Introducing FloppyControlApp

19 May 2017, 15:37

A couple of years ago I decided to capture my aging floppydisks. They were very dirty and needed thorough cleaning. I thought it would be great to build my own hardware and software to accomplish this huge undertaking. I had about 300+ disks in various formats (PCDOS, AmigaDOS, PFS and DiskSpare) that I wanted to capture. My expectations were low: if I could recover 10-20% I'd be very happy indeed. As it turns out more than 80% of the disks made a full recovery, and looking at the remaining disks more than 95% of the sectors were recoverable.
What I've learned is that the floppy disk isn't as bad as many would have you believe. I have a renewed respect for the format. With the proper cleaning techniques (see my cleaning video in the youtube channel below, with a 3D printed cleaning kit I designed) most disks read in fine. Without cleaning the disk surface immediately got damaged by crud.

Don't throw away your floppies just yet, you still may be able to recover (more) them

The main aim of the software is recovery (as opposed to archival). To that end there are some unique features that I haven't found or heard of elsewhere.
There's error correction to correct single burst error per sector of a short duration and a waveform editor to edit oscilloscope waveforms of captures of the analogue differential signal from the drive head.
This can lead to a higher percentage of recovery in difficult to recover disks, ie disks with a weak but still existing signal, or disks with a signal that's too strong in the case of HD disks formatted as double density.
It can read and write SCP files too.

If there's enough interest in the project I'm considering making it an open source project. So far it's a Windows only application, with a usb connected piece of cheap hardware (about 25 euros in components). It's not quite ready to be published yet, it needs a little cleanup and more testing. Some experimental features need to be removed etc.

More information can be found in the links below.

I've posted some articles about the project here:
http://makercentral.net/

And created some videos how the application works on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJS...srenXGCEr2fJ9w

Please let me know if this is of any interest to you.

Kind regards
Imqqmi

Screenshot of the Waveform editor:

Amiga1992 · 19 May 2017, 16:18

This is great!

Wiking67 · 19 May 2017, 16:42

prowler · 20 May 2017, 03:21

Great project!

I'm interested in anything which can help recover data.

emufan · 20 May 2017, 20:42

impresssive repair feature, cool

Magic · 21 May 2017, 03:47

Awesome! I can't wait for updates

RedskullDC · 21 May 2017, 04:16

very interesting indeed!

Look forward to seeing more.

Cheers,
Red

MickGyver · 21 May 2017, 07:51

Nice work! Interested indeed!

Foul · 21 May 2017, 18:38

Excellent ! good work

Lonewolf10 · 21 May 2017, 20:10

Cool stuff!

Plus it looks fairly easy to use

Jope · 22 May 2017, 07:54

Looks interesting. Feature request: kryoflux raw support? :-)

demolition · 22 May 2017, 10:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jope

Looks interesting. Feature request: kryoflux raw support? :-)

I was just thinking this since many people have those dumps and perhaps this software could work where others fails.

22 May 2017, 18:01

Thanks for your interest! Kryoflux support is planned, based on interest and if I can get some sample files to test with. If any of you have some to share I'd be happy to work on kryoflux support. SCP support is already working. It may be possible to convert from SCP to kryoflux but I've never tried it.

I'd also like to receive images with bad sectors on them to see if I can recover them and to challenge the software capabilities. If you have any of those to share will be welcome as well.

19 May 2017, 15:37	#1
imqqmi Posts: n/a	Introducing FloppyControlApp A couple of years ago I decided to capture my aging floppydisks. They were very dirty and needed thorough cleaning. I thought it would be great to build my own hardware and software to accomplish this huge undertaking. I had about 300+ disks in various formats (PCDOS, AmigaDOS, PFS and DiskSpare) that I wanted to capture. My expectations were low: if I could recover 10-20% I'd be very happy indeed. As it turns out more than 80% of the disks made a full recovery, and looking at the remaining disks more than 95% of the sectors were recoverable. What I've learned is that the floppy disk isn't as bad as many would have you believe. I have a renewed respect for the format. With the proper cleaning techniques (see my cleaning video in the youtube channel below, with a 3D printed cleaning kit I designed) most disks read in fine. Without cleaning the disk surface immediately got damaged by crud. Don't throw away your floppies just yet, you still may be able to recover (more) them The main aim of the software is recovery (as opposed to archival). To that end there are some unique features that I haven't found or heard of elsewhere. There's error correction to correct single burst error per sector of a short duration and a waveform editor to edit oscilloscope waveforms of captures of the analogue differential signal from the drive head. This can lead to a higher percentage of recovery in difficult to recover disks, ie disks with a weak but still existing signal, or disks with a signal that's too strong in the case of HD disks formatted as double density. It can read and write SCP files too. If there's enough interest in the project I'm considering making it an open source project. So far it's a Windows only application, with a usb connected piece of cheap hardware (about 25 euros in components). It's not quite ready to be published yet, it needs a little cleanup and more testing. Some experimental features need to be removed etc. More information can be found in the links below. I've posted some articles about the project here: http://makercentral.net/ And created some videos how the application works on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJS...srenXGCEr2fJ9w Please let me know if this is of any interest to you. Kind regards Imqqmi Screenshot of the Waveform editor:

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19 May 2017, 16:18	#2
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	This is great!

19 May 2017, 16:42	#3
Wiking67 Blowing Out The Flame Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Lulea Sweden Age: 57 Posts: 214

20 May 2017, 03:21	#4
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Great project! I'm interested in anything which can help recover data.

20 May 2017, 20:42	#5
emufan Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: #DrainTheSwamp Posts: 4,545	impresssive repair feature, cool

21 May 2017, 03:47	#6
Magic Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: USA Posts: 359	Awesome! I can't wait for updates

21 May 2017, 04:16	#7
RedskullDC Digital Corruption Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Dorrigo/Australia Age: 60 Posts: 355	very interesting indeed! Look forward to seeing more. Cheers, Red

21 May 2017, 07:51	#8
MickGyver Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Finland Posts: 643	Nice work! Interested indeed!

21 May 2017, 18:38	#9
Foul Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Perigueux/France Age: 49 Posts: 1,516	Excellent ! good work

21 May 2017, 20:10	#10
Lonewolf10 AMOS Extensions Developer Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: near Cambridge, UK Age: 44 Posts: 1,924	Cool stuff! Plus it looks fairly easy to use

22 May 2017, 07:54	#11
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,861	Looks interesting. Feature request: kryoflux raw support? :-)

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

22 May 2017, 18:01	#13
imqqmi Posts: n/a	Thanks for your interest! Kryoflux support is planned, based on interest and if I can get some sample files to test with. If any of you have some to share I'd be happy to work on kryoflux support. SCP support is already working. It may be possible to convert from SCP to kryoflux but I've never tried it. I'd also like to receive images with bad sectors on them to see if I can recover them and to challenge the software capabilities. If you have any of those to share will be welcome as well.