HFE problem

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Radiorama
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:51 am

HFE problem

Post by Radiorama »

Hello,
I'm using a Greaseweazle F7 Plus to make images of 3.5" BBC Micro floppies and I use HxC Floppy Emulators to check the images (great piece of software by the way).

I usually do .scp images for preservation and archiving purposes and convert them to .hfe for easier swapping through the Internet. Today I stumbled upon what seems a bug related to scp to hfe conversion.

The following is a .scp image of the original disk. Please note that Side 1 only has track 60; that's ok, it's just the way the disk is (some sort of copy protection). Everything seems in order.
OrigSCP.png
OrigSCP.png (224.78 KiB) Viewed 2338 times
The next image is the .hfe produced by HxC Floppy Emulator when I converted the previous .scp. Note how the sectors on side 0 have been compressed spatially, all but those on track 60 which have retained more or less the same angular span as in the .scp. Is it a coincidence that track 60 is the only one that has data on both sides?
ConvertedHFE.png
ConvertedHFE.png (124.72 KiB) Viewed 2338 times
When I try to write the HFE to disk using the Greaseweazle, track 19 of the disk ends up totally corrupted. Any ideas what's going on here? I can provide files if needed.

Thanks,
Radiorama.

Jeff
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Re: HFE problem

Post by Jeff »

- This doesn't seem to be an HFE v3. You need to use this version if you want to generate hfe from stream.
Is it a coincidence that track 60 is the only one that has data on both sides?
- I don't know. i can't tell without the files. Can be a protection or a dumper issue.
When I try to write the HFE to disk using the Greaseweazle, track 19 of the disk ends up totally corrupted. Any ideas what's going on here? I can provide files if needed.
- Probably not my bug ;)
I can provide files if needed.
- This should be done by default.

Radiorama
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:51 am

Re: HFE problem

Post by Radiorama »

Hi Jeff,

I tried HFE v3, works better but says "experimental", which I read as "use it at your own risk" :)

Anyway, thanks a lot for your informative reply. I didn't provide files right away because the Attachments dialog was complaining that they were too large. Let's try with a DDL link:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/1g9iyc89 ... E.rar/file

.scp is original from disk through Greaseweazle, .hfe was created with HxC starting from the .scp.

Can you please take a look at tracks 19 and 60 of the HFE image? Track 60 is the only one that retained the same layout as in the .scp image, while track 19 seems to have been compressed more than the others: the angular span of each sector is half that of the other tracks.

Thanks,
Radiorama.

Radiorama
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:51 am

Re: HFE problem

Post by Radiorama »

Jeff,
did you get a chance to look at my files?

Thanks,
-- Radiorama

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