Hi
I've been hacking some code to recover data on Polymorphic
disk. I been making goo progress but run into a couple
of stumbling blocks.
First I have both 8 inch disk and 5.25 inch disk to recover
from. In the 5.25 disk, I had both single and double density
disk. I had a single density controller on my Polymorphic
8813. I was able to read these disk images with that machine
and firmware.
I think I forgot to mention, all the disk are hard sectored.
I got a double density controller card that I'm repairing
now. I found code for the ROM on this card on one of my
SSSD 5.25 disk.
At first I thought the code was for the 5.25 because I
saw a bunch of variables with 0Ah in them( the 5.25's are
10 sectored ). On looking at the code some more, I
find that the code was really for 32 sectors. The 0Ah was
for retries( Baaa ).
I don't know if I have any double sided 8 inch drives. I
bought a SA851 years ago but have no idea where it might
be today. I'll look for it.
Just in case, is there someone in the SF bay area with
a SA851 that I might barrow. I'm not ready for it but
hope to be in a few weeks or months( I'm still figuring out the code ).
I may deside to work on the DSDD 5.25 disk first. I'll
need to modify the code and make some mods to the
controller ( crystal and a few timing caps ).
It has a PLL to recover data but it is timed for the 8
inch rate. I'll need to slow it down for the 5.25s I have
( about 50 or so 5.25s ).
The PLL looks easy to adjust. It has a feed back mode
to keep the PLL running while not reading the disk.
I should be able to use this to get it adjusted.
It will require changes to the code as well. The 8inch
are 32 hardsectored while the 5.25 are 10. I'm not sure
about the sector data size but the 5.25 are most likely
512 or 256 for 10 sectored double density. Anyway this
should be easy to determine( I just need to do a little math ).
I do have a question. The board has a delay line to
create the early and late signals for writing the bits.
There are no numbers on it. Does anyone know the
values used for early and late on double density 8 inch
and on double density 5.25?
Thanks
Dwight
_________________________________________________________________
The best games are on Xbox 360. Click here for a special offer on an Xbox 360 Console.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/wheretobuy/