Re: EDD Plus Project

["Charlie" <charlieDOTd@verEYEzon.net>]

"Bryan Parkoff" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message 
news:478c20fd$0$5180$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> Charlie,
>
>>>> While I agree with your assessment of DSKs and NIBs, I believe that 
>>>> emulator writers won't support a new format unless it is very easy to 
>>>> generate the new images.  My reasoning comes from the fact that there 
>>>> has been such a format (FDI) for some time and as yet I know of no 
>>>> Apple II emulator that supports it.  And this even though FDIs are not 
>>>> all that difficult to produce.
>>>> It's that "chicken and egg" thing.  No one wants to create images if 
>>>> they can't be used anywhere and no one wants to support a format that 
>>>> doesn't have any images available.
>>>
>>>    Please tell me more.  What do FDI stand for?
>>
>> FDI stands for Formatted Disk Image.
>>
>>> Is it advanced than NIB format?
>>
>> Yes, much more advanced than NIB.
>>
>>> I have been studying Disk II controller and I want to emulate it using 
>>> Logic Sequencer ROM instead of basic DSK format and NIB format.
>>>    I intend to write it near the future.  I am interested.
>>
>> You can find more about it here:
>>
>> http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi
>>
>> and the actual FDI specification here:
>>
>> http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi/files/FDISPEC.pdf
>>
>> Basically what you need is:
>>
>> An MS-DOS PC with a 5.25 inch and/or 3.5 inch floppy drive and PCI slots.
>> A registered copy of disk2fdi (the free version won't make FDIs).
>> A "high speed" PCI parallel card.
>> A two wire cable available from the site above or you can easily make one 
>> yourself.
>>
>> This set-up allows you to read Apple ][ disks and create FDI files.  FDI 
>> files are very large and it takes quite a long time to create one but you 
>> can also create standard .do images and .dc (3.5 inch diskcopy) images.
>
>    Thank you for the information.  I have seen it already.  I wonder why 
> this FDI program can't support Windows XP?  How would you need to write a 
> driver for Windows XP?  The driver may bypass to use low level format to 
> the floppy disk controller directly.

Yes, I think you are right.  A driver would need to be written for XP.

>
>    How did PC MFM 5.25 floppy drive read Apple II GCR format?
>  Is it done by reading transition like bit stream?

I'm no expert but I think it stores the times between transitions.  It 
doesn't matter what format was used on the floppy.

Getting the MFM drive to read Apple II (and other systems) GCR disks 
requires tricks that are not documented in the MFM controller/drive specs. 
I have read how this was done but I no longer remember the exact method.

> Why do you desire to capture floppy disk into image?

I have about 1000 floppies (most not copy protected) and disk2fdi is by far 
the fastest way to make archive images of them (.do, etc.).  FDI need be 
used only for copy protected disks since the files are large and the process 
slow.

> I wonder why FDI does not work or can't read copy-protected image from 
> floppy disk.

Disk2fdi does work on (read) most (maybe all) copy protected Apple ][ disks. 
At least it should but as of now there is no way to check the resulting 
images.

>    If it is true that you expect to capture floppy disk into image 100% 
> accurately, it may not be possible to emulate FDI format into Apple II 
> Emulator successfully.

I don't see why not.  But again I'm no expert on emulating a floppy drive. 
There is an Amiga (I think) emulator that supports FDI and Ciderpress can 
read FDIs of DOS/ProDOS disks.

>
>    I have been reviewing over threads.  Nobody is interested to write FDI 
> program inside Apple II Emulator.

True :-(

>    I thought that the software should be able to capture Apple II floppy 
> diks into image using EDD+ card.  Does it?

I don't know.  I never owned an EDD+ card.

Charlie