[Coco] Why not 5.25 with XP?
Mike Pepe
lamune at doki-doki.net
Tue Aug 22 20:16:39 EDT 2006
David wrote:
> Hi Phil, thanks for the reply
>
> Not being overly-techy when it comes to disk structures, etc..
>
> Would it be possible to read two 256 byte (coco) sectors as one 512 byte
> sectors, and decode in software?
No, the sector is a monolithic unit that contains a preamble, CRC error
detection, and other control information. Attempting to read a 512 byte
sector on a 256 byte disk will result in nothing more than a very
confused disk controller.
> When writing out, you'd need to first read in the 512 bytes, modify the
> sector(s) as required, then write out as a 512 byte block.
It's not that simple, I'm afraid. Now, under OS9, you could do something
like split a 512 byte sector into two pieces... but that's not what
you're asking.
> Although this is double-handling, with smart use of software buffering
> etc it would work well.. as long as the hardware can be fooled into
> playing along
There are drivers under OS9 that do something similar for IDE drives,
but that's another story. Stuff that Cloud9 sells, for instance.
> Of course, I'm probably not only barking up the wrong tree, but in the
> wrong yard altogether
Well, I think you're in the right yard!
-Mike
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