Re: Can GS read/init 1.44 disks?

[sbehrens@contech.demon.co.uk (Soenke Behrens)]

tmcdan19@skypoint.com (Terry McDanel) wrote:

>1.44s initialized on the Mac in Prodos are unreadable by my GS.  
>
>I havent noticed anything in this group about this.  Perhaps i wasnt 
>paying attention.  Am i missing something?

Yep, extra hardware :). The 3.5" that comes with the GS can only do DD
disks, not HD ones. Furthermore, the IWM only supports GCR, not MFM.
There are a number of ways to get MFM 1.44MB.

o BlueDisk by ///SHH Systeme and one or two PC-style floppy drives.
BlueDisk supports 5.25" and 3.5", you can have about any PC drive on
there, including the 2.88MB ones if you are so inclined. I use it with
a 3.5" HD drive and get 1.44MB or 1.6MB out of it (for MS-DOS and
ProDOS, respectively), and like it a lot.
o RamFAST SCSI and a Floptical. Perhaps even cooler, not only can you
do 1.44MB but also use the Floptical's 20MB format for archival
purposes.
o Apple 3.5" Controller Card and a SuperDrive. Has the advantage of
also supporting GCR 800k, which above options don't. Nice if you can
find it cheap&cheerful used, no longer sold commercially (the
controller card, that is, I believe SuperDrives still are).

I'd say go with whatever is cheapest and fits your needs. If you
already have a RamFAST, a Floptical will probably look better than a
BlueDisk ... unless you want 2.88MB or really think 1.6MB is cool and
have no use for 20MB Floptical disks.

Soenke
--
If you declare love, what identifier scope does it have?
    (Unknown C geek)