[Coco] Dumb drive question?

[Robert Gault]

Unless a drive has a ROM or equivalent that can be read, the only way a program
will know its capabilities is through trial and error testing. Far as I know
5.25 and 3.5 drives don't have this info. The Coco version of OS-9 does not do
drive testing if a disk can't be read.

So if you insist on using media that does not tell a drive how to step (ex.
density hole on a 3.5 disk) Coco OS-9 won't know either.

"John E. Malmberg" wrote:
> 
> Robert Gault wrote:
> > Both OS-9 and NitrOS-9 can read a variety of disk formats and types. The OS gets
> > the format info from LSN0 on the disk. This information includes the number of
> > tracks, sectors per track, density, number of sides, and more.
> 
> That tells what the disk is formatted at.
> 
> What is important for 5.25 drives is that the program needs to know if
> the drive has 80 tracks or 40 tracks.  It needs to step twice as much to
> find the right track.
> 
> > The crucial part of your questions is the "detect this on boot?". If you meant
> > by this that you boot from your own boot disk and try to read an unknown disk,
> > the answer is yes. If you meant to include boot from a disk of unknown format,
> > the answer will probably be no.
> 
> If you have a 5.25 inch 80 track drive and put 40 track media in it,
> does Nitros know how to properly boot it after the boot loader is executed?
> 
> -John
> wb8tyw at qsl.net
> Personal Opinion Only
> 
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