2 Aug
2005
2 Aug
'05
11:06 p.m.
At 21:13 02/08/2005 -0500, you wrote:
On 8/2/05, Dave Dunfield <dave04a at
dunfield.com> wrote:
Sorry, I don't have any DEC 8" material to try. The only DEC disks I
have are VT-180 and Rainbow (RX50) - both of which backup and restore
with no problems - but they are 5.25" format - almost but not quite
completely unlike what you are asking about.
I've done most of the 8" system masters that I have here, and so far I
have not encountered an 8" disk that I can't read or recreate - this
includes a number of mixed FM/MFM disks. I'm using a QUME QUMETRAK 242
attached with the adapter cable described in my help screens.
As long as the format can be read and written by the PC controller (which
does have some limitations), it should (may) work - please let me know.
One weakness - the program currently cannot handle disks which have different
sector sizes within the same track ... so far I have encountered only one disk
type which *MAY* do this, BMC if800 - TeleDisk reports that the sector size
changes within the track ... however I have never been able to get TeleDisk to
restore a workable disk, so I am not convinced that it handles it either - it
also reports sectors missing and "no data" in sectors, as well as really odd
sector numbers - I have a feeling that it is an incompatible format and it is
getting "garbage". Still, it's an option I could provide if there proves to
be
a need.
Regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
I've posted the latest version of ImageDisk
and some 8" images that
I have archived with it on my classic collection page:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
Look under "Disks/Software images" near the bottom of the page.
Nice. Any chance you have some RX01 disks to try? They are SSSD,
unlike the hybrid-density RX02 format. I have a Tandon TM848 in a
Dataram Qbus chassis that would look great attached to a PC. I only
have a couple of S100 boxes, and CP/M isn't really my thing, but I
have lots of RX01-based machines (and disks I could archive). 
2 Aug
2 Aug
11:42 p.m.
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, Dave Dunfield wrote:
>> I've posted the latest version of
ImageDisk and some 8" images that
>> I have archived with it on my classic collection page:
>> http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
Q: are you going to continue to expand the collection of images,
and perhaps take over where Don Maslin left off?
If so, read through to the end!
One weakness - the program currently cannot handle
disks which have different
sector sizes within the same track ... so far I have encountered only one disk
type which *MAY* do this, BMC if800 - TeleDisk reports that the sector size
changes within the track ... however I have never been able to get TeleDisk to
restore a workable disk, so I am not convinced that it handles it either - it
also reports sectors missing and "no data" in sectors, as well as really odd
sector numbers - I have a feeling that it is an incompatible format and it is
getting "garbage". Still, it's an option I could provide if there proves to
be
a need.
IIRC, the Ensoniq Mirage had mixed sector sizes.
There is apparently at least one BMC if800 format that can be done with
765.
I had some difficulties with "automatic format recognition", particularly
from used reformatted disks. I wasted some time when
somebody sent me
single sided disks that had been formatted over PC 360K disks,
which
hadn't removed the old content on the second side, and with HP 3.5"
diskettes that only rewrote the first 77 tracks, etc.
Because I was only dealing with file transfer, I never bothered to even
list which of the sample format diskettes that I have are system disks.
http://www.xenosoft.com/fmts.html
Would you like me to send you some sample diskettes to look through?
--
(Grumpy Ol' Fred)
Fred Cisin cisin at xenosoft.com
XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
PO Box 1236 (510) 558-9366
Berkeley, CA 94701-1236
11:54 p.m.
Fred Cisin wrote:
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, Dave Dunfield wrote:
>>>I've posted the latest version of ImageDisk and some 8" images that
...
Q: are you going to continue to expand the collection
of images,
and perhaps take over where Don Maslin left off?
If so, read through to the end!
...
Speaking of which, Don sent me a teledisk image for a kaypro II (no doubt one of
the most frequently requested boot disk images), and I know he sent a number of
others on this list teledisk disk images.
Does anybody want to volunteer to receive all the teledisk images that members
on this list received over the years (along with any other notes that might help
in indentifying the disk contents and caveats) so that we can at least recover a
small part of what Don had collected?
I'm all behind Dave developing a new and open disk archiving program, but there
is no need to lose those teledisk images.
3 Aug
3 Aug
2:23 a.m.
On 8/2/05, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
IIRC, the Ensoniq Mirage had mixed sector sizes.
Hey... I have one of those - it used to belong to my mother (she was a
professional musician).
I'd love to have a way to image disks for it. I think I remembered
the disks were wierd, but not how they were wierd.
-ethan
4:34 a.m.
New subject: ImageDisk and some 8' images posted
On 8/2/05, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>
wrote:
There are two programs called "mwrite" and "mread" that write and
read
Mirage disk images. In theory they could do SQ80 images too, if you could
modify them to read and write both sides.
The disk format is a little odd - read about it here:
http://www.youngmonkey.ca/nose/audio_tech/synth/Ensoniq-Mirage_DiskFormat.h…
Basically sectors 0-4 are 1024 bytes long, and sector 5 is 512 bytes.
Gordon.
IIRC, the Ensoniq Mirage had mixed sector sizes.
Hey... I have one of those - it used to belong to my mother (she was a
professional musician).
I'd love to have a way to image disks for it. I think I remembered
the disks were wierd, but not how they were wierd.
4 Aug
4 Aug
6:30 p.m.
New subject: Ensoniq Mirage (was: ImageDisk and some 8' images posted
>> IIRC, the Ensoniq Mirage had mixed sector
sizes.
On Wed, 3 Aug 2005 gordonjcp at gjcp.net wrote:
There are two programs called "mwrite" and
"mread" that write and read
Mirage disk images. In theory they could do SQ80 images too, if you could
modify them to read and write both sides.
The disk format is a little odd - read about it here:
http://www.youngmonkey.ca/nose/audio_tech/synth/Ensoniq-Mirage_DiskFormat.h…
Basically sectors 0-4 are 1024 bytes long, and sector 5 is 512 bytes.
Thank you,
URLs posted yesterday explicitly stated that the Ensoniq Mirage format
was 10 512 byte sectors.
What you just posted matches what I had encountered. But I had only one
sample diskette, that didn't have enough content to analyze the file
system; and the owner of it died before he got around to giving me
another.
I hope that Allison is reading this thread.
Not for the 8 foot disk in the subject line,
but for the mixed sector sizes, combined with a sector numbered ZERO.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
3 Aug
3 Aug
5:37 p.m.
> IIRC, the Ensoniq Mirage had mixed sector sizes.
On Wed, 3 Aug 2005, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Hey... I have one of those - it used to belong to my
mother (she was a
professional musician).
I'd love to have a way to image disks for it. I think I remembered
the disks were wierd, but not how they were wierd.
I don't have any of my notes handy, but IFF I remember correctly
(y'all know what happens to unrefreshed dynamic RAM)
The Ensoniq Mirage did NOT have mixed density, just mixed sector sizes.
Plain ordinary MFM, with something on the order of 5 1024 byte sectors,
and one 512 byte. (or maybe 9 512 bytes and one 256 byte)?
I could READ, and I could WRITE, but I could not FORMAT using 765.
Just set the parameters for 1024 byte and read or write the first 5
sectors. The FDC will ignore all sectors other than the ones that you
specify.
Then set the parameters for 512 bytes, and read or write sector
6. The FDC will ignore the others.
IIRC, I had some very limited success reading and writing
(NOT FORMATTING) mixed density, by doing a reset of the FDC
in between switching density.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
6922
days inactive
6923
days old
6 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dave04a＠dunfield.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
frustum＠pacbell.net -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net