1 Jul
2016
1 Jul
'16
7:31 p.m.
On Fri, 1 Jul 2016, Austin Pass wrote:
I'm trying to preserve my Acorn ADFS 3.5"
discs. To this end, I've
purchased a KryoFlux "Pro" board and a new-old-stock ALPS floppy drive.
I've hooked it all up to a Windows 8.1 VM and everything *seems* to be
working. However, the .adl images I create are all 0KB in size.
I've created a profile to match the discs I'm reading (256byte sector
size, tracks 0-79, MFM encoding, interleaved sides).
Recording the flux transitions captures data, but when I run the
resultant data back through DTC I get the same.
Any ideas?
"everything *seems* to be working"
Have you tried using the drive without the Kryoflex?
Have you confirmed that your kryoflex setup is working with anything
that it is KNOWN to work with?
I think that Acorn is a "normal" IBM/WD style MFM, but I'm not sure.
So, the first step is to determine whether the Kryoflex is not working
right, or whether it is a problem with Acorn format.
Therefore, make some .adl files from 720K PC-DOS floppies.
If THAT process fails, then go to the Kryoflex forums with THAT problem,
since it removes all variable other than your computer, your drive, and
your Kryoflex.
If that works, then lets look at other potential problems with the Acorn
compatability with it.
For example, if the Acorn was using a WD controller chip, there is a
possibility that it started writing soon enough after index that the
system isn't ready.
Do you know the physical format that your Acorn disks are using?
Can you read sectors from them with stock PC hardware? (INT13h; if sector
size other than 512 bytes, then INT1Eh also)
What capacity are they?
Do you know for sure that the recording on these disks are intact?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com