64HDD for the Commodore 64

Wavey

Afternoon all,

I am currently bidding on a C64 on ebay and stumbled on this piece of software called 64HDD. Along with a special cable you can hook your C64 up to your modern desktop or laptop and load all your C64 games from your PC hard drive at 50x the speed of the C64 floppy disk drive.

www.64hdd.com

Has anybody used this before or know of any similar package or hardware that can do it?

The website looks like it hasnt been updated in a while so the hardware/ software might not be available anymore.

Anyway I found it interesting.

Wavey

Dr Bob

I've used it.
Its not bad , but the interface is a bit tricky to get going.
I spent a while working it out , basically you need to connect it to an old enough pc , using an xe1541 cable.
I'd posted this over in the lemon64 forums , so here it is in case it helps
(warning - long ass post)

I've no idea if this is going to be of any use to anyone, but I had a lot of trouble getting 64Hdd to work. I managed to figure out most of this either myself, or by googling (and a big help came from dpb's post on this forum).

Anyway I've put together a very basic guide to getting games working in 64hdd.
Feel free to correct any errors that have crept in, or mention anything I’ve missed.
Ok firstly here’s how I set it up, there's a lot of different ways, but the main aim is the same - have a machine with a FAT drive - booting up in Dos with the cable connected from the parallel port to the c64's serial port.
What I used:
An xe1541 cable (It will work with an x1541 cable) too, there's a few guides to building these e.g : http://www.geocities.com/cdsixfour/xe1541.htm , I however ,cheated and bought one from a nice guy in Poland ("bitrom") on ebay.

An old PC, preferably a Pentium (it will work with anything from a 386+ but an old p166 etc is easier to get hold of, plus its less likely to have problems with large disks, will have usb etc), a laptop isn’t a bad idea ,but be warned that some laptops wont work with X/XE1541 cables. Also it'll need a floppy drive.

Access to another pc with a floppy drive, and an internet connection.

A windows 98 boot disk (available from bootdisk.com)

A copy of 64hdd (from http://64hdd.com/ ) obviously!
By the way if you find you're using 64hdd a lot, try the pro version as it supports the author , and it makes it a lot easier to load individual disks ,and has a lot of other handy features too.I plan on buying it myself as soon as I can afford things again (probably a long way in the future!)

My method of getting it running was this.:
I unzipped the 64hdd zip file to my desktop.
Inside the 64hdd folder there’s a file called go64hdd.bat , I amended the line
"64hdd +9 c:\64hdd\demofile +11 c:\64hdd\utils +15 c:\ %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6"
so that it read
"64hdd +8 c:\64hdd\demofile +11 c:\64hdd\utils +15 c:\ %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6"
In other words I set the demofile folder to device eight instead of nine , the reason for this was that a lot of games (especially those with cracked loaders) would only seem to load from device 8 ??
I opened notepad , started a new file, and wrote this (the registration code bit is the code you get from the 64hdd website on registering - its a three character code)
go64hdd -registration code -XE -SL -noreset +P 500
and saved it in the 64hdd folder as filename: runc64.bat and "save as type" :all files
(those parameters explained: -XE means xe cable , SL means that whenever the c64 access's the disk , it will flash the pc's scroll lock led, +P 500 is because I've a Pentium 500 and it helps with the transmit timing).This is a batch file that means I don’t have to type all those things each time , also I set it to load on boot (more later)

Next I took the hard drive from the old pc and connected it directly to my pc (I have a usb to IDE adaptor , but I could have just opened the pc up and plugged it directly in).I went to disk administrator (under control panel - admin tools-computer management - disk management), created a 2gb partition and formatted it as fat32.
I copied the 64hdd folder to the new drive, and I put a selection of d64 files in the "demofile" folder within it. I also downloaded ,unzipped copied filemaven http://www.briggsoft.com/fmdos.htm onto the drive too (as its handy for moving folders around).
I fitted the drive back in the machine.
On booting it up, I went into the bios screen (F2 on boot, but for some PC's its f1 or esc), and checked that the parallel (printer) port was enabled and set to ps2 (ecp/epp will work as well), and that it was set to boot from floppy.
Lastly (before we get started) I put the windows 98 SE boot disk (created from the installer on bootdisk.com) into my main PC and edited the autoexec.bat (you might have to change your windows explorer view to allow you to see system and hidden files.
I added these lines at the end

c:
cd 64hdd
runc64.bat

This will automatically load 64 hdd on boot(handy if you don’t have a monitor connected all the time).Connecting the xe1541 cable to the pc’s printer port and the c64’s serial port I then booted the C64 PC with the 98 boot disk in the drive up ,(it takes about 2 mins) .once it had loaded 64hdd , it beeps once for about a second.
Now we’re ready to start , are you ready ? Ok!
On turning on the C64 we enter this command

Load “$”,8,1 <press enter>

After a few beeps from the PC , we get a “ready” response
We then type list <press enter>

This lists all the d64 files in the “demofile” folder of 64hdd
We start by trying to load one of them : “rtype.d64” (the 1way release as this one is known to work with 64hdd more on this later.)

We type load “$rtype64.d64”,8,1 (I’ve found that you need to include the $ symbol I’m not sure if the ,1 bit at the end is needed for all files , but it seems to work for most games I’ve tried).

After a few beeps from the pc , we get another “ready”
What we’ve done here is “mount” the rtype disk image , typing list here will now list the files contained in the Rtype.d64 disk , rather than the contents of “demofile” Also if you look at the PC’s monitor you’ll see that where it listed drive 8 as C:\64hdd\demofile\ its now C:\64hdd\demofile\rtype.d64

Ok nearly there , wetype load”*”,8,1 and press enter
Ok after a lot of beeping we see another “ready”

Lastly type run <press enter>
This will load the first file on the disk .

After a few minutes we get the loader screen , followed by the game itself
!
When we’re finished we turn the pc off and on – now we type load”$”,8,1 to unload the disk image.(I might need to confirm this , as when I started using different folders mapped to device 8 doing this would dump me back to the c: prompt)

I’d worked out through trial and error that you a lot of multiloader games only seem to work when they’re run from device 8???
Also to change disk (for multidisk games) it’s a bit cumbersome but , when prompted for the games second disk2, say its called gamesdisk2.d64, you press escape on the pc(to quit 64hdd) and edit the gohdd64.bat file so that the first line reads:

64hdd +8 c:\64hdd\demofile\gamedisk2.d64 +11 c:\64hdd\utils +15 c:\ %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6"

(You’ve added the gamedisk.d64 image there.)
Now go back to the 64hdd folder (cd.. followed by cd 64hdd , in case you’re not sure)and type runc64 and press enter. Now press space or fire or whatever the c64 is prompting you to do , and the 2nd disk should load.
(apparently the pro version make this a lot easier).
Oh and don’t forget to undo the changes to 60hdd64.bat when you’re done!

Another useful tip:the c64 reads underscores as a left arrow symbol , pressing the key beside one gives you this symbol(duh! But it took me a while to find it)
Also many cracked games with fast loaders wont work properly , there's a list of a few working ones here:
http://www.riverland.net.au/~dicko/64hdd/

There are a lot of more efficient ways of setting up 64hdd (I,e, installing win98 SE on the c64-pc first , and copying files by network , or creating a bootable usb drive (which can be done via a method on bootdisk.com) and copying the program and d64 files there, but this was pretty much the way I went about it.
I’m using the bootdisk method of booting the machine for now , it’s a bit inefficient , but it works , when I’ve time I’ll copy the files over and tweak it so that it’ll boot from hard disk.I've also copied over most of my d64 files to a folder on the C: drive , and use filemaven to move a manageable amount of them to a folder that 64hdd has mapped.
Anyway I thought I’d document what I did in the hope it’d save somebody having to spend a few nights getting it set up when they could do it in a few hours.
(Us guys who had tape decks back in the old days don’t know much other than press shift and runstop!)

What I wouldn’t mind knowing: is there a decent file manager I could use on the c64 for launching d64 files rather than listing/loading them?
Navigating to say a subfolder of say “demofile” via the c64 ..I think this can be done , but how?
Also I’ve found that when I started changing the device 8 mapping to anything other than c:\64hdd\demofile\ the load”$/” command would point the drive at the pc’s c:\ drive …anyone know how to counter that?

http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24102&highlight=

Wavey

Hi Luas,

Did you just use the 64hdd software and the cable or did you try the cartridge that speeds up the transfer?
If so where did you get it?

Thanks,
Wavey.

Dr Bob

Wavey wrote: »

Hi Luas,

Did you just use the 64hdd software and the cable or did you try the cartridge that speeds up the transfer?
If so where did you get it?

Thanks,
Wavey.

howaya
I just used the cable I'm afraid.

Wavey

Thanks for the info Luas.
Can I ask a few basic questions?

*Does your pc need to be running in pure dos for 64hdd to work?
*Once it is running properply can you browse all the d64 files on your pc harddrive from the C64 without having to touch the pc.
*Do the Roms need to be cracked in anyway for it to work?
*What were the load times like?
*Is the cable connected directly between the C64 and your Pc's parallel port?

Sorry for the noob questions but some of the info on the net seem a bit self contracticary.

thanks again,

Wavey

Dr Bob

Tis' no problem.
Just from memory , it needs to be either pure dos , or a win 95 /98 pc.
You can browse from the c64 , but Its a bit messy when you have a large amount of files , so you 'll probably dump a manageable amount in the \demofile\
folder.
I'm not certain if they need to be cracked , but nearly all c64 roms out there are cracked anyway , certain cracked versions dont work that well with c64hdd setup so there may be some trial and error.
The load times were ,from memory , quicker than my old tape loading days , but still a few minutes.Cable was straight from c64 disk drive port to parallell.

corkproducers

Thanks a lot for posting that guide luas, i will probably be using it soon on a friends c64.

Like you i bought the XE1541 cable from the polish guy in ebay, but my c64 died before i ever tried out c64hdd.
Can you remember if he only selled XE cables, or X cables too?
Just in case i fry the LPT, bah, i never use it anyway really!


I think booting from my fat32 mp3player will be the way to go on this one.

I want to show ye guys a cool project that lets you run .d64 files from an SD Card through the 1541 port:


http://jderogee.tripod.com/project1541.htm


Heres his witty promo videos for the project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEjF9uvv1gM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb4DK9C3o88