Cyrus,
The 800K drive in the Mac Plus cannot tell the difference between a true
800K disk (DSDD) and the newer 1.4MB disks (DSHD), so it always formats them
as 800K (a proprietary format that used 4 different speeds and differing
numbers of sectors per track).
When the "SuperDrive" or "FDHD" was introduced, it included an extra little
switch that would sense the presence of the additional hole in a 1.4MB disk,
and adjust the formatting accordingly. The 1.4MB format was more of an
industry standard with one speed.
So, if you format a 1.4MB capacity disk in a Mac Plus, it will incorrectly
format it as an 800K. Then, when you put that same disk in an FDHD or
SuperDrive, it will see the extra hole, think it should be 1.4MB, find out
that it's not formatted correctly, and say that it needs to be formatted.
The moral of this story? Don't use modern 1.4MB floppy drive blanks in a
Mac Plus. :-)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Cyrus"
Does it work the other way? I have a Mac Plus, and it seems to be able
to format a 1.44Mb disk sot that it can read it, but then none of my
other macs (IIsi, G3 minitower) will read it, and if I format the
disks on the newer macs, the Plus won't read them.
-Cyrus
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