15 Jan
2016
15 Jan
'16
2:56 p.m.
On 01/15/2016 02:00 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
On Jan 15, 2016 8:32 AM, "Robo58" <robo58
at optonline.net> wrote:
I attribute that to the lack of user low-level formatting software.
In general, they do follow the A1 format, but there were a couple, such
as the HP 125 to ruin your day. Once you migrate to MFM, standard
formats simply don't exist. Even IBM had several different MFM 8" formats.
No one's touched on hard-sector formats, which could really get bizarre,
such as the Zilog MCZ format with 132-byte sectors. Or clever things
like RX02 and "weird MFM" or various GCR schemes (e.g. Future Data).
Fortunately, few hobbyists run into those.
--Chuck
The 8" SD diskettes are standard IBM format
(I believe 3740
physical format) 26 sectors.
Almost all SD 8 inch use that physical format, though there are some
oddball formats like OSI.
Similarly almost all 8 inch SD CP/M disks use the same logical
(filesystem) format, because that was THE standard for CP/M
interchamge.