bees@infoswx.UUCP (11/05/85)
I was curious as to what my Amiga would do with a single sided disk, so I borrowed an empty Macintosh disk from a co-worker. I took it home and plugged it into my second drive. "info" said it was unreadable, as I expected. To find out whether my Amiga knew it was a smaller disk, I ran: diskcopy fron df0: to df1: name "Copy Test" as a test. It worked!!! "info" reported that it was an 880K disk 85% full! Indeed when I did a: cd df1: dir opt a dir was able to access everything on the disk! Hmmmm.... well the disk itself says: maxell micro floppy disk MF1-DD - Single Sided - Double Density - Double Track 135 TPI Are all SSDDs the same as DSDDs excepting the label, or is this just a feature of maxell? One way or the other, are SSDDs normally cheaper or does anyone know of a good outlet for cheap disks? I have to believe that somewhere I can get a box for less than the ~$50 the local dealer sells them for. BTW, I compiled hello.c using the Lattice make, and it took 2 minutes 49 seconds. That's not too bad, considering the program load time for the 2 pass compiler and 2 pass linker. Ray Davis
louie%trantor@trantor.UMD.EDU (11/09/85)
From: Louis A. Mamakos <louie@trantor.ARPA> I've been using the Single Sided Double Density (SSDD) Macintosh flavored disks on my Amiga too, until the ones I ordered arrive. I recommend that if you use them you back up your work frequently. The ones I am using are Brown disks, and they begin to "forget" after a while. I suspect only the one side of the disk was tested and certified. Beware. Louis A. Mamakos WA3YMH Internet: louie@TRANTOR.UMD.EDU University of Maryland, Computer Science Center - Systems Programming
peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (11/10/85)
> > I was curious as to what my Amiga would do with a single sided disk, so > I borrowed an empty Macintosh disk from a co-worker. I took it home and > ...it worked... > > Are all SSDDs the same as DSDDs excepting the label, or is this just a > feature of maxell? One way or the other, are SSDDs normally cheaper or With 5.25" and 8" diskettes, SS disks are often DS disks that failed to verify on the opposite sides. Many 3.5" diskettes are the same way, but beware! Some SS 3.5" diskettes are not even polished on the back and you can damage your drives just by using them, whether or not they work DS. -- Name: Peter da Silva Graphic: `-_-' UUCP: ...!shell!{graffiti,baylor}!peter IAEF: ...!kitty!baylor!peter
tim@ISM780B.UUCP (11/14/85)
>> Are all SSDDs the same as DSDDs excepting the label, or is this just a >> feature of maxell? One way or the other, are SSDDs normally cheaper or > With 5.25" and 8" diskettes, SS disks are often DS disks that failed to > verify on the opposite sides. Many 3.5" diskettes are the same way, but > beware! Some SS 3.5" diskettes are not even polished on the back and you > can damage your drives just by using them, whether or not they work DS. I have heard that at least some disk do not have a seperate process for making SS and DS disks. That is, all disks are made DS. Those that are bad on both sides are rejected. Those that are bad on one side become SS. And the rest are sold as DS. Some early 3.5" SS disks were supposedly actually ones that had passed on both sides, so were really DS. But the demand for DS disks was low, while the demand for SS disks was higher than the actual SS, so some manufatures sold SS disks that were actually perfectly good DS disks. The bottom line? You may get lucky using a SS as a DS disk, but it may be the case that one side is marginal, and will be likely to fail soon. Or, as Peter says, you may just trash your drive if you are not careful. You are probably better off just buying disks that claim to be double sided.
nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather) (11/19/85)
> I have heard that at least some disk do not have a seperate process for > making SS and DS disks. That is, all disks are made DS. Those that are > bad on both sides are rejected. Those that are bad on one side become SS. > And the rest are sold as DS. My experience, and what I have heard, are otherwise. I regularly buy single-sided 5-1/4" floppies and use both sides. I have yet to have one fail, unless it failed to format in the first place -- so rare I don't remember the last time it happened. Apparently at least one side must pass inspection to be sold as SS but can (and usually does) pass the DS test -- if it is even run on them. Since it costs $$ to test them, I suspect the SS test just tests one side only; if the other side is also good, fine, but don't spend $$ to find out. -- Ed Nather Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin {allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather nather@astro.UTEXAS.EDU
hr@uicsl.UUCP (11/20/85)
RE: DSDS 3 1/2" disks.
"... You are probably better off just buying disks that claim
to be double sided."
Okay, what are good floppies and where are good places to get them?
I've just ordered a package each of 3M and Dysan for about $40.00 from
LYBEN. The Maxells, I use their 8" floppies in my CPM system, were $48.00. Are
they really likely to be $8.00 better?
harold ravlin
{ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!uicsl!hr