Re: FS: Deluxe Option Board,Central Point

[Ed Eastman <ed@apple2.com>]

A disk drive is very much like a tape recorder in that it can read 
magnetic transisitons and write magnetic transitions.  The difference is 
what you are laying down on the tape, English, Chinese, Greek, guitar, 
accordian, applause...

> I have no idea why PC software can't read Apple II software diskette 
on PC floppy drive through Deluxe Option Board.  Your answer may be 
correct that it has no intention by reading bit by bit, but only 
magnetic transisiton.

Normally disk drives try to 'interpet' or translate the signals on the 
disk surface to recreate the bytes that were encoded and stored onto the 
disk.  Obviously the PC hardware vs the Mac or Apple II or Commodore 
translates data differently and at different speeds before storing the 
data.  That's wht they can't read each others disks.

> The conclusion states to drop Deluxe Option Board because it is not 
the solution for Apple II software for duplication.

The CopyII PC Option board doesn't interpret anything, it simply 
attempts to reproduce the magnetic variations (data bits) on the disk. 
Is there some loss of 'fidelity'?  Probably.  But yes, a replicated 
(working) Apple II disk should be bootable in an Apple II drive, all the 
magnetic signatures are duplicated.*

:)  Make sense?

* Due to physical differences in the side 2 hardware on a floppy drive 
in a PC, you can not duplicate the flip side of an Apple II/Commodore 
5.25" diskette at the same time as the main side, you'll need to flip it 
over and copy the flip side again onto a different diskette.  (The PC 
drive writes both sides at once and garbages the flip side of the 
destination diskette.)

Thankx,
Ed