[Coco] Why not 5.25 with XP?

[David]

Hi Mike,

Ahh well.. was just an idea :)

Looks like I'll need to track down the drivers mentioned previously!

Any clues?

- David

Mike Pepe wrote:
> 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
>