[comp.sys.amiga] Reading IBM 3 1/2 inch disks

matth@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Matthew Hannigan) (04/08/90)

 jal@pandora.cs.wayne.edu (Jason Leigh) writes:
>
>Does anyone know of a PD program that will read 720K IBM 3 1/2 inch disks?
>I have tried PC-Patch on PC-Copy but that only does 360K disks.
 
There is an update to PC-Patch which DOES do 720k disks.
It is on Fish disk 218.

Matt

sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (04/10/90)

jal@pandora.cs.wayne.edu (Jason Leigh) writes:

>Does anyone know of a PD program that will read 720K IBM 3 1/2 inch disks?
>I have tried PC-Patch on PC-Copy but that only does 360K disks.


>Any help would be greatly appreciated (oh and please don't tell me to
>split the 720K disk into 2 360K disks; I want to keep that as the
>last resort).

I think you might be confused. There are no 360K 3 1/2 inch disks.

On IBM systems you have two size diskettes 5 1/4 and 3 1/2

The 5 1/4 has two densities: 360K and 1.2meg.

The 3 1/2 has two densities: 720K and 1.4meg.

Call up a BBS and download the demo version of CrossDOS or go to your
dealer and buy it for $30. It reads 720K 3 1/2" disks. The demo is read
only. The commercial version is read and write MSDOS. No program on the
Amiga can read the 1.4Meg diskettes because of a hardware limitation in
the Amiga disk controller chip.

[tried to email this but it bounced]

-- 
John Sparks  | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 2400bps. Accessable via Starlink (Louisville KY)
sparks@corpane.UUCP |                                     | PH: (502) 968-DISK 
As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error.

phoenix@ms.uky.edu (R'ykandar Korra'ti) (04/11/90)

In article <1675@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes:
>I think you might be confused. There are no 360K 3 1/2 inch disks.
     Funny, I used one today. Formatted one, even.
     The 3.5 inch drives will be more than happy to format to 360K, even
double sided. Also, the old IBM single sided 3.5 inch drives were 360K.
                                                   - R'ykandar.
-- 
| R'ykandar Korra'ti | Editor, LOW ORBIT | PLink: Skywise | CIS 72406,370 |
| Elfinkind, Unite! | phoenix@ms.uky.edu | phoenix%ms.uky.edu@ukcc.bitnet |
| "Careful, mom, the toys are loose!" - from The Wizard of Speed and Time |

monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (04/13/90)

In article <14917@s.ms.uky.edu> phoenix@ms.uky.edu (R'ykandar Korra'ti) writes:
>In article <1675@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes:
>>I think you might be confused. There are no 360K 3 1/2 inch disks.
>     Funny, I used one today. Formatted one, even.
>     The 3.5 inch drives will be more than happy to format to 360K, even
>double sided. Also, the old IBM single sided 3.5 inch drives were 360K.

On a side note, it is simple to install a 3 1/2 drive in and XT, the only 
problem you have is that most XT floppy controllers do not know how to
format a 720K drive so they format it to 360K. Hence I have found that I can
read and write 720K floppies on an XT, but must first format them on an AT
so that they are 720K. (I use an XT at work to download amiga source/binaries
from this net and then use crossdos to put them on my A1000). For all you 
that are thinking - use the right flags and you can format them to 720K - 
save your breath, the controller/bios I have does not understand the flags.

Monty Saine