Symbos - 3.5inch DSDD disc formats

[CraigsBar]

I guess this is a question best directed to @Prodatron but as others may find the answer useful I'll ask it here!


Would it be possible for additional floppy formats be supported by Symbos, such as Romdios D1, D2, D10 and D20, even if this is only the "Electro" formats of parados (Data, System, IBM each in DS40, SS80 and DS80 layouts) I find the FAT12 writing under Symbos quite slow and unreliable, whereas the Data format is much quicker. If this could be extended to the Double Sided and/or 80 track capacities this would extend the functionalities and data sharing, especially as these formats are also easily supported by CP/M and AmsDOS which FAT12 is not.


Thanks for your ongoing improvements and added hardware supports


Craig

[Prodatron]

Regarding CP/M-based formats there is currently Amsdos data, Amsdos system and PCW supported.
You are speaking about this?
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/ROMDOS

IIRC the current Amsdos filesystem implementation in SymbOS is fixed to 1KB clusters and would have to be extended to 2 and 4KB clusters, when supporting 80tracks and/or double side discs.

I will check the code, how much work this would be.

Regarding FAT12: Does SymbOS sometimes crash your discs? Is it possible to reproduce such a situation?

[CraigsBar]

Regarding CP/M-based formats there is currently Amsdos data, Amsdos system and PCW supported.
You are speaking about this?
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/ROMDOS

IIRC the current Amsdos filesystem implementation in SymbOS is fixed to 1KB clusters and would have to be extended to 2 and 4KB clusters, when supporting 80tracks and/or double side discs.

I will check the code, how much work this would be.

Regarding FAT12: Does SymbOS sometimes crash your discs? Is it possible to reproduce such a situation?

Hi Prodatron. It does not crash, no. but the wrire speed is really slow with constant seeking accross the disc. The resulting files are sometimes corrupt, and occasionally the disc itself is corrupted (Directory track) needing to be reformatted on a PC. Write speed with AmsDOS is much much faster and more reliable in my experience, so I tend to stick to this.... even when moving files between CPC's with 3.5 inch discs. although this limits me to 180k at a time and no large files (dsk Images etc)


I'll try and grab more details when it occurs again. I might even post you the resulting disc LOL if that would help

[Prodatron]

If you could take an empty disc and reproduce such a corrupt directory/file system, that would be great :)Always the best way, if it can be reproduced in an emulator, but I really wonder, if you can reproduce it at all.

[CraigsBar]

If you could take an empty disc and reproduce such a corrupt directory/file system, that would be great :)Always the best way, if it can be reproduced in an emulator, but I really wonder, if you can reproduce it at all.

I'll give it a go.... /me breaks open one his prized boxes of Imation DS/DD 3.5inch discs... Nothing but the best for this test!