Flash Floppy

[Darrell Pelan]

Hi,

I am looking at using the open source Flash Floppy instead of the HxC emulator code. In reviewing the documentation, it looks like each flash drive has a configuration file so that all images on the drive are treated the same. One advantage is the IMG file format is a raw image of the disk and does not need to be converted to .HFE, I believe.

With HxC, I can have images of 40 track or 80 track on the same flash drive and easily switch between them. Of course, only HxC supports hard sector images (read only).

Am I missing something?

Thanks,

  Darrell

[Steven Hirsch]

Hi, Darrell. The short answer is 'yes'.

There are (2) configuration files. FF.CFG sets parameters for the device as a
whole, while IMG.CFG tells it how to handle individual sector images (files
with only raw data and no metadata). You can define as many different disk
geometries as you wish and key them to files by size and/or substrings in
their names. To make things even more flexible, it understands what an HFE
file is and can read metadata from that format. Bottom line: There is no
limitation on the number of different formats you can put on one USB drive. I
have 9 or 10 in my IMG.CFG and a number of HFE files interspersed with raw
images. It all plays together seamlessly.

At this point, HxC has very limited hard-sector support. Heath format only in
read-only mode. FlashFloppy has no hard-sector emulation at this point, but
hopefully the author will add it in the future. The only drive emulator I'm
aware of that has read/write hard-sector floppy support is the DREM, which
does Northstar and Heath formats.

[Darrell Pelan]

Thanks, Steven. Time to give it a try then.

 Darrell

[Darrell Pelan]

Hi Steven,

Can you share the parameters in your IMG.CFG file for soft sector IMG formats. The .HFE version of my boot disk is working great. The IMG version not so much. Here is what I'm using:

[H37::819200]

cyls = 80

heads = 2

interleave = 3

secs = 5

bps = 1024

rate = 500

Thanks,

  Darrell

On Friday, February 5, 2021 at 8:24:29 PM UTC-5 snhirsch wrote:

[Steven Hirsch]

On 2/6/21 11:54 PM, Darrell Pelan wrote:
> Hi Steven,
>
> Can you share the parameters in your IMG.CFG file for soft sector IMG
> formats. The .HFE version of my boot disk is working great. The IMG version
> not so much. Here is what I'm using:
> [H37::819200]
> cyls = 80
> heads = 2
> interleave = 3
> secs = 5
> bps = 1024
> rate = 500

Hi, Darrell. To be honest, I've never used the FF with that particular Z37
format, although it's worked fine with the default 40T variant.

My H89 is not setup at the moment so I cannot do any experimentation here.

One suggestion: Read the IMD or HFE file into the HxC GUI application and use
the image visualization features to double check sector numbering and
geometry. For example, I believe FF defaults to zero-normal sector numbering,
but many formats (not sure about yours) are one-normal. Also, are you sure
about the 500 k/sec data rate? I'd associate that with HD floppy formats or
8" drives, not a DD format.

I assume you've properly followed the naming convention for the image file? I
typically don't use the substring, but maybe I've been fortunate in the fact
that no two of image types here have been the same size. Try using:

[::819200]

unless you have something that conflicts.

If you still cannot get it going, let me know and I'll clear some space and
setup the H89. I'd also add that Keir Fraser has been incredibly helpful in
responding to issues on the GitHub project.

Steve

[Darrell Pelan]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the tips. I was looking at the  IMD file and misread the mode value. 250 is the correct bit rate. The Flash Floppy is working fine with the HFE version. I changed the rate and used the size only. Still no luck on the IMG format. The 819200 size hangs and the 655360 size spews random stuff across the screen. I'll check the GitHub project for tips.

Thanks,

  Darrell

[Darrell Pelan]

Success! I dropped the rate parameter. The data file is the H37 format with a .IMG extension. I now have a Flash Floppy Gotek working on my H-89 and Z-120.

##################################################

[::819200]

cyls = 80

heads = 2

interleave = 3

secs = 5

bps = 1024

#rate = 250

  Darrell

[Steven Hirsch]

On 2/10/21 3:01 PM, Darrell Pelan wrote:
> Success! I dropped the rate parameter. The data file is the H37 format with
> a .IMG extension. I now have a Flash Floppy Gotek working on my H-89 and
> Z-120.
> ##################################################
> [::819200]
> cyls = 80
> heads = 2
> interleave = 3
> secs = 5
> bps = 1024
> #rate = 250

That's.. odd. Isn't the bit rate truly 250Kb/s? But, at any rate, glad you
got it going.