From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756119AbYE1V6p (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 May 2008 17:58:45 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754469AbYE1V6c (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 May 2008 17:58:32 -0400 Received: from vms044pub.verizon.net ([206.46.252.44]:54508 "EHLO vms044pub.verizon.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753770AbYE1V6c (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 May 2008 17:58:32 -0400 Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 17:58:28 -0400 From: Gene Heskett Subject: Re: floppy question of the hour In-reply-to: <20080528195947.GQ16162@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> To: Lennart Sorensen Cc: Phillip Susi , Stefan Richter , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Jens Axboe Message-id: <200805281758.29018.gene.heskett@gmail.com> Organization: Organization? very little MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline References: <200805232114.20937.gene.heskett@gmail.com> <483DB49D.7040706@cfl.rr.com> <20080528195947.GQ16162@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> User-Agent: KMail/1.9.9 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wednesday 28 May 2008, Lennart Sorensen wrote: >On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 03:38:05PM -0400, Phillip Susi wrote: >> Lennart Sorensen wrote: >> >Just do what the Amiga did: Read the entire track into a buffer in >> >memory, then deal with the sectors, and write the entire track back. :) >> >> IIRC, there is no way to detect the interleave factor that the media has >> been formatted with, unless you maybe try several and see which one >> reads fastest. > >Yeah, the Amiga trick wouldn't work. The Amiga had no interleave. It >didn't even have sector gaps. Just 11 consequtive sectors worth of data >per track and one gap at the end of the track. I really doubt any other >system could emulate that floppy access method without extra hardware. The drives, at least for the 880k format, were std chinon 3.5" drives. However, I was under the impression there was about a 20 byte gap with the sector number and a short A5 A5 synch string between the sectors. I still have a big box A-2k, with one DD drive, and one of the special 1760k 150 rpm HD drives too. But its been nearly a decade since an HD failure prompted me to store it in the basement and learn to really use the first linux box I ever built in 1998, RH-5.1 on it. So my memory could be hazy, after all its 73 years old & counting. :) -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My philosophy is: Don't think. -- Charles Manson