MAXG@SUVM.BITNET (Gerry Greenberg) (05/22/89)
I am one of those lucky few who have a floppy drive that is incompatible with the Translator One, i.e. the drive will not work with genuine Mac disks...it will not read them and it will not format in Mac format. (I am not sure, but I presume this drive will also have the same problem with the Spectre128 GCR---I understand that Dave Small put something in a Gadgets newsletter about such drives---Dan Moore had explained the situation earlier on this net). My question is--is there ANYTHING I can do to overcome this problem (no obviously solutions such as getting a new drive, please)? What I have is a Mitsubishi DS drive that someone adapted to work with an ST...It does great in ST mode and in Magic mode...but in Mac mode, no go. The indicator light doesn't even blink when the Translator is trying to work on it (I guess it is too good of a drive!) If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them...although, I'm not too optimistic, since otherwise Dave Small would have probably posted the solution somewhere by now. You can post to the net or email me directly at: maxg@suvm ggreenbe@rodan.acs.syr.edu
dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (05/23/89)
in article <8905220218.AA02895@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, MAXG@SUVM.BITNET (Gerry Greenberg) says: > I am one of those lucky few who have a floppy drive that is incompatible > with the Translator One, i.e. the drive will not work with genuine Mac > disks...it will not read them and it will not format in Mac format. (I > am not sure, but I presume this drive will also have the same problem > with the Spectre128 GCR---I understand that Dave Small put something in > a Gadgets newsletter about such drives Some drives contain low and/or high pass filters on the data lines. These filters prevent the Mac GCR data from getting to/from the disk since it is in the wrong frequency range. There may be a fix for these drives, assuming you don't care about any warranty that is left on them. Details will be provided by Gadgets by Small when the GCR is shipped *if* the modification proves to be reliable. > What I have is a Mitsubishi DS drive that someone > adapted to work with an ST...It does great in ST mode and in Magic > mode...but in Mac mode, no go. The indicator light doesn't even blink > when the Translator is trying to work on it (I guess it is too good of a > drive!) The drive light should go on for at least a few seconds when the Translator attempts to read a Mac disk. If the drive isn't being selected at all then there may be a problem with the Translator. Try using the Translator with another drive, a standard Atari drive would be best, and also try the TRANSTST program. Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druwy.ATT.COM