Dobbertin Harddisc

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Dobbertin Logo

A harddisc manufactured by the German company Dobbertin.

One of the first ways to connect a Harddisc to the CPC. The Dobbertin harddisc has a capacity of 20 MB. The disc was partitioned in four partitions of 5152 KB each. It was delivered with drivers for CP/M (2.2 and CP/M+) and allows up to 512 directory entries for each partition (including date and time stamps under CP/M Plus). It's even possible to boot CP/M Plus from the hard disc.

Reviewed in Amstrad Computer User.

Pictures

  • Dobbertin 20 Mb Harddisc

  • Dobbertin 20 Mb Harddisc

  • Dobbertin 20 Mb Harddisc interface

  • Interface Top

  • Interface Bottom

  • Interface PCB Top

  • Interface PCB Bottom

  • Inside 1

  • Inside 2

  • Inside 3: PSU

  • Inside 4: XT controller

Disc

  • Dobbertin HD Interface Driver Disc

  • Driver disc side A

  • Driver disc side B


Software using the Dobbertin Harddrive

  • In addition a lot of (cracked) games are able to run from the HD-20 hard disc

Technical

Dobbertin HD20 is a Winchester type hard disk.

It is claimed it is a PC-XT interface with an interface between that and the CPC.

The OMTI 5510 appears to be very close. The command descriptions and operation appear to be the same although the software seems to only use TEST READY, READ, WRITE, SEEK (parking), SET PARAMETERS and FORMAT.

Uses XD-DOS v2.10 (which supports the harddisc, and additionally supports external double sided 80 track disc drives). The 20 MB harddisc is split into four partitions, with drive names D, E, F, and G (drive name C isn't used here, but may be used as RAM disc, in combination with Dobbertin RAM expansion). Under FutureOS the four partitions are named I, J, K and L. The hard disc is controlled by this I/O Ports: 

 #FBE0  Dobbertin Harddisc Data Port
 #FBE1  Dobbertin Harddisc Status, Reset
 #FBE2  Dobbertin Harddisc Select, Configuration
 #FBE3  Dobbertin Harddisc DMA, Interrupt (Used on CPC???)
 #FBE4  Dobbertin Harddisc Reset

The hard drive interface is an PC-XT compatible hard disc interface. The CPC's port mappings are close to the PC-XT's port mappings.

To format the hard disk you need to use the CPM based system tools. To use the tools you need to patch a CPM+ disc so that it recognises the hard disk.

The disc format appears to be CPM/AMSDOS based, with 0x0e5 as the format data byte.

Other harddisc solutions for the CPC

Modern:

Promo (summary) (english)

  • Controller: Seagate ST11M XT-controler.
  • Harddisc: 20 MB (3.5" Seagate, NEC, Kyocera, or Miniscribe)
  • X-DDOS 2.10 (selectable in ROM bank 1-7)
  • 4 Partitions of 5152 KB (5 MB) (accessible as Drive D: to G:)
  • 512 Directory entries per partition
  • support for CP/M 2.2 with 63K TPA (requires 128 KB RAM), and for CP/M Plus
  • support for Softwareclock and TIMEROM+ (Real Time Clock under CP/M Plus)
  • Price: DM 1100.-

Promo (german)

  • Dobbertin Festplatte

  • Frontpage

  • Contents

Downloads

Links

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