Closed Octoate closed 4 years ago
GW tool is not switching to HD rate to decode the flux and write the HFE. It's actually hardcoded at double density. I will work out a way to let you specify HD on the command line, and also add some sanity checking or auto-detection for the usual case that it is pretty easy to distinguish DD from HD (number of flux samples per track is usually enough!) Thanks!
Hi, great, thanks a lot for your fast reply and of course for your work on the Greaseweazle :-)! Can't wait to test it.
Latest v0.18 release fixes this. Specify --rate 500 on the gw read command line to create a HD HFE image file.
Let me know how you get on!
@keirf would it be better to have a way of converting scp to HFE? An issue with the HFE approach to imaging is that it can't represent fluctuating bitrates well — that would require lots and lots of bitrate-change opcodes, or imaging at a bitrate a few orders of magnitude higher than the disk's bitcell width. Some Apple II software uses copy protection that depends on such fluctuations.
Just to chime in: --rate 500 produces a hd .hfe for me, but HxC Floppy Emulator doesn't show any of the files on the disk in the disk browser, and the Track format: says UNKNOWN_ENCODING. (I also tried --rate 512, same result)
Disk was a brand new sealed floppy (driver disk), opened to try this out! The disk I used reads fine in a standard PC drive, and an external PC usb drive.
The drive on the GW is an Alps DF334. I can test on another disk drive, if needed.
@d235j I will implement transcoding in future so you can convert between image formats with no physical disk access involved. I will also implement a sensible flux format for storing incremental disk dumps, and provide tools for transcoding that too.
@M1kerochip A failed test, how sad. I will have a look. It did work for me earlier today!
If you rip to SCP does that look OK in hxc?
The HD disk? No. Same. Shows up as a blank 1.39mb disk. 0kb used. Unknown encoding format.
If you explore the tracks, it's showing data in there. I can see some filenames etc. It's just not recognised.
The problem isn't directly related to the new --rate option then. Try another drive and/or upload the bad scp somewhere.
Same result, but a bit better. At least this drive picked it up as ISOIBM_MFM_ENCODING.
https://mega.nz/file/EWI0mSzK#TOTxhjcXYzLXEKG1L5WWHqI1tiZwbouLV-HtTwc0hHU
Using different drive, hxc reports:
Track RPM : 300 RPM Bitrate : VARIABLE Track format : ISOIBM_MFM_ENCODING Track len : 199450 cells Number of side : 2 Interface mode: GENERIC_SHUGART_DD_FLOPPYMODE Shugart Interface
I just looked at your SCP and it is perfect? All sectors are there. So presumably something was up with the previous drive you used.
Yeah, maybe! Maybe it was just having a bad day :)
HxC still can't see any of the files on the disk though, using the disk browser. (That's what I usually use to check an IBM image is ok)
There are a couple of extra sectors at cylinder 80, which might have confused the browser. If I decode cyls 0-79 only, I see a FAT12 FS, but the filenames are garbage. Maybe this is not a standard FAT-formatted disk? All I can say is the sectors are okay as they are CRC validated. So there's nothing wrong with the dump.
Fair enough.
I've dumped 3 more disks, all the same. Each disk reads fine in a older normal PC drive connected to a PC under windows, and a usb drive on my main PC, none show in HxC browser. (And all files can be copied off, etc, fine)
I'll try writing that disk image back to a blank, and see if it's picked up ok in windows.
And I'll try a new read and write ending on track 80.
Sure. Make another one available for download and tell me what files you expect to see on it.
Oh hang on, I see the problem. You are reading side 0 twice! So either this drive is bad too, or you have a bad cable or something, such that the side-select signal is being ignored.
When you view the SCP in HxC 'Track Analyzer' note that sector header contains 'H:0' for all sectors on side 1. In fact side 1 is just a re-dump of side 0!
Ah! Excellent.
Yup, that was the problem. There must be something up with my cable.
Ok, I think this ticket is done.
Hi, I just build the Greaseweazel board and used an adapter board for this. Flashing the software was no problem and the device gets recognized on my Windows 10 system. I also can read and write disks with the software, but reading does not work. To test the device, I used the DSKA0000.hfe from the HxC floppy emulator software and wrote it to a 3.5" disk. After that, I checked that the disk is readable with an USB floppy drive and it works fine. However, when I read it back, the HFE file is not readable in the HxC floppy emulator software. Also writing it back to a 3.5" disk and testing it with the USB drive does not work. I used the simple command "gw.exe read test.hfe" to read the disk on my system. Do you have any ideas or a hint for my what might cause the problem? I have attached the hfe file that I read back on my system (it should contain the DSKA0000.hfe content). testhfe.zip