Re: howto start

David Given
2012-02-07T14:46:53Z

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1529 bytes --]

Jody wrote:
[...]
> I believe this is a problem with lots of 720KB floppies being written in
> 1.44MB drives. You'll have to format the disk as a 720KB disk, THEN
> write the image to it, and even then it has a chance of not working. I
> assume that you are using a 1.44MB disk; make sure it's formatted as a
> 720KB disk, not a 1.44MB disk.

The disk head on a 1.44MB drive is half the size of the head on a 720kB
drive. If you format a 720kB disk in a 1.44MB drive it just formats
every other track on the disk.

This is fine if the disk was previously unformatted, but if it had been
formatted with something else then the wide 720kB head will pick up the
new formatted track *and* the old data from the other half of the 720kB
track and get confused. [*]

To make it work reliably you may well need to scrounge up a 720kB drive
to put in the PC, or else find a way to use a 1.44MB drive for the
Tandy. (There's a reason why everyone hates floppies...)

[*] It may be technically feasible to make the 1.44MB drive duplicate
the data to both halves of the 720kB track, but this will require magic
hackery to write tracks with the 'wrong' track ID, and I don't know how
to do that.

--
┌─── ｄｇ＠ｃｏｗｌａｒｋ．ｃｏｍ ───── http://www.cowlark.com ─────
│ "I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my
│ telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out
│ how to use my telephone." --- Bjarne Stroustrup

[-- Attachment #2: OpenPGP digital signature --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 262 bytes --]