Re: Write 3.5" disk image in Windows

[Linards Ticmanis <ticmanis@gmx.de>]

bnfmsgeek wrote:

> What do you mean by "variable speed" floppy drive hardware?

To write Apple (or Macintosh) 800 KB floppy disks, you need a either
drive that can spin the actual disk at five different speeds, such as an
older Apple floppy drive, or (this is the much less used variant) a very
special floppy controller card that can send the data to the drive at
five different speeds - standard controllers can't do that. Only
pre-iMac floppy drives from Apple can spin in five speeds and those from
other companies can't do it at all.

Apple/Mac 1440 KB disks don't need that ability as they use the same
low-level bit structure as MS-DOS 1440 KB floppies, but on the other
hand the built-in disk port of a IIgs (or IIc) can only deal with 800 KB
disks. So your 1440 KB capable drive for the Apple will only be doing
800 KB if it's connected to the built-in port; it can only do 1440 KB if
it's hanging off its own special controller card.

> Would my
> usb external drive work?

For writing 800 KB disks, no, the hardware of your USB drive is
physically incapable of writing that format. For writing 1440 KB disks,
yes it would work, if you have a program on your Mac that can handle
ProDOS floppy disk images (such as CiderPress does on Windows). I have
no idea if such a program exists for Mac OS X.

-- 
Linards Ticmanis