Date   : Tue, 18 Jul 2006 12:59:32 +0100
From   : "Ian Wolstenholme" <BBCMailingList@...>
Subject: Re: Getting .SSD disk images onto a beeb...

I don't think the Xfer & cable is going to be any use, I think you have to
write disc images directly to the disc using something like Omniflop or FDC, the
cable link is only for transferring files which can then be saved at the BBC
end onto a formatted BBC disc.

As far as I know (others will be able to say for certain), the SSD and IMG
format is a straight sector-by-sector copy of a DFS disc from start to finish,
ie. beginning at track 0 sector 0 up to track 79 sector 9, and a DSD is
the same except it has a second disc image at the end of the first as the
"other side" of the DFS disc.

I think ADF images are interleaved if they are 640K ones, so it's Surface 0
Track 0 Sector 0, Surface 1 Track 0 Sector 0, Surface 0 Track 0 Sector 1,
Surface 1 Track 0 Sector 1 etc etc which is why they always come out 
jumbled when I try to write them.

Best wishes,


Ian

----- Original Message -----
From: Jules Richardson
To:  bbc <bbc-micro@...>
Sent:  Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:47:12 +0000
Subject: [BBC-Micro] Getting .SSD disk images onto a beeb...


OK, what are my options here?

I've got a beeb (obviously), a PC running Linux, a copy of xfer for Linux, and 
an xfer cable.

I know both xfer and the cable work; I've used them before. I thought xfer 
(v4) handled disk image transfer as well as single files, but I can't see 
anywhere in the docs where it says this, let alone what image file formats it 
supports at the PC end.

As I'm running Linux, I think that rules out DFS explorer; I believe that's 
Windows-only and there's no Linux port available?

Omniflop is Windows-only too - although its web page hints that there are 
tools for Linux (in which case I'm not aware of them - I know I can kick the 
FDC chip into various modes from the shell, but AFAIK the SSD format isn't a 
raw disk dump, so I still need some utility that understands the format)

To make matters worse, I have a feeling this PC - like most - won't write FM 
data anyway (although it'll possibly read it OK; long time since I tested this 
one) - so something that talks direct to the FDC hardware is no use, and I 
really need a remote transfer util like xfer...

Worst-case, who maintains the SSD/DSD spec? If that's published somewhere I 
could write something quickly to rip the individual files out of the SSD image 
under Linux, then xfer them across to a formatted floppy...

cheers

Jules

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