[Techtoolslist] Samdisk looks very promising...

[John Robertson]

David Shoemaker wrote:

> Do I need the service disk to format my machine to use 6.1?

>   


Unfortunately the answer is Yes - you need a unserialized Service Disc 
for 6.0 or 6.1 to format your drive or CFC card. I don't know if there 
is a workaround other than a good image from a 6.1 drive - like one I 
have but haven't gotten around to uploading to TTL yet. You would need 
to use some image software like Miray's HDClone, or the free(?) Dolly, 
or similar. OSX folks may be able to use the Disk Utility to make the 
image, but you will need SCSI if formatting a drive, but you should be 
able to use one of those USB to IDE adapters otherwise.

I'm not having any luck yet with using a CF and my SCSI to IDE adapter - 
which works fine with hard drives, but can't handle the CF for some 
reason...

Trying to track a copy of Service 6.1 down. Mucking with the Serialized 
copy on TTL gives me CRC errors so I can't fix it easily. Looks like 
each sector is C6Fh in length - not sure where the serial is added 
though...darn.

John :-#)#

> -----Original Message-----

> From: techtoolslist-bounces at flippers.com

> [mailto:techtoolslist-bounces at flippers.com] On Behalf Of John Robertson

> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 3:20 PM

> To: Technical Tools Mail List

> Subject: Re: [Techtoolslist] Samdisk looks very promising...

>

> Andre Huijts wrote:

>   

>> I decided to write back the 6.1 images on my 6.0 floppies because 6.0 is

>>     

> archived and safe anyway.

>   

>> I succesfully booted the system but it does show errors during boot up.

>>     

> HOWEVER, this also happens with BOTH of the original 6.1 floppies I have.

>   

>> I believe that (at least some) errors are there because of me removing the

>>     

> SCSI cable from the HD. Since the interface is still installed (and maybe

> some dip-switch setting?) I think the 9100 assumes the HD still to be

> there....

>   

>> Anyway, I think Samdisk did a perfect job, the errors are not to blame on

>>     

> the program.

>   

>> One question:

>>

>> I still have another set of 6.0 but it has hand-written "9105" on it. I

>>     

> THINK that this was only just to indicate to which system this set was

> delivered or that it "belonged" to the 9105.

>   

>> Can anyone confirm there is no difference between V6.0 for the 9105 and

>>     

> 9100 ?

>   

>> I can try to boot from those disks and see if that boots error free.

>>

>> I could make a video of the boot process.

>>

>>

>>   

>>     

> I too have had success with SAMdisk - extracted the TTL original 6.1

> floppies from the zip file and was able to write them to fresh floppies

> (with errors ignored by SAMdisk) and then able to boot my 9100FT with them.

>

> What appears to be serialized is the TTL 9100 6.1 SERVICE disc, these are

> matched to their machines and I did not work from a backup copy back in the

> early 00s when this discussion was on.

>

> I'm going to look inside that file (HexEdit) to see if the serial spot is

> obvious or not and if so, try setting it to 0000 or FFFF to see if that

> clears it.

>

> John :-#)#

>   

>> Op 21 nov. 2012, om 19:03 heeft Andre Huijts <a.huijts at upcmail.nl> het

>>     

> volgende geschreven:

>   

>>   

>>     

>>> I just deinstalled the special drivers for Omniflop and rebooted my PC,

>>>       

> this automatically reinstalled the default windows drivers for the floppy

> drive.

>   

>>> Then installed the fdrawcmd.sys file and copied Samdisk to my C: root.

>>>

>>> Started a command box and fiddled around with some of the commands.

>>>

>>> I got this info when doing the scan command:

>>>

>>> 83 Cyls, 2 heads:

>>> 250Kbps MFM, 16 sectors, 256 bytes/'sector

>>>

>>> Then it started a list of what looks like info per track:

>>> 0.0 0 8 1 9 2 10 3 11 4 12 5 13 6 14 7 15

>>> 1.0 0 8 1 9 2 10 3 11 4 12 5 13 6 14 7 15

>>>

>>> The first digit is the tracknr., the second the headnr. The other nrs are

>>>       

> the sector numbers.

>   

>>> All tracks show the same info.

>>>

>>> For tracks 80,81,82 it reports <blank> So it looks like the format is 

>>> 80 tracks.

>>>

>>>

>>> Also did a "view" command and to my amazement I got to see all the bytes

>>>       

> in hex and ASCII per sector.....I could read some info that makes sense so I

> guess at least Samdisk is reading the discs correctly.

>   

>>> Now making images...

>>>       



-- 
John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 
Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, VideoGames)
                 www.flippers.com 
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"