All the setup utilities etc. only run on the C64 or 128 so you have to set up and format the partitions on one of those first.
But once that is done, the VIC works perfectly well with the CMD drive. You can load directories and programs like any other Commodore drive.
I also tried out our "Disk Utility Cartridge" with it. Boray, you'll be pleased to know that XMENU works fine, except that you have to select the partition you want before running it, of course.
The Wedge from the cartridge (the same as the one on the 1541 demo disk) did not work 100% though which was strange.
@$ for directory and / for loading work perfectly.
However, the @CP command to change partitions only accepts the first digit. For example, if I type in @CP23 to change to partition 23, I end up in partition 2 instead. But partitions 0-9 work fine.
I'm not sure why that is, since the wedge just sends everything after the @ sign to the drive. i.e. renaming with @R0:NEWNAME=OLDNAME works fine. Using the long hand OPEN15,12,15,"CP23":CLOSE15 works fine too.
Naturally, this shouldn't be a problem with JiffyDOS for the VIC.
The CMD drives also have a neat feature where they can swap between drive #12 (default) and #8 (used by most multi-load programs).
What's cool about this is that the drive, on its own, reprograms the old Drive #8 (i.e. your 1541) to become Drive #12 instead over the command channel. This prevents you from ending up with two Drive #8s connected simultaneously. Pretty handy.
40 megabyes is tons of space for the VIC - I think the entire /vic20/ directory on Zimmers takes up 9 MB. Plus with the partitions and virtual 1541/1571/1581 partitions, you can sort your programs pretty easily. But they don't make the HD-40 or the 20MB HD-20 any more, the smallest you can buy now is a 1 GB drive
