[Coco] 1.2 MB Floppies (again)

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 03 August 2006 12:26, Brian Blake wrote:
>As long as I am writing to 3.5" 720k ds/dd disks this should not ba an
> issue, right?
>
If you have a supply of these older disks, then its not a problem.  I do 
too, for sale at $10 each. :)  Actaully I hoarded all I could get back 
when I was runing a big box amiga.

>Gene Heskett <gene.heskett at verizon.net> wrote: On Thursday 03 August 2006 
10:54, Brian Blake wrote:
>>Thanks for the info!!!
>>
>>Well, since I have 20 3.5" 1.44mb drives, I guess the best thing is to
>> just use these.
>>
>>I'm still trying to get a grasp on the 5 1/4" issue, mainly due to
>> transfering data from the older media to the 3.5" drives, but also,
>> just so I understand;
>>
>>I have 2 1.2mb drives. So, as long as I copy from the 35/40 track
>> 180/360k drives to the 1.2mb drive and never use those disks in the
>> smaller drives I'm okay. And was I right guessing that I would use
>> ds/dd 360k media in the 1.2mb 5 1/4" drives? Or since these disks would
>> not be used in the other drives does the media matter?
>>
>>Thanks for all the help so far,
>>
>>Brian
>
>The magnetic 'hardness' of the films on the 2 disks are different, the DD
>type being easily written to, the HD type needing about 2x as much write
>current.  One of the problems in useing the 3.5" drives today is that the
>lower coercity film disks, labeled DD, are made out of pretty pure
>unobtainium, and when you tape up the HD hole to make the drive thinks
> its a DD disk, then the write current is turned down and the disk isn't
> written hard enough.  It may read back in an hour, or maybe not.  In a
> year, its generally no way Jose`.
>
>>Mike Pepe  wrote: Yes you can use these on a CoCo.
>>
>>Interchange with 35/40 track drives is an issue, they are not directly
>>compatible without tricks. Using them in DECB is possible but again,
>>interchange with others is an issue.
>>
>>Unless you already have a cache of 80 track 5.25" drives, I'd just use
>>3.5" drives.
>>
>>-Mike
>>
>>Brian Blake wrote:
>>> I'm re-learning, so please be patient...
>>>
>>> Okay, so the TEAC FD-55xxx series will work with a Coco, if the mods
>>> are made to one (or any other 1.2mb 5.25") to get the speed down to
>>> 300rpm, which makes it a 720k drive (using standard 1.2mb media?) and
>>> the RDY jumper. Now a few more dumb questions::
>>>
>>> 1. That 720k is only useful under NitrOS9 and not DECB, correct?
>>>
>>> 2. What media should be used (i'm assuming ds/dd 360k) and can the
>>> media then be used in a standard coco drive either FD-501 (I know is a
>>> ss drive so I'm guessing no) or 502 (should be fine)?
>>>
>>> 3. Or, would it be best to replace my Coco drives with these newer
>>> ones or the 1.44mb 3.5" (I know, used as a 720k) and use those as my
>>> drives?
>>>
>>> I'm sorry to be asking questions I know have been asked in the past,
>>> but, looking over the discussions recently and my own Google research,
>>> I have confused myself. Maybe once I get a grasp on this, I'll create
>>> a tutorial for those like me who have spent entirely too much time in
>>> the World if Windows machines...
>>>
>>>
>>> Brian
>>>
>>> Mike Pepe  wrote: The notes there are pretty good. I can personally
>>> testify that the TEAC drives mentioned on that page can indeed be used
>>> on a CoCo as 720k disks. In fact I have two of them in a FD-500 case
>>> in storage somewhere.
>>>
>>> -Mike
>>>
>>> Brian Blake wrote:
>>>> Doing research looking for info on 1.2MB floppies has netted some
>>>> results. Maybe you all have seen this website already, so if I am
>>>> repeating, I'm sorry. This site:
>>>>
>>>>   http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi/525HDMOD.htm
>>>>
>>>>   Has info on 300/360rpm speed changes on the TEAC FD-55 series of
>>>> drives and also discusses mods to others to make them run at the
>>>> 300rpm speed.
>>>>
>>>>   Don't know if this is of any use to Coco users, but, I hope so...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------------------
>>>> How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low  PC-to-Phone
>>>> call rates.
>>
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>>
>>
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>--
>Cheers, Gene
>People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word
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>Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
>
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-- 
Cheers, Gene
People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word
'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's
stupid bounce rules.  I do use spamassassin too. :-)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.