Disk Advice
8 messages in this thread
Hello, all
I am wanting to learn how to read the amiga disks. Basicly I am
looking for a good book like the old "Inside Commodore DOS" that explained
about the sector headers, file pointers, ect. Would be anxcious (my
spelling is AWFUL!!) for any information….
Jamie
Jamie,
Get the AmigaDOS manual…it's got that information in it. Also
the hardware reference manual has information on the disk drives
themselves.
Don
Jamie,
I don't know of a book that lays out the Amiga file system the way "Inside
Commodore DOS" did – but I wrote several articles for Transactor that laid
it out fairly well. Don't know if you can get the older issues now, though.
Your best bet might be in the RKM, the old white one. I found quite a bit
of information in the very back of those books. Since then, there have
been at least two other places where I have read the layout – in the
documentation for a couple of sector editors. There is a rundown on it in
the Sectorama file, and I forget the name of the other one, sorry. You
will find the disk editors in Lib14, and I believe Sectorama is just called
SEC.ARC.
(The Transactor articles were published in the 8-bit Transactors in 1986,
before the Amiga version was started.)
……Betty
Isn't there an Abacus book on the disk layout? I thought I saw something
like that in one of their book-lists for the Amiga. Yeah, I found it:
"Amiga Disk Drives: Inside & Out". It claims to talk about MFM, GCR, Track
design, SYNC's, interrupts, the trackdisk device, and other disk-stuff. I
haven't read it myself though so I can't comment on how good it is.
-Mike
I've read it, Mike. It does talk about all of those quite a bit – not as
clearly as I think it should. It is also full of disassembled code. Yes,
it is there, just not what I had hoped it would be. I'd worked all of that
out pretty well before I got the Abacus book. The book has many things
that I hadn't even thought about. Wish it were better written, for it
does, indeed, contain a wealth of information.
I suspect that Colin Plumb is the one person who knows more about the disk
drives, etc., than any other one person.
……Betty
Betty,
Maybe you should consider writing the definitive AmigaDOS book?
-sja
Gave thought to it, Steve, but – considering the number of books Immers
and Neufeld sold (INSIDE COMMODORE DOS), and that they were never paid
anything for the book – and considering how much work is involved, I've had
second thoughts.
Besides, I would probably have to break my vows against writing programs
for publication. 🙂 (Don't let NObody see any code I write, I don't)
……Betty
Get the AmigaDOS manual from Bamtam Books. It should have been packaged
with the machine. It was written for 1.2, but the book that came with 1.3
will fill in any relevant gaps. The format for the Enhancer book may have
even been inspired by it.