Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 28 May 2008 17:58:28 -0400 | From | Gene Heskett <> | Subject | Re: floppy question of the hour |
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On Wednesday 28 May 2008, Lennart Sorensen wrote: >On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 03:38:05PM -0400, Phillip Susi wrote: >> Lennart Sorensen wrote: >> >Just do what the Amiga did: Read the entire track into a buffer in >> >memory, then deal with the sectors, and write the entire track back. :) >> >> IIRC, there is no way to detect the interleave factor that the media has >> been formatted with, unless you maybe try several and see which one >> reads fastest. > >Yeah, the Amiga trick wouldn't work. The Amiga had no interleave. It >didn't even have sector gaps. Just 11 consequtive sectors worth of data >per track and one gap at the end of the track. I really doubt any other >system could emulate that floppy access method without extra hardware.
The drives, at least for the 880k format, were std chinon 3.5" drives. However, I was under the impression there was about a 20 byte gap with the sector number and a short A5 A5 synch string between the sectors. I still have a big box A-2k, with one DD drive, and one of the special 1760k 150 rpm HD drives too.
But its been nearly a decade since an HD failure prompted me to store it in the basement and learn to really use the first linux box I ever built in 1998, RH-5.1 on it. So my memory could be hazy, after all its 73 years old & counting. :)
-- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My philosophy is: Don't think. -- Charles Manson
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