[Coco] Disk drive questions?

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 03 December 2003 12:47, jimcox at miba51.com wrote:
>On Wed, 03 Dec 2003 11:14:10 CST
>
>  ostro011 <ostro011 at umn.edu> wrote:
>>On 3 Dec 2003, Ray Watts wrote:
>>> jimcox at miba51.com wrote:
>>>
>>> "I'd also like to ask again, how easy is it to drop a
>>>3.5" drive into a
>>> system.  I know I have the answer some where in the
>>>thousands of emails
>>> I have saved, but I thought I'd save time and ask here.
>>> Any pointers?"
>>>
>>> As long as your 3.5" drives will run double density
>>>(720k), and most
>>> will, just check, all you need is adapters for the power
>>>and signal
>>> connections.  The power requires a mini 4-pin female
>>>plug and the signal
>>> needs a 34-pin female header. I have three CoCo systems
>>>up and running
>>> and they all use  3.5" drives.  It is a pain in the butt
>>>for me when I
>>> have to copy a 5.25" floppy because I have to hook up
>>>the drive with a
>>> special header jumper I made.   BTW - by refitting the
>>>cover on your
>>> drive case, you can cram three 3.5" drives in and still
>>>consume (I
>>> think) less power than two 5.25" monsters.
>>>
>>> Griz
>>
>>Does this easy setup work through BASIC as well as OS9,
>>or is your system
>>OS9 only.  If a person has a set of two double-sided
>>5.25" drives now, can
>>one set be replaced with 3.5" drives and still work in
>>BASIC?
>
>I should have clarified that I am running with Basic and
>not OS-9.   Is this an issue?
>
>Jim

It can be, because the disk format is carved in the eprom data, 
whereas with os9 the descriptor can be played with, gaining access to 
the other side of the disk etc.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
AMD K6-III at 500mhz 320M
Athlon1600XP at 1400mhz  512M
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Copyright 2003 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.