avi%ISL@Sumex-Aim@sri-unix.UUCP (12/07/83)
Does anybody have any suggestions how the Victor 9000 can be made
to read/write IBMPC compatible diskettes?
It has Quad density drives,with no (at least known to us) option
to use them as Double density ones.It uses the MS-DOS operating system,
so presumably,this is the only problem.
Will the Tall-Tree-Systems JFORMAT program work on the Victor,and make
its disk understand IBMese ?
Any help will be appreciated.
Avi Weinreb
ISL-Stanford UniversityBRACKENRIDGE%USC-ISIB@sri-unix.UUCP (12/07/83)
From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE@USC-ISIB> You can do anything you want if Victor provides documentation. I know DEC tried to keep the disk format code secret for a long time so they could get a higher mark up on selling floppy disks. If Victor has a similar attitude you may not be able to write a dual density driver. Tall Tree provides sources with their code. I suppose it is pretty much of a chicken and egg thing. You should be able to modify it to run with the Victor if you are good at writing systems level code. While the Tall Tree documentation is notoriously confusing to the novice it is sufficient that an experienced programmer should be able to modify it. Give them a call and see if they will make you up a special version of the source code on a quad disk so you can read it and modify it to work on the Victor. Tall Tree warns that disks written on a quad system in dual mode may not be readable on all dual disk drives. They simulate a 40 track drive on an 80 track drive by skipping a track. If the 40 track drive is slightly out of alignment it may not find the track written by the 80 track drive. This shouldn't bother you much as I assume your main goal is to read IBM software. -------
burton@fortune.UUCP (Philip Burton) (12/09/83)
Unless I'm wrong, the Victor drives use 80 tracks per surface, so each data track is thinner than on a disk written by an IBM PC, which uses 40 tracks per surface. If, and if, you could make the Victor drives run at a constant 300 rpm, then a Victor could read PC disks, but not write disks that could be read by a PC. Same for all quad density vs. double density, except Victor had the clever but unusual idea to vary drive speed to achieve something known in the disk drive world as "constant bit density." Nice idea, but it creates interchange problems. Phil Burton, Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA 415 595 8444 x526
judd@umcp-cs.UUCP (12/11/83)
................
Victor disks are not 'quad density' (I think, what is quad?). What Victor
has done is vary the rate the floppy spins so more of the outer tracks can
be used. The drives actualy change speed based on which track the head is at.
you might get the disk controler to not do that and could then read any
double density disk (I think).
'luck.
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