1.44 M Floppy on Mega STe
My name is Brian Rost
that someone who has used one may be able to answer:
I have heard all kinds of stories about compatibility between 720K and 1.44 M
floppies on IBM-PCs, mostly that 720K disks formatted on a 1.44M drive may not
be readable on a 720K drive. I currently have no dire need for the 1.44M drive
(in fact I can save about $100 by buying a Mega with a 720K drive instead) but
am thinking of the future. If it will cause compatibility problems with the
720K drive in my 1040 then I'll pass.
Comments?
Brian Rost @rgb.enet.dec.com
****************************************************
* *
* The above does not reflect the opinions of *
* my employer. *
* *
* If music is outlawed, only outlaws will be *
* musicians. *
* *
****************************************************
Stefan Monnier
: Now that Mega Stes are available with 1.44 M floppy drives, I have a question
: that someone who has used one may be able to answer:
:
: I have heard all kinds of stories about compatibility between 720K and 1.44 M
: floppies on IBM-PCs, mostly that 720K disks formatted on a 1.44M drive may not
: be readable on a 720K drive. I currently have no dire need for the 1.44M drive
: (in fact I can save about $100 by buying a Mega with a 720K drive instead) but
: am thinking of the future. If it will cause compatibility problems with the
: 720K drive in my 1040 then I'll pass.
:
: Comments?
I'got an old 520ST (upgraded of course) and when I decided to upgrade
I bought a 1.44M floppydisk (instead of 360K) cause I thought I could
get the FDC to work at 16MHz and this way use 1.44 floppies. Bad luck:
my FDC can't! but anyway I still have a 1.44M floppy and always use it
with 720K disks: I NEVER had any problems with other floppydisks when
exchanging with friends or when reading on any PC !
So no problem, use 1.44M !
-- Stefan Monnier --
---------------------------------------------------------
----- Alors voila, Clyde a une p'tite amie ! -----
----- Elle est jolie et son nom c'est .. Bonnie ! -----
----- ... -----
Roy Gosewehr
>
>I have heard all kinds of stories about compatibility between 720K and 1.44 M
>floppies on IBM-PCs, mostly that 720K disks formatted on a 1.44M drive may not
>be readable on a 720K drive.
I haven't used one *but* I just read in one of the online magazines (I
think it was Atari Explorer On-line but can't remember for sure) that
Atari said some Mega STEs have "escaped" with TOS 2.05 and the 1.44 MB
drive. The Atari rep (Townsend maybe?) said that TOS 2.05 does NOT
format the 1.44 MB disk in a manner compatible with IBM PCs. However,
TOS 2.06 will do the job correctly. The summary is that anyone having
a Mega STE with the high density drive that wants to interchange disks
with an IBM PC compatible MUST have TOS 2.06.
If you don't care about PC compatibility, than apparently TOS 2.05 works
fine with 1.44 MB drives on Ataris and is compatible with other Ataris.
Regards,
Roy C. Gosewehr
Terry_C._W...@xerox.com
so I'm sending this to the whole distribution.
---------------------------------------
Well, those stories are close, but not quite right. Double Density (DD)
floppies formatted at 720K on a High Density (1.44M) floppy drive have no
compatiblity problems whatsoever with real DD (720K) drives.
Where the problem apprears is if you try to use HD floppies in a DD drive, even
if it's formatted in 720K mode. The media of a HD floppy is not quite the same
as a DD floppy and the DD drive can't deal with it. I've tried it before, and
I couldn't even get a HD floppy to format on my DD drive, let alone read data
off a preformatted disk.
The secret lies within the HD drive mechanism itself. If the drive senses the
extra hole punched in the case of a HD floppy, it uses a different head bias
(or something like that) to be compatible with the different media type. When
I replaced my stock Atari DD drive with a HD capable drive mech, I could
format, read, and write HD floppies just fine in 720K mode (my controller only
supported DD). Once I replaced my controller with a HD chip, I could then
format, read, and write in HD mode.
A bit of warning. I don't know if you'll have a problem, since you're looking
at an STe (probably >= TOS 2.06), but when I first installed my HD floppy
drive, I was running TOS 1.2. I found that I had problems reading the second
half of a HD floppy that was written by an MS-DOS PC. While 1.44M floppies
formatted on the ST worked just fine, the ST couldn't read the 1.44M MS-DOS FAT
correctly. When I upgraded to TOS 1.4, the problem went away.
Terry
--------------
"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
--------------
TWells:ES AE:Xerox
TWells...@xerox.com
(310)333-5839
Message: Bell:ES AE:Xerox (165.25220325666.0)
Call: KC6VCL
Ewald Seibert
In article <1992Jun4.1...@ryn.mro4.dec.com>, ro...@rgb.dec.com (My name is Brian Rost) writes:
|> Now that Mega Stes are available with 1.44 M floppy drives, I have a question
|> that someone who has used one may be able to answer:
|>
|> I have heard all kinds of stories about compatibility between 720K and 1.44 M
|> floppies on IBM-PCs, mostly that 720K disks formatted on a 1.44M drive may not
|> be readable on a 720K drive. I currently have no dire need for the 1.44M drive
|> (in fact I can save about $100 by buying a Mega with a 720K drive instead) but
|> am thinking of the future. If it will cause compatibility problems with the
|> 720K drive in my 1040 then I'll pass.
|>
|> Comments?
There are NO incompatibilities ('cause the 1.44 drives operate as 720k drives
if the hole is missing.
==============================================================================
sei...@hphalle9.informatik.tu-muenchen.de ist
Ewald Seibert, Rheinbergerstr.1 8070 Ingolstadt, 0841-86480
Dont't blame ATARI for things, the GURU told you from the ARABIAN NIGHTS (*
==============================================================================
(* = Maerchen aus 1001 Nacht
Ewald Seibert
In article <1992Jun5.1...@digi.lonestar.org>, rgos...@digi.lonestar.org (Roy Gosewehr) writes:
|> In article <1992Jun4.1...@ryn.mro4.dec.com> ro...@rgb.dec.com (My name is Brian Rost) writes:
[...]
|>
|> I haven't used one *but* I just read in one of the online magazines (I
|> think it was Atari Explorer On-line but can't remember for sure) that
|> Atari said some Mega STEs have "escaped" with TOS 2.05 and the 1.44 MB
|> drive. The Atari rep (Townsend maybe?) said that TOS 2.05 does NOT
|> format the 1.44 MB disk in a manner compatible with IBM PCs. However,
|> TOS 2.06 will do the job correctly. The summary is that anyone having
|> a Mega STE with the high density drive that wants to interchange disks
|> with an IBM PC compatible MUST have TOS 2.06.
I don't know where you will find those incompatible STE-TOS but the M-STE I
upgraded at our local dealer (Media Markt) last month had 1.44MB drives
and the 'compatibles' (Highscreen, Profex ... with DOS 5.0) in which I tested
the HD disks from the M-STE didn't complain
|>
|> If you don't care about PC compatibility, than apparently TOS 2.05 works
|> fine with 1.44 MB drives on Ataris and is compatible with other Ataris.
The times ATARI is totally incompatible (with the drives) is over.