[Coco] 3.5" Floppies on my Coco 3!

[Bruce W. Calkins]

I have used a 4 drive setup with a CoCo 3 since 1994 or so.  Three 3.5" 
1.44M drives and one 5.25" 360k drives with the 5.25 switched with a 3.5 as 
drive 0.  OS-9 uses both sides of up to 3 drives and I occasionally rebooted 
to use both sides of drives 0 and 1 in basic.  I tried 1.44M diskettes but 
that was an exercise in futility.  720k diskettes just work.  King's Quest 
fits on one 720k which makes for an improved playing experience.  That setup 
saw little action once I got a CoCo 3 with hard drive that a friend found in 
the trash around 1996.

Bruce W.



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----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Blake Patterson"

> Got a photo of the setup? Would like to see.
>
> bp
>
> On Saturday, April 6, 2013, Daniel Campos wrote:
>
>> I also using a 1.44HD Drive and no problems detected with any disks so 
>> far.
>> But I think if using HD media with an HD Drive (my current config) I will
>> have no problems. I think problems occurs most if you are using old 720Kb
>> drives with HD Media...

>>
>> Daniel
>>
>> Em 06/04/2013 13:32, Michael Graham escreveu:
>>
>>> I must have unusually good luck, then, as I've been using 1.44MB disks
>>> with the hole covered as 720KB disks for a few years now, and I 
>>> generally
>>> don't have any problem reading the disks back, even a few weeks after 
>>> I've
>>> written them. I guess I haven't really tested any longer than that, 
>>> though,
>>> as I usually think of something different I'd like to put on the disks, 
>>> so
>>> I reformat and write new content to the disks.
>>>
>>> Although, to be fair, I am using exclusively 1.44MB drives in 720KB mode
>>> to handle the disks, and I know they won't read back on a real 720KB 
>>> drive
>>> (I did actually try that once).
>>>
>>> --Michael
>>>
>>> On 04/06/2013 05:28 AM, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Saturday 06 April 2013 06:08:58 Kip Koon did opine:
>>>>
>>>>  Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>> I communicated with my very first two 3.5" floppy drives on my Coco 3
>>>>> using Disto's Super Controller tonight!

>>>>>
>>>>> I successfully formatted two real 720KB 3.5" disks and one 1.44MB disk
>>>>> with the capacity hole covered to make it look like a 720KB disk.
>>>>>
>>>>>  That won't usually last, sometimes not even an hour.  The recording 
>>>>> is
>>>> too
>>>> weak for the magnetic coating of a HD disk and will fade.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --