PMR2@PSUVM.BITNET (12/07/89)
What differences are there between TOS and PC-DOS 3.5" disk formats? What do I need to do to read files from an IBM disk? Also, can anyone out there tell me what the differences between pc-ditto and pc-ditto II are? (Besides $225, of course.) Thanks. -Paul
psurge@cs.utexas.edu (Troy Carpenter) (12/07/89)
In article <89340.213356PMR2@PSUVM.BITNET>, PMR2@PSUVM.BITNET writes: > What differences are there between TOS and PC-DOS 3.5" disk formats? What do > I need to do to read files from an IBM disk? > > Also, can anyone out there tell me what the differences between pc-ditto and > pc-ditto II are? (Besides $225, of course.) > > Thanks. > > -Paul as far as TOS is concerened, it sees no difference between an IBM 3.5 disk and an ST disk, unless the IBM is a 1.44 meg. The 720K ibm disks work fine on the ST. The IBM operating system has a problem with ST formatted disks for some reason, which I am sure someone else can tell why. If you want to use both formats reguarly, then either format all your disks on an IBM, making sure it is formatting 720K and not 1.4 meg. OR use DC-formatter which will format DOS compatable disks from the ST desktop. Troy Carpenter Computer Sciences THE University of Texas, Austin psurge@cs.utexas.edu
apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (12/08/89)
PMR2@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >What differences are there between TOS and PC-DOS 3.5" disk formats? What do >I need to do to read files from an IBM disk? Ideally, the answer is "zero: there is no difference." In practice, you can always read PC disks on ST's, but you can't always read ST disks on PC's. This assumes that the disk is readable at all on the ST: PC 1.44MB disks aren't. Use a format which gives 720K or less. >Also, can anyone out there tell me what the differences between pc-ditto and >pc-ditto II are? (Besides $225, of course.) PC Ditto I is all software: the 68000 runs a program which attempts to do all the same things as an 8086 and some PC hardware. It's like a BASIC interpreter, only it's an 8086-machine-code interpreter. PC Ditto II is hardware: there's actually an 8086 out there to execute the 8086 instructions. The ST is used for I/O: disk, screen, keyboard, serial, parallel, etc. (All this from a man who's never used either product... Informative, I hope, but not authoritative.) ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt