Just saw the video, very nice!
Thanks for sharing!

MobyGamer wrote on 2022-12-10, 18:36:

BTW, SOFTHDDI does nothing in DOSBOX, because DOSBOX doesn't do disk access via traditional Int 13H calls. You can install it, and no harm is done, but the indicators never fire. The program is meant for vintage DOS hardware.

It would if you used DOSBox to launch real DOS from a disk image.

I stand corrected 😀

What is the memory footprint?

1152 bytes, slightly over 1K. I could get that down through aggressive size optimization, but it would make the source less readable and slightly less flexible, so I'm not going to worry about it unless it hits 2K.

MobyGamer wrote on 2022-12-10, 18:36:

I wrote a progam for vintage DOS computing that I thought VOGONS people might be interested in: It's called SOFTHDDI, and it implements in software what the "HDD Clicker" does in hardware. And while I was writing it, I added the ability to show hard drive activity onscreen and on the keyboard LEDs as well, for any system that lacks a hard disk LED.

Geat stuff!

I had a hard card in My Amstrad PC1512 back in 1987 and I remember using a TSR that did a similar thing with a flashing indicator, but in the lower right hand corner I think. It didn't do the audible aspect (the PC1512 case was thin/ventilated/quiet enough that you could just still hear it). The keyboard light option is also cool.

MobyGamer wrote on 2022-12-10, 18:36:

Download SOFTHDDI: https://github.com/MobyGamer/softhddi/releases

Github repo with assembler source code and full documentation: https://github.com/MobyGamer/softhddi

Thanks for making this and the sourec available.

MobyGamer wrote on 2022-12-12, 14:52:

1152 bytes, slightly over 1K. I could get that down through aggressive size optimization, but it would make the source less readable and slightly less flexible, so I'm not going to worry about it unless it hits 2K.

That's tiny enough to not make a difference in any way. I'll give this a go at some point, I think.