About Virtual Disks
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The Magazine side of CFDM has been reproduced in these web pages for easy viewing; however, in addition to these articles, CFDM contained programs, graphics, and music which could be loaded directly into your CoCo 3. The full contents of the original CFDM flippy disks can be downloaded via the "Download" links, found near the top of each issue's web page.

These issues are stored in virtual disk format. Virtual disks are a method of storing an entire CoCo disk in a single PC file, typically for use with an emulator. Without an emulator, it possible to view some the picture files which are stored in CFDM's "NIB" format, or view text files within the virtual disk. To do so download the CFDM Viewer Tools.

When you are using a PC-based emulator -- such as Jeff Vavasour's CoCo 3 Emulator -- virtual disks are the ideal format to access CoCo programs and run them on your PC. (Important note: these virtual disks, by and large, will not work with a CoCo 2 or a CoCo 2 Emulator. They are intended for the CoCo 3 or CoCo 3 Emulator.)

Virtual disk files have a .DSK extension. Virtual disks of CFDM issues are further compressed inside Zip files for ease of downloading. You should use a program such as WinZip to extract the .DSK files once you have downloaded the Zip file. Each Zip file contains two virtual disk files:

• CFDM__S1.DSK is the original magazine side of the CFDM flippy. The contents are reproduced on these web pages. However, if you wish to view the magazine in its original form, load this virtual disk into your emulator or CoCo and type:

RUN"C"

• CFDM__S2.DSK is the program side of the CFDM flippy.

Some issues of CFDM included "bonus disks". When that is the case, you will find a link to a second Zip file containing the two sides of the bonus flippy.

Using Virtual Disks with your CoCo:

Virtual disks may also be transferred to a real floppy via a 5 1/4" drive on your PC, and may then be brought to your CoCo. This transfer requires the program DSKINI.EXE which may be downloaded freely here. Be sure to read the notes on compatibility issues found on that page before using DSKINI.EXE. Once you have retrieved your .DSK file (as well as DSKINI.EXE), unzip it, then use the following command at the MS-DOS prompt:

DSKINI x: diskname.DSK

to transfer the disk to the floppy in drive x:. For example,

DSKINI B: CFDM02S2.DSK

will transfer the virtual disk CFMD02S2.DSK to the floppy in drive B:.

Important! DSKINI.EXE will erase all previous content of the floppy in the drive specified, so be sure you are using a blank or unwanted floppy.

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