Re: Initializing 3.5" 800K floppies: AEHD+ vs Superdrive

[Mike Maginnis <maginnis@computist-project.net>]

On Mon, 2 Oct 2006 23:52:42 +1200, dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David
Empson) wrote:

>Pete PPP <pp142w@webtv.net> wrote:
>
>> >When initializing a stack of 50 floppies, about half
>> >the disks error out in the Superdrive. However the
>> >same 50 floppies work perfectly when init'd by the
>> >AEHD+.
>> 
>> By any chance are the ones that are failing in the Superdrive formatted
>> for IBM DOS? I seem to recall a problem where the disk would fail to
>> Initialize on the first attempt. Ejecting and immediately reinserting
>> for a second attempt would solve the problem.
>> 
>> What was it now? Same disk, but when formatted it was 720k for IBM and
>> 800K on the Apple? Going on long term memory here so things are a bit
>> blurry.
>
>That sounds right: after reading a 720K MFM disk, the Superdrive
>firmware would get stuck in a funny state whereby a subsequent attempt
>to format a 3.5" disk in 800K format would fail, but it was OK after
>reading a 1.44 MB disk or another 800K disk (or probably on a second
>attempt to format 800K).
>
>This never bothered me because I also had a standard Apple 3.5 Drive on
>the computer.

I guess it really doesn't worry me too much - the AEHD+ works fine.  I
was just curious...

Mike Maginnis
maginnis@computist-project

The Computist Project
http://computist-project.net