throoph@jacobs.cs.orst.edu (Henry Throop) (10/22/89)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Reading 720k disks with the Apple 3.5 Drive Summary: Expires: References: <8910200601.AA21133@trout.nosc.mil> Sender: Reply-To: throoph@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU.UUCP (Henry Throop) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Oregon State University - CS - Corvallis Oregon Keywords: In article <8910200601.AA21133@trout.nosc.mil> jeffn@pro-europa.cts.com (Jeff Noxon) writes: [...] >Perhaps someone will one day create a peripheral card that does support >the IBM modulation scheme so that we may transfer data without buying a >PC Transporter. Or maybe someday Apple will let lowly GS users upgrade >to a SWIM chip so all this can be done without a card. I realize this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but for $499 list, you can buy a 'Turbo Floppy 1.4', which is a SCSI floppy drive that reads Mac 1.44 and IBM 1.44 and 720K disks. Of course, you's still need some way to make sense of the data, and we all know what Apple's policy on FSTs is... >Also, someone mentioned something about Apple 3.5 drives speed control >that didn't sound quite right. I can't find that post now. Anyway, >the 3.5 operates at a variable recording speed depending on the track. >The drive automatically adjusts this speed so it can fit the same amount >of data on every track. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the speed is variable in order to keep the recording density constant over the disk, resulting in _less_ storage on the inner tracks. The sector size is not changed, since there are more sectors per track on the outside tracks. Also, note that drive speed does not need to be changed at all to fit the same amount of data on each track, as is the case with Apple's 5.25" drive. >Jeff --- Henry Throop Internet: throoph@jacobs.cs.orst.edu