24 Mar
2017
24 Mar
'17
6:18 p.m.
I'll add one more note that an 8" drive
supports 77 tracks/cylinders,
where a 5.25" high-density drive supports 80. So be careful.
Noted. Everything is now ready waiting for those bits and pieces to arrive
from the U.S.
Last night I spent some time going deeper into IMD118, 22DISK and ANADISK.
I read the documentation properly and carefully. I also played around with
the programs on the 486 using some known floppies and formats. I tried
different options and checked the images in a binary editor relating what I
saw with what the docs said should be there. I now have a better
understanding of how these programs work and what they can tell/do for the
user.
Dave D and Herb Johnston have some good info on 8 inch drives both in the
docs and the web. The docs in 22DISK (Chuck's?) give some good info on
CP/M format configurations and how to determine unknown ones.
The MS-DOS 6.2 486 DX worked perfectly!
I'm looking forward to this project. Even if I don't get anything off
those unknown 8 inch floppies I should be able to image my Panasonic
JD-850M CP/M ones. That will be reward enough as they contain locally
written software and I'd like to archive it.
What might throw a spanner in the works is that the drive may be broken.
It looks fine but it is untested. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Terry (Tez)