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Lisa/NeoWidEx floppy image

ScutBoy

Well-known member
I've tried to make an actual floppy from the DC42 image file on the NeoWidEx GitHub site, but even after adding the type/creator codes, DiskCopy 4.2 doesn't understand it.

I know that @stepleton says it should be a good image for FloppyEmu, but I'd like to have an actual floppy "just in case" - sometimes it's just easier.

What am I missing to create a physical floppy? Or - does someone already have a disk image file they can share with me? :) Otherwise I'll go through the exercise of trying to get it on my FloppyEmu.
 

lisa2

Well-known member
I have found that sometimes "good" images for the FloppyEmu are "bad" for creating real disks. Maybe the FloppyEmu is not using/updating the checksums or tag bytes correctly, I don't really know.
To make a physical disk you may want to try using BLU to write a disk using the image you have.
Rick
 

stepleton

Well-known member
Hmm. The disk image on GitHub is created with another program I made (not Disk Copy), so there's a chance that there's a bug in my code. I'd like to investigate, but I'm coming up onto a busy time. @ScutBoy , would you be able to describe what happens when you try to use the image with the type/creator codes set?
 

ScutBoy

Well-known member
@stepleton - I change the type and creator to "dlmg" and "dCpy". When I double-click on the image, it does open DiskCopy 4.2, but it doesn't open with the image loaded - it's sitting at the screen where you select an image to copy. When I do that, the NeoWidEx image is not shown in the open file dialog.

I took the image onto my iMac, and when I run it against "strings" in the terminal I see text strings that make sense like "NOT A MACINTOSH DISK" etc :)

@lisa2 - I can give BLU a try. That does boot up the machine in question.

The Widget I want to diagnose spins up OK, and the brake releases, but the disk arm only moves through a very small arc with a "bzzt bzzt" sound, and grinds around like that for a bit and then times out with an error 85. I pulled the the boards apart on the drive and reseated the socketed chips and all the various connectors. This actually helped; initally the drive would spin up but there was no movement of the disk arm. The disk arm does move freely when the brake is not engaged.

This isn't my first Widget; I know that they are touchy at best. Figured it was worth a shot trying with NeoWidEx to see if I could get more info on the problem. I do have working, bootable ProFiles, so all is not lost :)

Thanks for your insights!
 

ScutBoy

Well-known member
You've got a lowercase L there. It should be an uppercase I. As in Img short for 'image'. That'll prevent it turning up in that list and make diskcopy confused about it. :)

If that turns out to be the issue, I will turn in my "nerd card" in shame :)
 

lisa2

Well-known member
Not to sidetrack this thread, but for FloppyEmu using DiskCopy 4.2 images: this is quote the the FEMU manual:
"Disk Copy 4.2 images contain an embedded checksum value, used to help detect if the file is corrupted. When using FloppyEmu to write to an emulated disk using a DC42 disk image file, the contents of the image file on the SD card will be updated but the checksum will not be recalculated. Instead, the checksum value will be set to 0 to indicate that it was not calculated.
This may cause other disk utility programs to report incorrectly that the disk image is corrupt."

I have had issue making floppies from DiskCopy 4.2 image that were updated using a FEMU.
 

ScutBoy

Well-known member
Yup - I'm officially a dope. Changed the lower case "L" to an upper case "I" and DiskCopy was able to see the image and make the disk.

Lisa booted up off of it without issue.

Now I just need to figure out what all this data coming from the drive is telling me, but I'm often seeing

DRIVE READ ERROR -- CODE-0052 BYTES-00FFFFFF
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
Nah, you're not a dope. It's so easy to do. The only reason I noticed is that the difference is just noticeable in the font I use, and even then I only noticed it on about the third read of your post...
 
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