Direct kyroflux usage from WinUAE?

[Chipmunk_UK_1]

Now that we have kyroflux boards being shipped out (I have one myself), would there be a chance of getting WinUAE to use it as a floppy drive?

i.e. Tell WinUAE to use the kyroflux as a floppy, and boot/read/write? disks inserted into the connected drive?

Sorry if this has been asked before, searches in this and the WinUAE.Support sections had no hits.

[prowler]

I'm only guessing, of course, but I should imagine that this would be more trouble than it's worth.

The KryoFlux board and drivers were designed to be used as a preservation tool and not as an Amiga floppy drive emulator.

I have a KryoFlux board myself and it has already proved very useful for salvaging the content of otherwise quite unreadable floppies and I personally have no need to use mine in the way you would wish.

What is wrong with simply mounting the ADF files you have produced using the KryoFlux in WinUAE?

In any case, the KryoFlux drivers are still in development and write support is not available yet.

[Supamax]

Originally Posted by prowler

it has already proved very useful for salvaging the content of otherwise quite unreadable floppies

Interesting...! Did you manage to correctly read tracks/sectors not readable (giving errors) by an Amiga floppy drive?
Did you use a proprietary program/method of yours, perhaps working on the raw dumps? Or using the software by SPS?
(sorry for the "noob" questions, but I know very little about the KryoFlux's software and its actual capabilities...)

[Toni Wilen]

Real time streaming is technically possible.

Not sure if I am interested enough, maybe someday.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Supamax

Interesting...! Did you manage to correctly read tracks/sectors not readable (giving errors) by an Amiga floppy drive?

Not quite. The KryoFlux Disk Tool Console (DTC), a 32-bit Windows command line interface, is able to capture data from every sector of Amiga floppy disks, except those with a missing sector header (and I've not found any other way of reading those). This means that it is capable of capturing data from flaky sectors which give a different result every time. To see what I mean, try re-reading a flaky sector using DiskMonTools.

Using KryoFlux, I am able to capture the data from flaky sectors numerous times, compare them and slowly build up a picture of what the sector really looks like. This can be done on a maximum likelihood basis for every byte in the sector and, if this doesn't prove accurate enough, it can be done at the bit level. It's rather like doing a jigsaw puzzle. If the sector checksum is intact, then it's possible to check your progress with a program like TrackEd, recalculating the checksum as you go.

Its laborious, but when you've already recovered something like 99% of a batch of nearly 200 disks, like I have with the AlienBash code disks, then it's worth going the extra mile to get the final 1%.

Originally Posted by Supamax

Did you use a proprietary program/method of yours, perhaps working on the raw dumps? Or using the software by SPS?
(sorry for the "noob" questions, but I know very little about the KryoFlux's software and its actual capabilities...)

KryoFlux's DTC captures a minimum of one Track from which I extract the 512 bytes comprising the sector I'm interrested in. Then I compare pairs of sectors from different captures using a binary comparator program which highlights the differences between them, and first I record those bytes which match with greater certainty, then move on to those which match most times and so on. Sometimes huge chunks match on just a few captures and these have proved to be very reliable. I am quite experienced at this, and a lot of it comes down to instinct.

To learn more about the KryoFlux's software and its capabilities, you can download the latest KryoFlux driver archive from the KryoFlux home page which contains a lot of useful information:
http://www.kryoflux.com
http://www.kryoflux.com/download/kryoflux_1.0b10r3.zip

[desiv]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Not sure if I am interested enough, maybe someday.

Translation:
When they give me one for free, I'll probably do it..



desiv

[Toni Wilen]

Incorrect translation.

[Supamax]

@ prowler

Thanks and... WOW! The right combination of patience, instinct, knowledge and passion

KryoFlux's DTC captures a minimum of one Track from which I extract the 512 bytes comprising the sector I'm interrested in. Then I compare pairs of sectors from different captures using a binary comparator program which highlights the differences between them, and first I record those bytes which match with greater certainty, then move on to those which match most times and so on.

I did something similar with PowerCopy Professional. In some cases ("weak" sectors) I had success.

[cosmicfrog]

and a fetish for floppy disks

[desiv]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Incorrect translation.

It was a joke...

desiv

[Toni Wilen]

Quite bad joke because I have had development Kryoflux board before it was commercially available.

It is simply boring task that can never work perfectly.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Quite bad joke

.. Mea Culpa...

desiv

[_ThEcRoW]

"Translation:
When they give me one for free, I'll probably do it..

desiv"

/me remembers catweasel and sps...