Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!isgate!krafla!adamd
From: adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Larger / non-std fd formats (ST).
Message-ID: <3179@krafla.rhi.hi.is>
Date: 23 May 91 04:21:34 GMT
References: <54215@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Organization: University of Iceland
Lines: 24

In <54215@nigel.ee.udel.edu> HBO043%DJUKFA11.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu
(Christoph van Wuellen) writes:

>Why dont you switch to bigger sectors:

This is definitely the way to go. 5*1024 and 11*1024 (HD) formats do not
squeeze the gaps between sectors. I have some difficulties though in moving
over to 1024-byte sectors on the ST. I seem to have made all the necessary
changes to stfloppy.c but get nothing but read/write errors from the DMA.
'dma status 0x0' is reported during the verify stage of formatting.
Obviously some other part of the system has to be fixed before 1024-byte
sectors will work on ST-Minix. I'm sure this problem has been solved before.
What am I missing, and where should I be looking?

>While 10-Sector DD is potentially unsafe, and 11-Sector DD is russian
>roulette, 5-Sector (5*1024 bytes) DD is perfect!

10-sector (*512) works fine with the WD1772 controller, even between systems.
I agree that 11-sector (*512) has doubtful merits and should not be used
without understanding the risks involved. (it seems also to be slower).

--
Adam David.
(adamd@rhi.hi.is)