Re: ProDOS disks and Mac LC-II

[Dennis Jenkins <dennis@usb.com>]

Henry Broekhuyse wrote:
> 
> Dennis Jenkins <dennis@usb.com> wrote in message
> 3A54B247.80B8C1A3@usb.com">news:3A54B247.80B8C1A3@usb.com...
> > Hello,
> > I have a Mac LC-II.  With it I can format 1.6M/1.4M disks for HFS, FAT
> > and ProDOS.  It will not let me format a 800K floppy as anything.  It
> > will not mount any 800K prodos disks.  My IIgs can read/write/format
> > 800K prodos disks just fine.
> >
> > Any thoughts?
> 
> You are probably using 3.5" HD floppies.
> The IIgs (without a SuperDrive) doesn't know about HD floppies - it just
> assumes all floppies are DSDD.
> Your Mac, on the other hand, does know the difference and will refuse to
> read/write/format it as anything other than a HD disk. You could work around
> this problem by blocking the hole on the other side of the disk from the
> write-protect slot with opaque tape - your Mac will then read/write/format
> it correctly.
> 
> One last thing - it is generally not a good idea (from both a theoretical
> and practical point of view)  to use HD disks as replacements for DSDD disks
> even though they will work with the trick noted above.

I should have specified:  I am aware of this issue.  (I also know about
the magnetic field density issue with writing to low density media with
a high density drive, etc...)  

I am using TRUE DSDD 800K floppies.  I really think this is a mac issue,
as the Mac seems to refuse to format/mount ANY DSDD disk that I insert. 
This isn't a mac group, but I doubt that most people in the mac group
wouls know what 'ProDOS' was...

-- 
dennis@usb.com                           Universal Savings Bank.

The three most dangerous things are a programmer with a soldering
iron, a manager who codes, and a user who gets ideas.