Re: Does it exist? Mac USB Floppy drive r/w 800k & ProDOS disks?

[blackm00@cam.org (Michael Black)]

left_the_scene <postmaster@nyc-strip-clubs.com> wrote in message news:<3C5B074D.60200@nyc-strip-clubs.com>...
> VZE26PJV wrote:
>
> > I do not think it is the disk drive that is the problem, most floppy drives
> > will read 800K disks.  Most likley due to their age, the disk was corrupt.
>
>
> No, in fact MOST floppy drives will NOT read 800K disks. Absolutely NO
> PC based floppy drive will read them (and that is MOST of the floppy
> drivesd in the world) and from what I understand, most pwermacs nowadays
> won't do so either. I verified this on a G3 today - BRAND NEW 800K disk,
> reads fine in my Mac IIcx, and my quadra 605, and my apple iigs, but NOT
> in my g3.
>
> -Sean

I think I accidentally erased some disks the other day, forgetting
that most computers can't read 800K disks.

I had various piles of 3.5" disks around, some marked, others not,
for various computers.  I decided it was time to sort them out.
I had a Mac running and this Linux machine, and was just going
through the disks, many that weren't marked or not properly,
and trying them in one computer and then the other.  There were
a couple that I tried to read on the Linux machine, and when I
couldn't I think I marked them for reformatting.  After I'd done
that, I realized that if they were double density from the Mac,
I wouldn't have been able to read them.

Had I been paying full attention, I would have tried them on
the Mac with First Aid, just to make sure they couldn't have been
recovered.  I probably didn't lose anything really important, since
there must have been some unformatted disks in the piles, and
I often do have disks with temporary files on them.

On the other hand, I reclaimed an  a good pile of DD 3.5" disks,
so I won't have to buy any of those again.

   Michael