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images off 8 inch SS/SD floppies

tingo

tingo

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Joined
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Messages
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Location
Oslo, Norway
I recently got my 8 inch floppy drive set up so it can be used with a FluxEngine, and to test the setup I made images of some 8 inch floppies that I have been given. Some of them are CP/M floppies. Are all these available online? If not, I could put up the images so that people could get them.
All images are from 8 inch, soft sectored, SS/SD floppies. The floppies themselves are just copies, with handwritten labels.

A floppy labeled "CP/M for Altos":
Code: 
$ cpmls -l 8_cpm_cpm_for_altos.img
0:
-rwxrwxrwx    8192 Jan 01 1970  asm.com
-rw-rw-rw-    6912 Jan 01 1970  boot221.asm
-rw-rw-rw-   16896 Jan 01 1970  c221ldrb.asm
-rw-rw-rw-   52096 Jan 01 1970  cbios221.asm
-rwxrwxrwx    2432 Jan 01 1970  cpmsetup.com
-rwxrwxrwx    4864 Jan 01 1970  ddt.com
-rw-rw-rw-   10240 Jan 01 1970  deblock.asm
-rw-rw-rw-    6272 Jan 01 1970  diskdef.lib
-rw-rw-rw-    4224 Jan 01 1970  dump.asm
-rwxrwxrwx     512 Jan 01 1970  dump.com
-rwxrwxrwx    6656 Jan 01 1970  ed.com
-rwxrwxrwx    1792 Jan 01 1970  load.com
-rwxrwxrwx     768 Jan 01 1970  mode.com
-rwxrwxrwx    9728 Jan 01 1970  movcpm.com
-rwxrwxrwx    7424 Jan 01 1970  pip.com
-rwxrwxrwx    5248 Jan 01 1970  stat.com
-rwxrwxrwx    1280 Jan 01 1970  submit.com
-rwxrwxrwx    1024 Jan 01 1970  sysgen.com
-rwxrwxrwx     768 Jan 01 1970  xsub.com
-rw-rw-rw-    1152 Jan 01 1970  z80s.lib
a floppy labeled "MBASIC":
Code: 
$ cpmls -l 8_cpm_mbasic.img
0:
-rwxrwxrwx   24320 Jan 01 1970  mbasic.com
the rest are CPMUG images; vol 23a, vol 25 and vol 28.
 
Never heard of the FluxEngine until just now, and I'm impressed. Apart from reading a disk and making an image, can the FluxEngine transfer files off of floppies and onto my modern computer?
 
Verault,
You sure can, if you take the *.img file (8_cpm_cpm_for_altos.img) and convert it to a dump of 77 Tracks
that are *.raw files (8_cpm_cpmug_23a_img00.0.raw) to (8_cpm_cpmug_23a_img77.0.raw).

It might be easier to find a file type that the Kryoflux can import, like maybe a .SCP type file.
I forget what types of files the Kryoflux can easily support.

Larry
 
I forgot to say the software used to generate the .RAW files is HxC Software. And the Image File definition
I used was as follows:
Code: 
# ALT1  Altos - SSSD 8" - 128 x 26
diskdef alt1
  seclen 128
  tracks 77
  sectrk 26
  blocksize 1024
  maxdir 64
  skew 6
  boottrk 2
  os 2.2
end

Keir Frasier's "DISK-UTILITIES" on Github can also be used to import the *.IMG file and create
a *.IPF file that can be written to floppy.


Larry
 
I will try the raw outputs . I havent powered up my kryoflux in a while and wanted to try making some 8 inch disks.
 
SomeGuy said:
Does it not decode single density, or does it just have to do that in a separate pass?
Click to expand...

Yes, I think so, but it does not switch density during a read. I tried to read the boot tracks separately but could not work out how to merge them with the data tracks. The problem is with the software, not the hardware. I’m lucky in that one of the supplied utilities can interpret the bitstream. These utils need to be added to to make the device really useful.
 
That seems to be a common limitation with flux-level disk readers.

The preferred format for mixed FM-MFM stuff is usually ImageDisk .IMD format. On an IBM PC style floppy controller that supports FM, ImageDisk can detect, read, and write both. If you have just raw sectors, and know the disks geometry, it is possible to convert/build the IMD files using the included IMDU utility program. Usually, you can feed an .IMD image to the HxC software and export various flux stream formats for writing with flux-level hardware. HxC can also export IMD files from flux, but I can't remember if there were any issues with mixed FM/MFM.
 
FM Boot Track 0 with MFM Tracks {01.. 76}

FM Boot Track 0 with MFM Tracks {01.. 76}

I just asked Keir about the GreaseWeazle's capability to write the FM (26 X 128) byte
Sectors for the Boot Track, and then finish the remainder of the Tracks (01..76) as MFM
(26 X 256). He said the best thing to do was write Track 0 as FM, then write the
remaining sectors as MFM (26 x 256). It's not automatic with the GreaseWeazle.

That's easy enough to do with the GreaseWeazle.

Larry
 
new_castle_j said:
Never heard of the FluxEngine until just now, and I'm impressed. Apart from reading a disk and making an image, can the FluxEngine transfer files off of floppies and onto my modern computer?
Click to expand...

Typically, that is another step. First you get images of the floppies into files on your modern computer. Next you have tools (mtools, cpmtools and others) that use these images, they can do a directory listing, extract files and possible write new files to the image.
This is common for all "flux readers" that I have tried.
 
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