ADFS-like volumes are experimental!

BeebLink supports hierarchical ADFS-like volumes. To create one, create an ordinary volume - a folder with the desired volume name, with a folder called 0 inside it - and create a file called .adfs (contents irrelevant) in its folder, next to the 0 folder.

ADFS-like volumes deliberately behave a lot like an ordinary ADFS floppy disk or hard disk.

ADFS-like volumes are experimental!

Improvements over ADFS

• No limit to number of entries in a directory

• Each directory has an independent boot option

Missing ADFS features

• The following ADFS commands are not yet supported: DESTROY, EX on B/B+, LCAT, LEX

• The following ADFS commands are not supported: BACKUP, COMPACT, BYE, DISMOUNT, FREE, FORMAT, MAP, MOUNT, VERIFY

• Directory attributes are ignored

• The E attribute is ignored (but you can set it, and it will be retained)

• There are no sequence numbers

Extracting ADFS disk contents

I've done this using my adf_extract script or Disc Image Manager.

Disc Image Manager

Load ADFS disk in, right click on the root directory, use Extract File... to save the contents somewhere.

To create a new BeebLink drive holding the contents of the disk, save it to a folder with a suitable name (0 to 9, A to Z) inside the volume folder. To create a new directory inside an existing drive, extract it to the appropriate place.

adf_extract

Use -o to put the output somewhere in an existing drive. The tool will create a suitably-named folder for it automatically. For example:

adf_extract mwelcome.adl -o my_volume\0

This will create my_volume\0\mwelcome, and my_volume\0\mwelcome.inf, meaning the disk will appear as a directory called mwelcome in the root directory.

You can't directly use adf_extract to create a drive folder, but you can rename the output.

Creating ADFS disks

The BeebLink files are intended to be generally compatible with other tools, Disc Image Manager included, if you want to create an ADFS disk image.

(The BeebLink *OPT4 setting probably won't come across... apologies. You'll have to set this by hand.)