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1 perry 1 floppymeter
2 !!!floppymeter
3 Name
4 Note
5 Description
6 Bugs
7 See Also
8 ----
9 !!Name
10
11
12 floppymeter - measure raw capacity and exact rotation speed of floppy drive
13 !!Note
14
15
16 This manpage has been automatically generated from fdutils's
17 texinfo documentation. However, this process is only
18 approximative, and some items, such as crossreferences,
19 footnotes and indices are lost in this translation process.
20 Indeed, these items have no appropriate representation in
21 the manpage format. Moreover, only the items specific to
22 each command have been translated, and the general
23 information about fdutils has been dropped in the manpage
24 version. Thus I strongly advise you to use the original
25 texinfo doc.
26
27
28 *
29
30
31 To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the
32 following commands:
33
34
35 __ ./configure; make dvi; dvips fdutils.dvi
36 __
37
38
39 *
40
41
42 To generate a html copy, run:
43
44
45 __ ./configure; make html
46 __A premade html can be found at: `http://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/fdutils'
47
48
49 *
50
51
52 To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode),
53 run:
54
55
56 __ ./configure; make info
57 __
58
59
60 The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html.
61 Indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult
62 to read due to the quoting conventions used in
63 info.
64 !!Description
65
66
67 floppymeter [[-f] [[-w ''warmup-delay''] [[-W ''window''
68
69
70 ]
71 [[-c ''cycles''] [[-h] ''drive''
72
73
74 The floppymeter program measures characteristic
75 parameters of a floppy drive and floppy controller, such as
76 the rotation speed of the drive, the data transfer rate of
77 the controller, and the resulting raw capacity of a disk
78 track. To use this program, insert a disposable floppy in
79 the drive, and type floppymeter --''density'',
80 where density describes the density of the disk used for the
81 test. (Should be one of dd, hd or ed).
82 __CAUTION: the data on the disk will be erased__. This
83 program should be used to verify whether the drive and
84 controller are out of tolerance if you experience problems
85 with some high capacity formats. It only needs to be run
86 once per drive: although a disk is needed to perform the
87 measurements, the measured data only depend on the drive and
88 the controller, and not on the disk.
89
90
91 To measure the raw capacity of the disk track, the
92 floppymeter program formats the first track of the drive in
93 a special way that allows it to read the raw data (gaps and
94 headers) of the disk. __Thus, all data previously stored on
95 that disk is lost__.
96
97
98 The rotation speed is measured by timing the return time of
99 a readid command. In order to gain more precision,
100 the command is issued many times in a row. During this
101 phase, the number of rotations til the start of the test,
102 the average time per rotation til the start, and a sliding
103 average of the times of the last 30 rotations is printed,
104 and updated continously.
105
106
107 The data transfer rate is deduced from the two parameters
108 above.
109
110
111 At the end of the program, all parameters (raw capacity,
112 duration of one rotation, and data transfer rate) are
113 printed again, as well as their relative deviation to the
114 standard value. Finally, it suggests a capacity deviation
115 description line, which can be directly pasted into the
116 drive definition file (See section Drive
117 descriptions).
118
119
120 Usually, the data transfer rate should not deviate more than
121 150 ppm from the expected value, and the rotation speed of
122 the drive should not deviate more than 3000 ppm from the
123 expected value. If these deviations are bigger, you may get
124 problems with certain high capacity formats.
125
126
127 If the raw capacity of the drive is too small, some high
128 capacity formats may become unformattable on this
129 drive/controller combo.
130
131
132 If on the other hand, the raw capacity of the drive is too
133 big, you may get problems when writing to a disk formatted
134 by this drive on another drive with a smaller raw capacity.
135 In order to avoid this, increase superformats gap parameter
136 (-G).
137
138
139 -h
140
141
142 Prints a short help
143
144
145 --dd
146
147
148 Tells the program that we use a Double Density
149 disk.
150
151
152 --hd
153
154
155 Tells the program that we use a High Density
156 disk.
157
158
159 --ed
160
161
162 Tells the program that we use an Extra Density
163 disk.
164
165
166 -f
167
168
169 Runs the measurement non interactively. With this option,
170 the program doesn't ask for confirmation, and doesn't
171 display the continously updated values during the rotation
172 speed measurement.
173
174
175 -W ''Window''
176
177
178 This value describes how many rotations are used for the
179 computation of the sliding average. Default is
180 30.
181
182
183 -c ''cycles''
184
185
186 Describes the number of rotations clocked during the
187 rotations speed determination test. Default is
188 1000.
189 !!Bugs
190
191
192 This program is quite new, and may have bugs. Here are a few
193 suggested tests to check its sanity:
194
195
196 *
197
198
199 The deviation of the data transfer rate solely depends on
200 the controller. It should not be different between two
201 drives connected to the same controller. However, the drive
202 rotation speed may be different for different
203 drives.
204
205
206 *
207
208
209 All data transfer rates (for double, high and extra density)
210 are derived from a same master frequency. Thus the
211 ''deviation'' of the data transfer rate should be
212 independant of the density used.
213 !!See Also
214
215
216 Fdutils' texinfo doc
217 ----
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