Sure enough, the reason is that the ram of at32 is too small. I have seen in many places that this design of at32 will cause some problemsJeff wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 9:48 pm The main issue is that the current AT32 based Goteks don't have enough RAM memory to temporary store a complete formatted track, so the emulator must write/flush the formatted track to the USB stick in real time. Unfortunately if the USB stick write latency is too important, part(s) of the track may be lost/corrupted.
This is the major hardware issue since the STM32 was replaced by the AT32 parts due to the electronic components shortage.
The latest HxC firmware version try to mitigate this issue with a special SWAPFILE.BIN file to flush the data as fast as possible but you anyway need to have a decent USB stick to make it work properly... ( You should anyway try a different usb stick )
Regarding your case i think that the current workaround to apply is :
- Try to format the blank images with all the mentioned games.
- Share all HFE files here, even if the format has failed.
- I will make good pre-formatted images from your files with the HxC software.
- Disable the format support in the firmware to avoid to destroy the tracks and just use the new and clean pre-formatted images as user disk.
I will send you firmware with a new menu option to disable/enable the format support.
With this scheme you should have reliable operations, even with the low memory AT32 Goteks.
Please note that Gotek System are currently preparing a more powerful Gotek model based on an bigger AT32 with more memory to address these issues. I should receive a prototype quite soon to port the HxC firmware to this new design.
But now the price of STM32 has soared, especially in China, which has risen to more than 80 yuan/each chip (I come from China). At32 is a good cost-saving alternative product. I'm afraid that with covid-19 continuing to rage, gotek in the future will always be at32
But buying an GOTEK in China is far more convenient than buying hxc (the hxc-max sent by DHL charged me 100 yuan of tax)
Now I try to buy some STM32 gotek from a store with inventory, but I don't know when the inventory will be sold out, so the small ram problem of at32 is inevitable.
In addition, I have many Japanese computers (Japanese computer games are very popular in East Asia). I found that those models using Shugart floppy drive do not have these problems. Even if they use at32 gotek, only computers using 1.23m 8-sector 77 track 3.5 "floppy disk (fm-towns and PC98) encounter formatting problems. Maybe it is because they need to write all new tracks and sectors when formatting?So is it OK to equip these "1.23m 77 Track 8 sector" standard computers with STM32 or original hxc? Other machines can use at32?