ADFFS 2.86 public beta

[JonAbbott]

Great, I will look forward to that then!

That turned out to a far bigger change than I thought, but does resolve a long standing issue with long paths/filenames...try the OP version and let me know if it now flushes back okay. I've removed the debug code, so you'll need to reboot to confirm.

[wmd]

Working perfectly now, with the hourglass icon appearing briefly during save. I will try and test it with some other JFDs over the weekend.

[wmd]

Continuing in this thread from the 2.85 thread re: Saloon Cars Deluxe. Something very odd going on. I successfully imaged all 3 discs, no errors, no red blocks. However, when I came to install to HDD from the JFDs, it got to disc 3 then reported disc errors. When I insert the original floppy 3 into drive A and Verify, there are no errors. However, when I mount disc 3 JFD and Verify, multiple defects are reported. ADFFS is therefore introducing errors into the JFD disc 3?

[JonAbbott]

when I mount disc 3 JFD and Verify, multiple defects are reported. ADFFS is therefore introducing errors into the JFD disc 3?

Verify on a JFD will nearly always return errors as it only captures sectors listed in the recording file.

It's more likely your disc 3 is different to the one the recording was created from. I don't recall offhand what's on disc 3, but if it's saves, they would not be captured as the recording was likely created from an untouched original.

Short answer is to drag the full ADFS 800KB recording file into the imager window before imaging disc 3, so it captures the full floppy. You can find it in the !ADFFS.imaging folder.

Long answer:

1. When I obtain rights to release titles, I check for floppies that might vary from the one originally imaged and where it's sensible will switch them to full disc captures
2. I obtained rights to release Saloon Cars last week, so will be looking at it a lot closer as I get the archive and images into a releasable state
3. With the recent addition of Auto flush, I can now look at allowing ADFFS to add uncaptured sectors as writes occur, and fake verify responses for missing sectors. This will allow save discs to start off blank/minimal and grow as they're written too

[JonAbbott]

Working perfectly now, with the hourglass icon appearing briefly during save. I will try and test it with some other JFDs over the weekend.

Make sure you keep backups. I've just noticed it's corrupting the original sectors when Auto flush occurs for the first time on a JFD imaged prior to 2.86.

[wmd]

Verify on a JFD will nearly always return errors as it only captures sectors listed in the recording file.

Might it be a good idea for ADFFS to inform the user when there is a missmatch between the recording file and resulting JFD?

I obtained rights to release Saloon Cars last week, so will be looking at it a lot closer as I get the archive and images into a releasable state

Did you obtain permission to obtain Saloon Cars Deluxe? That is the version of the game I am referencing here.

[JonAbbott]

Might it be a good idea for ADFFS to inform the user when there is a missmatch between the recording file and resulting JFD?

That's not possible without knowing exactly what the protection is expecting.

Did you obtain permission to release Saloon Cars Deluxe?

Yes, all versions except StrongARM.

[wmd]

When you type the game name into the ADFFS search box then ADFFS should know what it is expecting, surely?

[JonAbbott]

When you type the game name into the ADFFS search box then ADFFS should know what it is expecting, surely?

It knows a list of disc addresses, sizes and geometry used, it knows nothing about what result is expected.

When you see the imager show tracks in orange to indicate protection, it's really only highlighting reads that are non-standard, such as unusual disc geometry. Likewise when you see red, it might be an actual bad sector or it could be protection related.

The only realistic way to validate an image is to run the game from it.

[wmd]

The only realistic way to validate an image is to run the game from it.

Might this not even be enough though? For example, what if a certain file has been corrupted in the subsequent JFD, and that file is not used or accessed until the very end of the game? E.g. an ending screen or other code relating to completing the game.