rjs@trwrba.UUCP (Robert J. Suyehara) (03/01/86)
Eventually, I want to upgrade to a Mac Plus (or whatever comes after). However, I am concerned about SS disks with DS disk drives. Supposedly, DS drives can read and write to SS disks, but Apple does not recommend using SS disks as DS disks because one side may not be polished. If this is true, then wouldn't a SS disk cause premature wear on the one head that is against the unpolished side? I am concerned because I use my Mac at home and have a lot of educational and entertainment software for my children ( and me, of course). They are all copy protected so I do not know if they can be copied to DS disks. I would hate to have to buy DS copies (if there will be any). I thought that I could use my external disk drive to boot the educational software, but Math Blaster and Speed Reader II (Davidson and Associates) do not boot from the external drive (you will get a "demo" version). Their customer support admitted that there is a problem, but they could not help me. Also, I think that there are some games which must boot from the internal drive (I have not tested them yet). Since the Mac Plus is geared for business, I doubt that educational software companies will make DS versions unless there is a great demand. Does anyone know how much more wear a SS disk will cause to a DS drive? Should I just take my chances? Is there a fix for this problem? One day I also hope to get a hard disk. Is there some program that will transfer protected educational software and games to a hard disk, without requiring the master to be present? Any info or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. Bob Suyehara Standard disclaimers apply: I do own Math Blaster and Speed Reader II, which are satisfactory programs.
jimb@amdcad.UUCP (Jim Budler) (03/02/86)
In article <1876@trwrba.UUCP> rjs@trwrba.UUCP (Robert J. Suyehara) writes: >... >after). However, I am concerned about SS disks with DS disk >drives. Supposedly, DS drives can read and write to SS disks, >but Apple does not recommend using SS disks as DS disks because >one side may not be polished. If this is true, then wouldn't >a SS disk cause premature wear on the one head that is against >the unpolished side? As far as I can tell ( from Apple, Sony, Maxell, 3M ) both sides are polished. If Apple allows reading single sided disks in the double sided drives (which they do) then their primary concern is probably over the fact that the second side is not certified, and may result in a greater and perhaps unacceptable reliability on some disks. I have a large installed base of single sided disks. I don't intend to throw them out although I may never use them as double sided disks. -- Jim Budler Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (408) 749-5806 Usenet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amdcad!jimb Compuserve: 72415,1200