In article <Xns93B67C5AE1845jajii1netscape@205.188.138.161> ,
James J <SPAMMYjajii1@netscape.net> wrote:
>Peter Michel <proORGA-Leimen.without-this@web.de> expounded in
>news:612ogv06j0dcdgi4i8edgqfhe2otgvqp1d@4ax.com :
>
>> Hallo,
>> i have floppydisks written by a tar, but they are formated with 17
>> sectors/track and with 77 tracks per surface, each sector has 512
>> bytes on a 5.25" media.
>> How can i set parameters of the diskettes drivers to read (and perhaps
>> write) it, this stupid format?
>> Thanks a lot!
>> Peter
>>
>
> I think you may be out of luck. "man fd" should show you the supported
>floppy formats. I don't see 17 sectors/track in the list.
>
> You could try one of the "autosense" device names (eg. /dev/rinstall).
>Maybe that'll work. Here's a quote from "man fd":
>
> > However, when accessing a floppy disk for other
> > operations (read and write), the autosense nodes
> > (/dev/[r]install, /dev/[r]install1,
> > /dev/[r]dsk/finstall, and /dev/[r]dsk/finstall1)
> > can be used. In this case, the floppy disk driver
> > will automatically determine (autosense) the format
> > previously established on the disk and then perform
> > the requested operation.
> Good luck.
I wonder if he might have luck with the /dev/dsk/f05ht.

It's 18 sectors per track and most closely emulates the 8" DD
format - which is what the 5" seems to look like.

I'd suggest trying the dd and if it fails after sector 17, and he
saved that, then maybe skip _might_ work to take him to the next
track - as the f05ht is an 18 sector format if I'm reading things
correctly.

Then he could just cat the pieces together, and then dd them out ot
a regularly formatted disk.

Bill

--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com