I FOUND IT! :-)
I knew this info was on line, but it didn't Google. But I did have it
printed and buried in a binder, dated January 2002. I went to the site and
found that the author, David Shaw, has made some updates since. This might
be one of the few pages Google does not seem to have indexed. Typing
distinct phrases directly from the text into Google produces no match,
although other pages from the same site can be found.
Nonetheless, it's here:
http://home.comcast.net/~davidwallace2000/h8/project8080_archive/design_h17.
html
The information is specific to the 5-1/4" hard sector subsystem used with
the H-8 and H/Z-88/89/90.
The CliffsNotes version:
General form is 256 byte sectors, 10 per track, 40 or 80 tracks, single or
double-sided (the distribution standard was 40 tracks single-sided).
Filesystem structures allow other geometries.
Dwight is correct that the system tries to keep the directory in the
"center" of the diskette--beginning at track 13 (from zero) for one-sided
disks, 26 for double-sided). That space is also mapped to a file called
DIRECT.SYS. The directory contains entries each 23 bytes in length, and
entry layout is eerily like MS-DOS... 8.3 filenames stored in 11 bytes, the
8-byte name part and 3-byte extension part each zero-filled as needed.
Allocation is done in groups of 2, 4, or 8 sectors each. The group
reservation table, mapped to a file in the directory called GRT.SYS, again
foreshadows MS-DOS: it's an 8-bit FAT. Byte entries in this table
correspond to groups on the diskette. The byte value in each entry contains
the number of the next group allocated to the file, or 00 if the current
group is the last group in the file. Each directory entry points to the
first group allocated to a file. The GRT then provides the links from that
first group to the next through end of file. The free group list is also
stored here, beginning at entry 0.
So far so good. Now let's take simple and confuse it a little. There's
also a reserved group table, mapped to a file called RGT.SYS (more distinct
names would have been nice). Each byte in this map also corresponds to a
group. Permanently reserved groups, like the disk label and known-bad
blocks, are marked 0xFF. When a disk is mounted, all non-FF entries are
zeroed, then the system follows the allocation chain of EVERY file in the
directory, incrementing the RGT entry for each reserved group in the GRT.
When a group in the RGT has a value >1, a block is allocated to more than
one file and a "corrupt disk" message results. The free group list is also
rebuilt/rewritten at mount time by this process. Ahhh, no wonder it takes a
moment to mount these disks. :-) Free blocks are found by traversing the
linked list in the GRT, not scanning for zeroes in the RGT, so the RGT's
primary use seems to be that mount check, and it's otherwise little-used.
Anyway, there it is, and thanks to David Shaw for providing it. There's
information on the physical format as well, which may be more relevant to
the poster's purpose based on what I saw of the link posted to his project
(a diskette emulator--hmmm, gotta get me one of these when he's done).
There were also other controllers with different physical formats, like
Magnolia and Heath's own Z-89-37 and -67, as Fred pointed out, and I'm sure
CP/M was more commonly used with those controllers than HDOS, but it
could/should have worked nonetheless.
Patrick
P.S. HDOS author Gordon Letwin became an early employee of Microsoft after
leaving Heath (1979)--go to the dark side, did he. It stands to reason that
he was involved with the creation of MS-DOS, and thus the similarities in
underlying structures, although it's also not unreasonable to imagine that
Tim Patterson had already examined and borrowed from Gordon's work before
Tim brought QDOS to Microsoft. Does anyone know which, or other?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Don Maslin
> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 3:31 PM
> To: Dwight K. Elvey; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> Subject: Re: Looking for HDOS diskette layout
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, 4 Feb 2004, Dwight K. Elvey wrote:
>
> > Hi Tom
> > Nope. HDOS is a completely different OS. As I recall,
> > the directory is somplace in the middle of the disk.
> > Dwight
>
> If HDOS is the same as ZDOS - and I assume that it is - it is an
> MSDOS related system and uses an 820K DOS format (512x8) with the
> two copies of the FAT on sectors 2 and 3 and the Directory
> starting on 4.
>
> - don
>
> > >From: "Tom Jennings" <tomj_at_wps.com>
> > >
> > >On Wed, 2004-02-04 at 08:21, Marvin Johnston wrote:
> > >
> > >> Does anyone know or have a reference regarding the
> > >> layout of the HDOS (H8/H19) diskette and filesystem?
> > >> The generic HDOS documentation doesn't include it.
> > >
> > >Isn't it just CP/M 1.4?
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
Received on Wed Feb 04 2004 - 21:25:21 GMT