Who can list the various different floppy disk specifications? As complete as possible. - China DOS Union Forum

Standard and non-standard, as long as they have appeared in history, all of them should be listed. Thanks.

If you can't list them all, listing part of them is fine too.
------------------------------------------
Ah! Pretty excited! I found a list, although it is still far from enough. Is it French or Spanish? I can't really understand it. There are two 800K specifications, sigh, how should this be decided? Oh, fortunately it's not too bad: although one is a 3-inch disk and one is a 5-inch disk, the sector count, head count, and track count are all the same.

http://www.hut.fi/~then/mytexts/levykkeet.html

Friends, please help!

Floppy disk capacity -- sectors per track -- number of sides -- tracks per side.
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
Dos-formaatit

Kapasit Koko Tiheys Puolet Sektori Urat Dirkoko Diskrip Dosversio
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
160K 5 1/4 DD 1 8 40 64 FE 1.0
180K 5 1/4 DD 1 9 40 64 FC 2.0
320K 5 1/4 DD 2 8 40 112 FF 1.1
360K 5 1/4 DD 2 9 40 112 FD 2.0
720K 3 1/2 DD 2 9 80 224 F9 3.2
1.2M 5 1/4 HD 2 15 80 224 F9 3.0
1.44M 3 1/2 HD 2 18 80 224 F0 3.3

Ei Dos-formaatit

Kapasit Koko Tiheys Puolet Sektori Urat Dirkoko Diskrip Ohjelma
------------------------------------------------------------------------
400K 5 1/4 DD 2 10 40 MAXI54
800K 5 1/4 DD * 2 10 80 112 F0 800KFMAT
800K 3 1/2 DD 2 10 80 800KFMAT

* Vaatii DD-levyn HD-asemassa ja kasinkertaistaa urien lukum??r?n levyketehtaan suosittamaan arvoon n?hden.

DOS diskettiformaattien tarkempi tarkastelu

160K 180K 320K 360K 720K 800K* 1.2M 1.44M
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tiheys DD DD DD DD DD DD HD HD
Diskettikoko 5 1/4 5 1/4 5 1/4 5 1/4 3 1/2 5 1/4 5 1/4 3 1/2
Media discrip FE FC FF FD F9 F0 F9 F0
Tavua/sektori 512 512 512 512 512 512 512 512
Sektoria/ura 8 9 8 9 9 10 15 18
Uraa/disketti 40 40 40 40 80 80 80 80
Puolia 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2
sekt/klusteri 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1
FAT:ien maara 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Root-dir maara 64 64 112 112 112 112 224 224
FAT-sektorit 1 2 1 2 3 3 7 9
Klusterit 313 351 315 354 713 793 2371 2847
Sektorit 320 360 640 720 1440 1600 2400 2880
Offset FAT:iin 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Offset DIR:iin 3 5 3 5 7 7 15 19
Offset dataan 7 9 10 12 14 14 29 33
DOS-versio 1.0 2.0 1.1 2.0 3.2 - 3.0 3.3

* Ei ole MS/PC-dos formaatti. Vaatii 800K ajurin. Toimii vain HD-asemassa.

Type Size Capacity Sectors Tracks
. per track per side
------------------------------------------------
DOS 360k 5.25" 360k 9 40
MAXI 420k 5.25" 420k 10 42
DOS 720k 3.5" 720k 9 80
MAXI 800k 3.5" 800k 10 80
DOS 1.2M 5.25" 1200k 15 80
MAXI 1.4M 5.25" 1400k 17 82
DOS 1.44M 3.5" 1440k 18 80
MAXI 1.6M 3.5" 1600k 20 82
DMF 1.7M* 3.5" 1700k 21 82
DOS 2.88M+ 3.5" 2880k 36 80
MAXI 3.2M*+ 3.5" 3200k 39 82

*Note: DMF & 3.2 meg disks can be created by MAXI Disk for Windows and FreeForm.
+Note: 2.88 & 3.2 meg disks require a special 2.88 meg floppy disk drive and controller on your system.

Related website:
http://members.iweb.net.au/~pstorr/pcbook/book4/floppyd.htm

I suggest using DiskEmu's method of calling IMG, that is, don't check the IMG size, just see whether it is in IMG format.

Detecting a floppy disk's specification parameters is of course very easy. But what we need to do here is consider things one step further, in the area of advanced features.

For example, if you pass an empty 1.44M img file to GRUB's map command, this 1.44M img has not yet been formatted, and starting from the first sector it is all 00 inside. The user hopes that after emulating the floppy disk, the operating system can be booted from drive C:, and then operations such as formatting this emulated floppy can be carried out.

Also, the user may pass a Linux or other-format floppy disk to the map command. Such a floppy can boot the machine, but it does not have a DOS BPB table.

In the above situations, the map command cannot detect floppy parameters, and can only guess the possible floppy parameters based on the length of the img.

Many thanks, Roy!

From the webpage Roy provided, I can no longer find the table Roy posted just now. Roy, please keep helping. All the other brothers, please help too.

I am promptly listing the results everyone provides on the following webpage. Please go check them over:

http://www.linuxeden.com/edu/doctext.php?docid=3006

What is shown on the following webpage is a bit strange:

http://www.mdfsnet.f9.co.uk/Docs/Comp/Disk/Densities

This webpage gives more information, especially the bytes per sector. There are actually values like 256 and 1024.

Disk Formats
============

Type Tracks Sect/ Bytes/ Size Bytes/ Recording
Track Sector Track Method
In order of size:
ADFS S 40*1 16 256 160k 4k MFM DD
DFS/HADFS 40tk 40*2 10 256 200k 2.5k FM SD
ADFS M 80*1 16 256 320k 4k MFM DD
DOS 360k 40*2 9 512 360k 4.5k MFM DD
DFS/HADFS 80tk 80*2 10 256 400k 2.5k FM SD
ADFS L 80*2 16 256 640k 4k MFM DD
HADFS B 80*2 16 256 640k 4k MFM DD
DOS 720k 80*2 9 512 720k 4.5k MFM DD
ADFS D,E 80*2 5 1024 800k 5k MFM DD
DOS 1200k 80*2 15 512 1200k 7.5k MFM HD
DOS 1440k 80*2 18 512 1440k 9k MFM HD
ADFS F 80*2 10 1024 1600k 10k MFM HD

In order of track data density:
DFS/HADFS 40tk 40*2 10 256 200k 2.5k FM SD
DFS/HADFS 80tk 80*2 10 256 400k 2.5k FM SD
ADFS S 40*1 16 256 160k 4k MFM DD
ADFS M 80*1 16 256 320k 4k MFM DD
ADFS L 80*2 16 256 640k 4k MFM DD
HADFS B 80*2 16 256 640k 4k MFM DD
DOS 360k 40*2 9 512 360k 4.5k MFM DD
DOS 720k 80*2 9 512 720k 4.5k MFM DD
ADFS D,E 80*2 5 1024 800k 5k MFM DD
DOS 1200k 80*2 15 512 1200k 7.5k MFM HD
DOS 1440k 80*2 18 512 1440k 9k MFM HD
ADFS F 80*2 10 1024 1600k 10k MFM HD

Single density: using standard drive, recording using FM
Double density: using standard drive, recording using MFM
High density: using high density drive, recording using MFM
Single/Double density uses the same drive. The recording method is
different. High density uses a different drive.

Disk drives

5.25" 40*2 SD/DD 360k drive.
5.25" 80*2 SD/DD not used by PC systems.
3.5" 80*2 SD/DD 720k drive.
5.25" 40*2 HD does not exist.
5.25" 80*2 HD 1.2M drive. Can do double step/DD to read DOS 360k.
3.5" 80*2 HD 1.44M drive.

A high density drive is capable of recording up to 10k per track. Almost
all HD drives default to double density unless the computer explicitly
tells it otherwise. Some drives have problems with DFS 1.20 as it times
out too quickly; DFS 1.21 fixes this problem. With the correct HD drive
and driving firmware, they will correctly access both HD and DD disks.

A double density drive is capable of recording up to 5k per track with MFM
and up to about 3k per track with FM. There are very few drives that only
do DD as almost all HD drives default to DD anyway.

There is also HD-COPY:
Number of tracks (80-84): 80 81 82 83 84
1. DD standard, 9 sect., 720 KB 729 KB 738 KB 747 KB 756 KB
2. DD special, 10 sect., 800 KB 810 KB 820 KB 830 KB 840 KB
3. HD standard, 15 sect., 1.2 MB 1.215 MB 1.23 MB 1.245 MB 1.26 MB
4. HD special, 17 sect., 1.36 MB 1.377 MB 1.394 MB 1.411 MB 1.428 MB
5. HD standard, 18 sect., 1.44 MB 1.458 MB 1.476 MB 1.494 MB 1.512 MB
6. HD special, 20 sect., 1.6 MB 1.62 MB 1.64 MB 1.66 MB 1.68 MB
7. HD special, 21 sect., 1.68 MB 1.701 MB 1.722 MB 1.743 MB 1.764 MB

Sorry, and let me ask an off-topic question while I'm at it: my motherboard BIOS supports 1.44 and 2.88. Why is it that when I use winimg to format a disk as 2.88mb, I can never boot from it or read it? It always says there's no disk and tells me to insert one... Thanks!

The following is quoted from xiaojun's post on 2003-10-10 4:00:02:
Sorry, and let me ask an off-topic question while I'm at it: my motherboard bios supports 1.44 and 2.88. Why is it that when I use winimg to format a disk as 2.88mb, I can never boot from it or read it? It always says there's no disk and tells me to insert one...         Thanks!

Because formatting as 2.88mb requires a 2.88mb floppy drive, 2.88mb floppy disks, and a controller that supports using a 2.88mb floppy drive.

Great, now it looks like it's probably almost complete. Thanks again to Roy for the big help!!

Hmm, between 1.8M and 2.88M, there ought to be some other specifications too, right? Really hard to find. I can't find them.

TO xiaojun:

Please keep an eye on grub for dos development. The next version is planned to add emulation support for various floppy disk specifications.

Although your floppy drive can't read a 2.88M floppy disk, after emulation with grub it definitely can be read, and it definitely can boot the machine from that 2.88M floppy disk image file.

The release time of the new grub for dos version (rough estimate) is within two months. The latest news can always be obtained from the webpage below.

http://www.linuxeden.com/edu/doctext.php?docid=3006

Wasn't 2.88 from compressed disks??
Seems like it was a Japanese thing.
If anyone finds a 2.88 drive, can you show it here for everyone to take a look!!

Between 1.8M and 2.88M, there ought to be some other specifications, right?

Comrades, don't forget, the task still hasn't been completely finished! There should be specifications between 1.8----2.8, we need to fill in this gap!

I haven't seen any specifications between 1.8m and 2.88M.....
But I have seen an ordinary 1.44M floppy disk formatted with LS-240 (there was even a 32M one...)

Good, since GRUB supports floppy disks of arbitrary formats, then please do us the favor of collecting them and posting them.

The following is quoted from 不点's post on 2003-10-28 16:03:28:
Good, since GRUB supports floppy disks of arbitrary formats, then please do us the favor of collecting them and posting them.

I've only seen them, that's all..... the materials are very hard to find......

Floor1　不点	Posted 2003-10-08 00:00
银牌会员　Posts 1,115　Credits 2,491
Standard and non-standard, as long as they have appeared in history, all of them should be listed. Thanks. If you can't list them all, listing part of them is fine too. ------------------------------------------ Ah! Pretty excited! I found a list, although it is still far from enough. Is it French or Spanish? I can't really understand it. There are two 800K specifications, sigh, how should this be decided? Oh, fortunately it's not too bad: although one is a 3-inch disk and one is a 5-inch disk, the sector count, head count, and track count are all the same. http://www.hut.fi/~then/mytexts/levykkeet.html Friends, please help! Floppy disk capacity -- sectors per track -- number of sides -- tracks per side. －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－ Dos-formaatit Kapasit Koko Tiheys Puolet Sektori Urat Dirkoko Diskrip Dosversio ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 160K 5 1/4 DD 1 8 40 64 FE 1.0 180K 5 1/4 DD 1 9 40 64 FC 2.0 320K 5 1/4 DD 2 8 40 112 FF 1.1 360K 5 1/4 DD 2 9 40 112 FD 2.0 720K 3 1/2 DD 2 9 80 224 F9 3.2 1.2M 5 1/4 HD 2 15 80 224 F9 3.0 1.44M 3 1/2 HD 2 18 80 224 F0 3.3 Ei Dos-formaatit Kapasit Koko Tiheys Puolet Sektori Urat Dirkoko Diskrip Ohjelma ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 400K 5 1/4 DD 2 10 40 MAXI54 800K 5 1/4 DD * 2 10 80 112 F0 800KFMAT 800K 3 1/2 DD 2 10 80 800KFMAT * Vaatii DD-levyn HD-asemassa ja kasinkertaistaa urien lukum??r?n levyketehtaan suosittamaan arvoon n?hden. DOS diskettiformaattien tarkempi tarkastelu 160K 180K 320K 360K 720K 800K* 1.2M 1.44M ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tiheys DD DD DD DD DD DD HD HD Diskettikoko 5 1/4 5 1/4 5 1/4 5 1/4 3 1/2 5 1/4 5 1/4 3 1/2 Media discrip FE FC FF FD F9 F0 F9 F0 Tavua/sektori 512 512 512 512 512 512 512 512 Sektoria/ura 8 9 8 9 9 10 15 18 Uraa/disketti 40 40 40 40 80 80 80 80 Puolia 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 sekt/klusteri 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 FAT:ien maara 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Root-dir maara 64 64 112 112 112 112 224 224 FAT-sektorit 1 2 1 2 3 3 7 9 Klusterit 313 351 315 354 713 793 2371 2847 Sektorit 320 360 640 720 1440 1600 2400 2880 Offset FAT:iin 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Offset DIR:iin 3 5 3 5 7 7 15 19 Offset dataan 7 9 10 12 14 14 29 33 DOS-versio 1.0 2.0 1.1 2.0 3.2 - 3.0 3.3 * Ei ole MS/PC-dos formaatti. Vaatii 800K ajurin. Toimii vain HD-asemassa.

Floor2　Roy	Posted 2003-10-08 00:00
管理员　Posts 1,633　Credits 4,869
Type Size Capacity Sectors Tracks . per track per side ------------------------------------------------ DOS 360k 5.25" 360k 9 40 MAXI 420k 5.25" 420k 10 42 DOS 720k 3.5" 720k 9 80 MAXI 800k 3.5" 800k 10 80 DOS 1.2M 5.25" 1200k 15 80 MAXI 1.4M 5.25" 1400k 17 82 DOS 1.44M 3.5" 1440k 18 80 MAXI 1.6M 3.5" 1600k 20 82 DMF 1.7M* 3.5" 1700k 21 82 DOS 2.88M+ 3.5" 2880k 36 80 MAXI 3.2M+ 3.5" 3200k 39 82 Note: DMF & 3.2 meg disks can be created by MAXI Disk for Windows and FreeForm. +Note: 2.88 & 3.2 meg disks require a special 2.88 meg floppy disk drive and controller on your system. Related website: http://members.iweb.net.au/~pstorr/pcbook/book4/floppyd.htm

Floor3　Wengier	Posted 2003-10-08 00:00
系统支持　Posts 10,521　Credits 27,736
I suggest using DiskEmu's method of calling IMG, that is, don't check the IMG size, just see whether it is in IMG format.

Floor4　不点	Posted 2003-10-09 00:00
银牌会员　Posts 1,115　Credits 2,491
Detecting a floppy disk's specification parameters is of course very easy. But what we need to do here is consider things one step further, in the area of advanced features. For example, if you pass an empty 1.44M img file to GRUB's map command, this 1.44M img has not yet been formatted, and starting from the first sector it is all 00 inside. The user hopes that after emulating the floppy disk, the operating system can be booted from drive C:, and then operations such as formatting this emulated floppy can be carried out. Also, the user may pass a Linux or other-format floppy disk to the map command. Such a floppy can boot the machine, but it does not have a DOS BPB table. In the above situations, the map command cannot detect floppy parameters, and can only guess the possible floppy parameters based on the length of the img. Many thanks, Roy! From the webpage Roy provided, I can no longer find the table Roy posted just now. Roy, please keep helping. All the other brothers, please help too. I am promptly listing the results everyone provides on the following webpage. Please go check them over: http://www.linuxeden.com/edu/doctext.php?docid=3006

Floor5　不点	Posted 2003-10-09 00:00
银牌会员　Posts 1,115　Credits 2,491
What is shown on the following webpage is a bit strange: http://www.mdfsnet.f9.co.uk/Docs/Comp/Disk/Densities This webpage gives more information, especially the bytes per sector. There are actually values like 256 and 1024. Disk Formats ============ Type Tracks Sect/ Bytes/ Size Bytes/ Recording Track Sector Track Method In order of size: ADFS S 401 16 256 160k 4k MFM DD DFS/HADFS 40tk 402 10 256 200k 2.5k FM SD ADFS M 801 16 256 320k 4k MFM DD DOS 360k 402 9 512 360k 4.5k MFM DD DFS/HADFS 80tk 802 10 256 400k 2.5k FM SD ADFS L 802 16 256 640k 4k MFM DD HADFS B 802 16 256 640k 4k MFM DD DOS 720k 802 9 512 720k 4.5k MFM DD ADFS D,E 802 5 1024 800k 5k MFM DD DOS 1200k 802 15 512 1200k 7.5k MFM HD DOS 1440k 802 18 512 1440k 9k MFM HD ADFS F 802 10 1024 1600k 10k MFM HD In order of track data density: DFS/HADFS 40tk 402 10 256 200k 2.5k FM SD DFS/HADFS 80tk 802 10 256 400k 2.5k FM SD ADFS S 401 16 256 160k 4k MFM DD ADFS M 801 16 256 320k 4k MFM DD ADFS L 802 16 256 640k 4k MFM DD HADFS B 802 16 256 640k 4k MFM DD DOS 360k 402 9 512 360k 4.5k MFM DD DOS 720k 802 9 512 720k 4.5k MFM DD ADFS D,E 802 5 1024 800k 5k MFM DD DOS 1200k 802 15 512 1200k 7.5k MFM HD DOS 1440k 802 18 512 1440k 9k MFM HD ADFS F 802 10 1024 1600k 10k MFM HD Single density: using standard drive, recording using FM Double density: using standard drive, recording using MFM High density: using high density drive, recording using MFM Single/Double density uses the same drive. The recording method is different. High density uses a different drive. Disk drives 5.25" 402 SD/DD 360k drive. 5.25" 802 SD/DD not used by PC systems. 3.5" 802 SD/DD 720k drive. 5.25" 402 HD does not exist. 5.25" 802 HD 1.2M drive. Can do double step/DD to read DOS 360k. 3.5" 802 HD 1.44M drive. A high density drive is capable of recording up to 10k per track. Almost all HD drives default to double density unless the computer explicitly tells it otherwise. Some drives have problems with DFS 1.20 as it times out too quickly; DFS 1.21 fixes this problem. With the correct HD drive and driving firmware, they will correctly access both HD and DD disks. A double density drive is capable of recording up to 5k per track with MFM and up to about 3k per track with FM. There are very few drives that only do DD as almost all HD drives default to DD anyway.

Floor6　Roy	Posted 2003-10-09 00:00
管理员　Posts 1,633　Credits 4,869
There is also HD-COPY: Number of tracks (80-84): 80 81 82 83 84 1. DD standard, 9 sect., 720 KB 729 KB 738 KB 747 KB 756 KB 2. DD special, 10 sect., 800 KB 810 KB 820 KB 830 KB 840 KB 3. HD standard, 15 sect., 1.2 MB 1.215 MB 1.23 MB 1.245 MB 1.26 MB 4. HD special, 17 sect., 1.36 MB 1.377 MB 1.394 MB 1.411 MB 1.428 MB 5. HD standard, 18 sect., 1.44 MB 1.458 MB 1.476 MB 1.494 MB 1.512 MB 6. HD special, 20 sect., 1.6 MB 1.62 MB 1.64 MB 1.66 MB 1.68 MB 7. HD special, 21 sect., 1.68 MB 1.701 MB 1.722 MB 1.743 MB 1.764 MB

Floor7　xiaojun	Posted 2003-10-10 00:00
银牌会员　Posts 499　Credits 2,202
Sorry, and let me ask an off-topic question while I'm at it: my motherboard BIOS supports 1.44 and 2.88. Why is it that when I use winimg to format a disk as 2.88mb, I can never boot from it or read it? It always says there's no disk and tells me to insert one... Thanks!

Floor8　Roy	Posted 2003-10-10 00:00
管理员　Posts 1,633　Credits 4,869
*The following is quoted from xiaojun's post on 2003-10-10 4:00:02:* Sorry, and let me ask an off-topic question while I'm at it: my motherboard bios supports 1.44 and 2.88. Why is it that when I use winimg to format a disk as 2.88mb, I can never boot from it or read it? It always says there's no disk and tells me to insert one...         Thanks! Because formatting as 2.88mb requires a 2.88mb floppy drive, 2.88mb floppy disks, and a controller that supports using a 2.88mb floppy drive.

Floor9　不点	Posted 2003-10-10 00:00
银牌会员　Posts 1,115　Credits 2,491
Great, now it looks like it's probably almost complete. Thanks again to Roy for the big help!! Hmm, between 1.8M and 2.88M, there ought to be some other specifications too, right? Really hard to find. I can't find them. TO xiaojun: Please keep an eye on grub for dos development. The next version is planned to add emulation support for various floppy disk specifications. Although your floppy drive can't read a 2.88M floppy disk, after emulation with grub it definitely can be read, and it definitely can boot the machine from that 2.88M floppy disk image file. The release time of the new grub for dos version (rough estimate) is within two months. The latest news can always be obtained from the webpage below. http://www.linuxeden.com/edu/doctext.php?docid=3006

Floor10　gao7240	Posted 2003-10-10 00:00
初级用户　Posts 24　Credits 155
Wasn't 2.88 from compressed disks?? Seems like it was a Japanese thing. If anyone finds a 2.88 drive, can you show it here for everyone to take a look!!

Floor11　不点	Posted 2003-10-27 00:00
银牌会员　Posts 1,115　Credits 2,491
Between 1.8M and 2.88M, there ought to be some other specifications, right? Comrades, don't forget, the task still hasn't been completely finished! There should be specifications between 1.8----2.8, we need to fill in this gap!

Floor12　Roy	Posted 2003-10-27 00:00
管理员　Posts 1,633　Credits 4,869
I haven't seen any specifications between 1.8m and 2.88M..... But I have seen an ordinary 1.44M floppy disk formatted with LS-240 (there was even a 32M one...)

Floor13　不点	Posted 2003-10-28 00:00
银牌会员　Posts 1,115　Credits 2,491
Good, since GRUB supports floppy disks of arbitrary formats, then please do us the favor of collecting them and posting them.

Floor14　Roy	Posted 2003-10-28 00:00
管理员　Posts 1,633　Credits 4,869
The following is quoted from 不点's post on 2003-10-28 16:03:28: Good, since GRUB supports floppy disks of arbitrary formats, then please do us the favor of collecting them and posting them. I've only seen them, that's all..... the materials are very hard to find......