Thomas Harte <tomh.retros...@gmail.com> wrote: > my USB floppy drive showed up as a block device and exposed only the > PC-style double density sectors as blocks.
That's just how USB floppy drives are seen by the system, and is the reason they're so limited. The LBA to CHS mapping is internal to the drive unit, so you're stuck with 9-sector access for DD disks. There's no way to work around it by changing OS or disk utility. That said, I did hear about there being some USB floppy unit that supported a non-standard request to change the mapping. That would be enough to access normal format SAM disks, but nothing much more exotic. I'm not aware of any programs that attempt to make use of it though. > The Kryoflux, at about £80, doesn't actually look like a bad deal, > but can I attach a Disciple/+D drive to it? Out of the box you can connect a 3.5" floppy drive to it with a normal floppy cable. You'll also need separate power for the drive, from at AT PSU or similar. I can't remember what the +D cable was like, but there are adapters for 3" drives, so perhaps something could be worked out. It'd certainly be nicer using a powered drive unit in an enclosure. I'll probably get one myself at some point, though more for Amiga use than SAM! On the SAM side I should be able to manage with Atom Lite + CF card, with SDCard HxC floppy emulator for non-standard disks. I'm trying to wean myself of real floppy disks as my next desktop system won't support them. Si
