(another) Floppy disc reader status update and RFC

[Philip Pemberton]

Al Kossow wrote:
>  > I'm also thinking about an extension to the ImageDisk file format to 
> allow
>  > storage of raw MFM data, though I'm not sure how to go about doing 
> this...
>  > creating a whole new format may be a better idea.
> 
> A common low-level format would be a good thing. I don't beleive it exsits
> in the Catweasel world.

I didn't see anything remotely resembling a 'standard' raw format - most of 
the CW dumps I've seen are of the form 'raw data from the CW's memory' and 
don't include any form of metadata (e.g. read clock rate, disc type, 
modulation, creator, what the disc is...)

My plan is to have something like the ImageDisk format, but with some metadata 
extensions specific to raw data tracks -- clock speed, encoding format (if 
known), bit rate (again, if known), etc.

Development is on hold for the minute as I've just had my main machine 
(Cheetah) floored by a hard drive failure - the whole RAID went down and took 
my data with it. None of the source code or schematic files have been lost or 
damaged - they were backed up onto a Subversion repository that's set up on 
the NAS (think of it as 'planning ahead' or just pessimism, either way works).

Just my machine's a little crippled with only 80GB disc, and the new drives 
won't be here until Monday at the earliest, so it's unlikely I'll get much 
work done as my laptop isn't quite quick enough to run ISE.

What's REALLY annoying is that one drive in the array packed in, the RAID 
switched into degraded mode, then the second drive packed in about half an 
hour later, well before I'd had chance to even order a replacement. One of the 
drives spins but is covered in bad sectors, the other one won't even spin. So 
chance of recovery is basically nil :(

Sorry guys, you'll have to wait a little longer for your portable floppy disc 
readers.. :(

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