Accessing Chapter 10 Recorder Media from Windows PCs

Abstract

The RCC IRIG Chapter 10 standard requires that Chapter 10 recorders use the STANAG- 4575 (NATO Advanced Data Storage Interface) file system to store data files. The STANAG-4575 standard defines a linear file system in which each file is stored in a single contiguous block of disk space. There is a small directory listing at the beginning of the disk. This listing stores the starting position and length for each file. It also stores the file's name and its creation date and time. This file system is very efficient for storing files that are recorded sequentially because it does not require the disk to constantly update a file allocation table on each write. Unfortunately, the STANAG-4575 file system is not directly supported by Microsoft Windows. This means that it is not possible to simply attach a recorder's disk to a PC and copy the files directly using Windows Explorer. This paper will discuss an approach that allows the contents of a STANAG formatted disk to be read from a standard Windows PC. In addition to copying files from the disk, this approach allows several other useful operations to be performed on the disk. These operations include advanced copy options such as partial file copies and splitting files into multiple pieces. It can also provide a mechanism for deleting files, reformatting the disk and performing a sanitization procedure on a disk to declassify it.