Re: Is it true that Apple

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

>  -=> Quoting Jcoffey@crl.com to All <=-
> 
>  Jc> Actually, hard drive access time was it's weakpoint.  SInce it
>  Jc> emulated a  PC dirve via a large file on the Apple drive, it a) took up
>  Jc> a lot of  space since you had to leave enough room for all disk space
>  Jc> you thought  you might need; b) it translated the files as it read
>  Jc> them.

It doesn't translate files as you read them - the MSDOSVOL file is a
binary image of the PC's hard drive, and the PC Transporter uses
direct block reads and writes to access it.  This isn't particularly
fast, because of all the overhead of having to call the operating
system to read/write each block, and copy it into or out of the PC
Transporter's memory.

You are probably thinking of the TRANSFER program, which runs on the
PC Transporter, and can copy files between PC Transporter volumes
(MS-DOS) and ProDOS volumes (either way).

In article <2FED50A9@rook.wa.com>, don hanson <DON.HANSON@rook.wa.com> wrote:

> (The above limitations were only with using the Apple 3.5 hooked to
> the PCT.)

Another way to avoid these limitations is to use an MFM-capable drive
and controller, e.g. a SuperDrive with SuperDrive card, a BlueDisk with
PC drive, or a Floptical on a SCSI bus.  All of these can read/write
3.5" MFM 720k and 1.44MB disks (the BlueDisk can also do 5.25" 360k
and 1.2 MB disks, and 3.5" 2.88 MB disks with appropriate drives).

I use a SuperDrive with SuperDrive controller, and I can easily use
1.44MB and 720k 3.5" disks with my PC Transporter (there are a few
nurgles with changing disk sizes, and I can't boot the PCT from a 720k
disk, but otherwise it works fine).  There are no problems accessing
PCT disks on real PCs, or vice-versa.

(There is a speed problem when using disks formatted on a real PC:
they use a 1:1 interleave, which results in very slow write times on a
SuperDrive.  Reading is fine, and reformatting the disk with a 2:1
interleave solves this problem.)
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand