> On 7 Feb, 2017, at 18:36, NODEraser <[email protected]> wrote: > > The *disks* were just standard Double-Density floppies; the format was just > as "special" as that for HD disks--PCs didn't recognize those either, but you > could read PC disks of both persuasions if you had the right extensions.
On a Mac floppy drive, yes. A Mac drive is capable of reading both 720K and 1440K disks, as well as both 800K and 1440K Mac disks. But a PC floppy drive is physically incapable of reading Mac 800K disks. Why? Because they use different numbers of sectors for different tracks, much like most hard drives. This was done by varying the spindle speed. PC floppy drives have a single-speed motor, and also can’t arbitrarily change the symbol rate to compensate. I believe it’s possible to convince an Amiga to read 800K disks, as they have more flexible floppy hardware than a typical PC. But by far the easiest way is to simply use a real Mac. If nothing else, you can take a Disk Copy image of the 800K disk and put it on a 1440K disk, and by that means archive it on a PC. - Jonathan Morton -- -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Vintage Macs" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
