Schauble@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (01/31/84)
Program lockable doors on 8 inch drives are not that uncommon. My Qume DT8's have them. Unfortunately, my disk controller doesn't know about it.
perl@rdin.UUCP (Robert Perlberg) (02/01/84)
In my last article I pointed out that the Hewlett-Packard HP250 has 8" floppy drives which lock the door when the software doesn't want you to remove the disk. Yesterday I saw a demonstration of the new Apple Macintosh. It uses 3.5" microfloppies. The microfloppy drive has no eject button. The only way to remove the disk is to select the "Eject Disk" option from the menu. Robert Perlberg Resource Dynamics Inc. New York philabs!rdin!rdin2!perl
perl@rdin.UUCP (Robert Perlberg) (02/04/84)
Willard Korfhage suggests that the index hole sensor can be used as a drive door sensor since the disk stops spinning when you open the door. This would not work on most 5.25" drives since the disk times out and stops spinning whenever it is not being accessed. (nice try) As a point of interest to this discussion, Hewlett-Packard used to make a machine called the HP250. Although it didn't run CP/M or anything like it, it had a kind of 8" floppy drive I have never seen elsewhere. The drive door could be locked by software so the user could be physically prevented from removing the disk! Also, when you closed the door, you could hear the machine accessing the disk; probably reading the directory. (Note that the HP250 was a multi-tasking multi-user system.) Robert Perlberg Resource Dynamics Inc. New York philabs!rdin!rdin2!perl