m204help@cca.UUCP (03/06/87)
Sorry to keep plagueing the newsgroup with questions but as you know, the lack of docuementation makes this necessary.... Can anyone tell me where I can find info on 'all you ever wanted to know about ST disk drives and how data is stored on them '?. I want to write some programs to play some games with disk formats (more for self training than anything else) and I want to be able to understand how the data is written and read from disks, how does one address certain sections of the disk from with a program, etc. I will be using the MEGAMAX C development system, and I don't have the developers' kit. Thanks in advance, keith hedger
koster@msudoc.UUCP (Kurt Koster) (03/08/87)
In article <13767@cca.CCA.COM> m204help@cca.CCA.COM (Keith Hedger) writes: >Sorry to keep plagueing the newsgroup with questions but as you >know, the lack of docuementation makes this necessary.... You got that right! Someday, perhaps, we will have REAL documentation. Until then, we have the Developer's Kit and the Abacus books. >Can anyone tell me where I can find info on 'all you ever wanted to >know about ST disk drives and how data is stored on them '?. >I want to write some programs to play some games with disk formats >(more for self training than anything else) and I want to be able >to understand how the data is written and read from disks, how does >one address certain sections of the disk from with a program, etc. >I will be using the MEGAMAX C development system, and I don't have the >developers' kit. >keith hedger B Well, the fact that you don't have the developer's kit makes you wiser (and $300 richer) than some of us who are less forunate. To answer your question, Micro Cornucopia just published an article in the Feb. March issue on how to recover files on IBM disks. Most of the information contained therein is also relevant to the ST disk structure. Additionally, in the Feb. '86 issue of Antic, an article entitled "St Disk Secrets" by Rick Oliver talks a little about the format of ST Disks. What is said in this article seems to be better covered in the article of Micro-C which I mentioned earlier. In the premier issue of STart was an article by David Small on how to access the drive controller directly, bypassing most of the operating system. If you want to risk it, you can get "ST Disk Drives: Inside and Out" by Abacus books [Abacus; PO Box 7219 Dept. A3; Grand Rapids, MI 49510;; Fax: 616/241-5021;; Telex: 709-101;; Phone: 616/241-5510] and see if it suits your needs. I have the price listed as $24.95 {!}. If you do decide to buy the Abacus book, could you leave a mesg to the Net telling us what you thought of it? Hope that helped. -Koster [uucp: ihnp4!msudoc!koster /|\ Delphi: KurtO /|\ Genie: KurtO]
leavens@atari.UUCP (Alex Leavens) (03/09/87)
in article <13767@cca.CCA.COM>, m204help@cca.CCA.COM (Keith Hedger) says: > > Can anyone tell me where I can find info on 'all you ever wanted to > know about ST disk drives and how data is stored on them '?. You should check out issue #3 (I beleive) of START magazine, which has a very good tutorial by Dave Small on the structure of ST disc formats. --alex @ Atari BIX: alexl. GEnie: ALEXLEAVENS ATariCorp: 408-745-2006