Ah! Thanks, I figured it was something like that.
-Cyrus
P.S. Would covering the hole make it work?
P.P.S. Sorry to change the subject; I thought that maybe both subjects
might be related. :-)
On Feb 10, 5:59 pm, "Bob C." <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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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