Post AqzmDZIFJ5eW6SCGH2 by scribblesonnapkins@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by scribblesonnapkins@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #AqzW0JWn0qGeAzeovQ by scribblesonnapkins@mastodon.social
       2025-02-10T22:00:29Z
       
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       Do you remember this scene from the movie Sneakers? I am pretty sure this is manual for the software & ISA cards used.I have all the cards and a later copy of the driver but I also have a lot more from this company including possibly source code on aging 5.25" floppies I am trying to exhume but I am having an issue. Before anyone says it yes I am using a greaseweasle.@textfiles @TechTangents @foone @tubetime @chris_gammell
       
 (DIR) Post #AqzW0KnUIFDc74Tfai by scribblesonnapkins@mastodon.social
       2025-02-10T22:08:57Z
       
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       So of course before I just started throwing disks into this thing made with drives stored in a damp New England basement. I tried to read a few 3.5" disks of the same era and those all worked. Then I tried the 5.25" in both my drives (with low value disks) and no luck. I can get a raw file but gw can't make an image out of it. How much does the type of 5.25" drive matter? Is there anything I could do to the disks prior to playback that might help?
       
 (DIR) Post #AqzW0Luc9EVtZSosL2 by foone@digipres.club
       2025-02-10T23:47:32Z
       
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       @scribblesonnapkins 5.25" disks are picky about DD vs HD, it's best to match the drive density with the drive for best results. Does your 5.25" drive read any disks? it's possible it's just miscalibrated or broken
       
 (DIR) Post #AqzmDZIFJ5eW6SCGH2 by scribblesonnapkins@mastodon.social
       2025-02-11T02:49:13Z
       
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       @foone There were HD 5.25" disks? I thought the only HD disks were 3.5".I know I should capture RAW but for a simple test I got this to work with the 3.5" drive.gw read --format=ibm.1440 test.img --drive=bSo I assumed this is good for a basic test with DD disks.gw read --format=ibm.1200 test.img --drive=abut this just returns missing sectors. So I retried going from 1200 down to 360. But nothing consistently read on any of the disk I am testing with. So it could be the drives or the disks
       
 (DIR) Post #AqznGNPG3gge3kNb2e by foone@digipres.club
       2025-02-11T03:00:47Z
       
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       @scribblesonnapkins Yeah, 3.5" and 5.25" both had DD and HD variants.HD 1.2mb 5.25" disks are relatively rarer though, as DD 360k 5.25" was around longer and had more universal support. You should definitely try copying raw: then from the raw it can be analyzed and later converted to another format.
       
 (DIR) Post #AqzqExkCHhGE2gBuVM by scribblesonnapkins@mastodon.social
       2025-02-11T03:34:12Z
       
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       @foone Ok thanks. So the box I setup has 2 x 5.25" drives. The one I am pushing is teac fd-55gfr because I figured it was more robust (and likely easier to clean) than the two in one.I have 2 old IBM 5150s that like all old machines are a mix of upgrade parts. One is a parts unit but I think the drives both are tanden's with ancient belts. I figured in the balance between direct drive vs a better matched drive to disk type the direct drive made more sense.
       
 (DIR) Post #AqzsRYdH9yr7ph5T0a by foone@digipres.club
       2025-02-11T03:58:53Z
       
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       @scribblesonnapkins It'd definitely be worth testing on a different driver, juts to see if it's a per-drive issue. You might even try the tandons