Copy Excellon formatted floppy disks to IBM PC formatted floppy disks.
This floppy copy program can be added to either our Graphical Drill/Rout or our Drill Room File Server Systems. It provides a simply way to read and copy files, one at a time, from a 5 ¼ inch, Excellon formatted disk, to an IBM formatted floppy. You will need a standard PC with two floppy disk drives running under Windows 95/89/ME or DOS. Due to limitations imposed by Microsoft, it will not function under any version of Windows NT. No special hardware is required. Logical Drive “A” must a standard 1.2 Mb, 5 1/4 inch, disk drive. Drive “B” must be a 1.44 Mb, 3 1/2 inch, drive.
This program works by re-programming the standard, IBM compatible, floppy disk controller to match the parameters of the Excellon disk. Excellon writes the first track on the top side at 128 bytes per sector. All other tracks on the Excellon disk are written at 256 bytes per sector. The lowest density a standard IBM compatible floppy disk controller can read is 256 bytes per sector. Therefore you can only read the bottom (D2 or D4) side, not the top (D1 or D3) side, of an Excellon disk – unless you install a special, expensive, floppy disk controller, and additional software. There is no reason to do this. Simply use your CNC-6 to copy files from the top to the bottom of an Excellon disk. You can then read the bottom side of the disk in any IBM PC compatible computer using this software program.
Note: California Software Systems can also provide programs which copy all the files on an “Excellon Floppy” to either an IBM floppy or your hard drive in a single operation. The programs are available to anyone at No Charge. However, we need to talk to you to be sure we supply the correct version for your computer. Please contact California Software Systems for more information.
Download EXCE2IBM.EXE (79,705 bytes)