Need help with SCP (SuperCard Pro)

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wylda
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Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:22 pm

Need help with SCP (SuperCard Pro)

Post by wylda »

Hi, could anyone with SCP (SuperCard Pro) experience guide me, how to properly create 360KB floppy image on 1.2MB drive?

It looks like SCP is created without any issue, but when i use HxCFloppyEmulator.exe v2.1.24.1 and export that SCP file into IMG (RAW sectors), it list files and its filesize correctly. Unfortunately content of those files is scrambled (two initial small files are correct and the rest of 45 files has different scrambled content). Also when i load that SCP into HxCFloppyEmulator, it says "80tracks 1side", which is suspicious for 360KB floppy.

It could be problem with HxCFloppyEmulator and its support for SCP, but i also tried "SAMdisk.exe scan my_image.scp" and it displays following warnings (maybe harmless?)

Code: Select all

Warning: unknown MFM mark (00) on cyl 5 head 1 at offset 3350
Warning: unknown MFM mark (FC) on cyl 13 head 1 at offset 5298
Warning: unknown MFM mark (FC) on cyl 13 head 1 at offset 5298
Warning: unknown MFM mark (61) on cyl 27 head 0 at offset 7463
40 Cyls, 2 Heads:
300Kbps MFM,  9 sectors,  512 bytes/sector:
  0.0  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Warning: late track start may indicate missing first sector
...
When i use WinImage, it creates 360KB image properly with correct file checksums.

Back to the SCP - I have 1.2MB drive and dumped this 360KB floppy with these SCP setting:
  • Drive-Type: 5.25" - 96TPI
  • Weakbits: Fixed
  • Density-Reads: Low
  • Index-Sensor-Reads: Required
  • Backside-Control: None
  • Preservation: Checked
  • Disk-Types: IBM 360K
  • Copy-Mode: Index
  • Half-tracks: Checked + Unchecked (did two dumps)
After this i decided to give a chance to KryoFlux Premium, but I am lucky again, because they are out of stock till 2019-08-19 8-) So with shipping i have more than 3 weeks to learn how to properly work with SCP. Is something wrong with above SCP recipe?

JustZisGuy
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 3:24 am

Re: Need help with SCP (SuperCard Pro)

Post by JustZisGuy »

The issue with HxC displaying a 40-track double sided SCP image as a single sided 80-track is a known bug in the HxC software. No idea why this hasn't been fixed.

I've never been able to properly read a 360k disk in a 1.2mb drive using the SCP. The settings you chose should work, but it seems to ignore the "96tpi" drive setting and single-steps anyway.

I'd suggest asking about that on the SCP forum: http://www.cbmstuff.com/forum/search.php?action=getnew

You can select an 80-track format instead, to get all the bits, but some decoding tools like the HxC can choke on odd numbered tracks when they contain gibberish. Which is why it is important to either double step or remove odd tracks in a 1.2mb drive.

wylda
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Re: Need help with SCP (SuperCard Pro)

Post by wylda »

Thanks for letting me know. Lets see if this makes things better ;)
The issue with HxC displaying a 40-track double sided SCP image as a single sided 80-track is a known bug in the HxC software. No idea why this hasn't been fixed.
Reported: [bug?] HxCFloppyEmulator.exe shows IBM 360KB SCP dump as "80tracks 1side"
http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3665

I'd suggest asking about that on the SCP forum
Reported: [Feature Request] properly dump IBM-PC 360KB floppy on 1.2MB drive
http://www.cbmstuff.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=641
Which is why it is important to either double step or remove odd tracks in a 1.2mb drive.
Can i achieve this by some setting in SCP software or do i need some 3rd party tool? :idea:
.

JustZisGuy
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 3:24 am

Re: Need help with SCP (SuperCard Pro)

Post by JustZisGuy »

wylda wrote:Can i achieve this by some setting in SCP software or do i need some 3rd party tool? :idea:
.
Ideally you would want to double step or remove the "odd" tracks with the SCP itself. However, unless I have missed something, it does not seem able to do this itself.

I'm not familiar with any third party products that directly manipulate the .scp files.

What you can do, if this is not a copy protected disk and you just want to get an IMG file, is select "1.44mb" as the disk type, which dumps 80 tracks. Load that in to HxC, go to the track analyzer, select "edit tools", and then select "remove odd tracks". It should then let you export as IMG. The catch is that HxC can sometimes crash and burn or spin its wheels trying to decode junk in the unused odd tracks.

I also like to use the flux/disk processing tools included with the PCE emulator. But these are complicated command-line only tools. They are handy for analyzing copy protection and oddball formats. When decoding with these, you can set an option to not decode the odd tracks.

Not familiar with SAMdisk. Check to see if it supports skipping the odd tracks.

wylda
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Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:22 pm

Re: Need help with SCP (SuperCard Pro)

Post by wylda »

As this is tutorial section, my initial plan was to gather info, what i do wrong and then edit the first post with my findings (shortly turn into the guide).

Things take more time than i expected. I had to buy three 360KB drive, to get one working drive. Now it appears, that i do it properly, but there are SW bugs. I would strongly recommend to double check flux dumps with copied files. Always do a true checksums of floppy files and files exported from flux image dump. (at least in case of FAT12)

Reported: [bug?] HxCFloppyEmulator.exe corrupts file when exporting from SCP
http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3670

Reported: [Feature Request] properly dump IBM-PC 360KB floppy on 1.2MB drive No.2
http://www.cbmstuff.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=644

JustZisGuy
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 3:24 am

Re: Need help with SCP (SuperCard Pro)

Post by JustZisGuy »

When dealing with unknown disks, there is just no shortcut. One has to get to know what is actually on the disk before they can say it is properly archived.

With this kind of stuff, there is always the high potential that software bugs or hardware glitches can get in the way.

Just keep in mind, that when reporting bugs, it is important to provide as many details as possible and attack the problem from all angles, so developers have a good picture of what is going wrong and can easily be sure that it is not just another user error. This is exponentially true when dealing with the SuperCard Pro.

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