[Coco] Determining OS-9 Floppy Type

[George's Coco Address]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew" 

> As you all know, I am doing a floppy disk conversion project for Carey, 
> to rescue a bunch of data from some old floppies, and convert it into 
> images which can be read under emulation. I have already completed the 
> DECB subset of floppies, and I am beginning to tackle the OS-9 subset.
> 
> However, I am running into a snag. When I worked on the DECB subset, I 
> was able to determine what kind of disks the OS-9 floppy sides were 
> (some of the floppies were "mixed" - one side being DECB, the other 
> OS-9) by inference:
> 
> Since under OS-9 there are only 35 track SSDD device descriptors and 40 
> track DSDD descriptors (but no 40 track SSDD descriptors), if there was 
> readable OS-9 data on one side of a floppy and the other was DECB 
> formatted (and there were two index holes punched in the floppy jacket), 
> then it could only be a 35 track SSDD floppy side.
> 
> However, I can't make that inference now since a 35 track SSDD floppy 
> (with a single index hole) looks the same physically as a 40 track DSDD 
> floppy (which also has a single index hole). Unless it is labeled as a 
> certain format, I am not sure how to tell which is which.
> 
> Can anyone tell me what the best way of determining whether an OS-9 
> formatted floppy is a 35 track SSDD floppy or a 40 track DSDD floppy? 
> Whether the method uses DECB, OS-9, or DOS, it doesn't matter. However, 
> I don't have access to a Windows machine with a 5.25 floppy drive, so 
> that method is out.

>From OS9 I use free. The capacity tells me what format that disk is using.

George