, I'm using a tested and working original Accolade TKO diskette in pristine condition. The diskette loads and plays fine on a 1541/64c setup. Although I've tried others with the same results, for the sake of this example, I'm using TKO for G64 creation/testing. For D64 testing, I'm using an un-protected diskette containing some copiers....

I can create D64's fine, without any problems (always green reads). Testing the D64's having been created using my SCP, they always work fine.

Now here's where it gets weird.

If I start a session, and the first thing I do is try to create a G64 from the TKO diskette, it reads the diskette sometimes grey, sometimes yellow, sometimes teal... but never green. (I'm not sure what the colors mean, but I think anything other than green is no good... at least I've never seen a file created that works with anything but green.)

Now this is where it gets weird. If following this problematic read/create of the G64, I take the TKO disk out, put in my baseline unprotected disk in the drive, and tell the software to create a D64 of that disk, it works fine...

Now, immediately following creating the D64, I put the TKO disk back into the drive, and tell it to make a G64, the reads that it does are all GREEN! This is the only way I can get GREEN reads doing a G64... that being if I make a D64 from another diskette first.

Now the kicker is that even when I go through this process and get a G64 with all green reads, the file is bad and doesn't work.

Initially I thought it might be a hardware problem (and perhaps it is)... but when I saw that I could create image after image in D64 format, however, I cannot make a G64 to save my life... I started wondering what could the problem really be?

The G64 creation results I'm getting are very inconsistent. I don't remember ever having problems like this before.

The software version of SCP that I'm using is :

Supercard Pro Disk Archiver v1.98
Hardware Version 1.1 - Firmware 1.2

Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. I'm really at a loss as to why I'm struggling so much with the creation of G64's.

Thomas
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#2
A .g64 *ever* having boxes appearing GREEN is a bug.  That only happens after creating a .d64.  I need to fix that. When doing an INDEX copy or image (which you must be doing for TKO and any other commercially produced disks), the color will be CYAN.  SPLICE mode will be orange.  Only .d64 images are checked for their format and will show as GREEN, YELLOW, or RED depending on the status of the sectors.

For your TKO disk, use C64 for the disk type, set the mode to INDEX.
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