AXDFM@ALASKA.BITNET (gbloo Grebo) (11/15/88)
I don't have an XF-551, but would like one. What about software like Printshop that comes on a two-sided disk? Does the XF551 reject it, or does it allow you to use it? As I gather (I think), it works okay when reading the back side, but it can't write to it? This means that PS should work, right? Frank Murphy OIT, Univ of Alaska Anchorage
cptpower@bsu-cs.UUCP (Mike Wildridge) (11/21/88)
In article <8811151952.AA02245@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, AXDFM@ALASKA.BITNET (gbloo Grebo) writes: > I don't have an XF-551, but would like one. What about software like > Printshop that comes on a two-sided disk? Does the XF551 reject it, or > does it allow you to use it? As I gather (I think), it works okay when > reading the back side, but it can't write to it? This means that PS should > work, right? As everyone knows, I got one of the XF551's and I also got Print Shop. Yes, there ain't no prob with it at all. It works just fine. Happy Trails!! Power \ Mike Wildridge - Nude Model Extraordinaire / DJ Wannabe \ \ Menk Hall Box 102 ____ \ POWER ON! \ Muncie, IN 47306-1082 \ / "This is Power, \ / \ (317) 285-6777 \/ Captain Jonathan Power!" \/ / UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!cptpower /
slackey@bbn.com (Stan Lackey) (11/22/88)
In article <8811151952.AA02245@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <AXDFM%ALASKA.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> writes: > I don't have an XF-551, but would like one. What about software like >Printshop that comes on a two-sided disk? Does the XF551 reject it, or >does it allow you to use it? As I gather (I think), it works okay when ... I think what we have determined is that the only function a 551 cannot do is FORMAT the back of a standard disk, unless you do one of the following: Get a special kind of disk whose sleeve has an extra hole so that the timing hole can be "seen" when the disk is upside down; Furnish those extra holes with a paper punch; Buy and install a hardware upgrade from Scammers Unlimited (or whatever that company calls themselves); Keep an old drive around (what I do); Use SpartaDos or some other OS that lets you use both sides of the disk by using the drive in its native mode. In any case, pretty much all existing SW will work in the way it was intended on the 551. -Stan
hans@umd5.umd.edu (Hans Breitenlohner) (11/24/88)
In article <32554@bbn.COM> slackey@BBN.COM (Stan Lackey) writes:
-
-I think what we have determined is that the only function a 551 cannot do
-is FORMAT the back of a standard disk, unless you do one of the following:
-
- ...
-
-Buy and install a hardware upgrade from Scammers Unlimited (or whatever
-that company calls themselves);
-
- ...
-
Does anybody know what that hardware upgrade actually does? Inquiring minds
want to know.
(For lack of that information, a description of the parts involved might
shed some light on it, too).Eric_Stewart_Plent@cup.portal.com (11/25/88)
To Frank Murphy: The XF-551 drive, in Double Sided mode, writes the information on the back side of the disk in reverse. This means that if you flipped the disk over, it could not read side 2 as side 1. It also means that a disk that ha information on both sides would still have to be flipped over to work properly. Sorry!
njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM (DiMasi) (11/29/88)
> > To Frank Murphy: > > The XF-551 drive, in Double Sided mode, writes the information on the > back side of the disk in reverse. This means that if you flipped the disk > over, it could not read side 2 as side 1. It also means that a disk that ha > information on both sides would still have to be flipped over to work > properly. Sorry! This is somewhat misleading to anyone who has no understanding of double-sided disk drives. From the standpoint of "true" double-sided operations, the XF551 does NOT write the 2nd side in reverse; flipping a floppy writes it in "reverse." Flipping floppies has been the method used by 8-bit Atarians for using the 2nd side of a floppy, but it is only a standard (sort of) in the Atari world. (Unless "Commodorians" and/or "Applites" or other single-sided drive users do this too? I don't know about other 8-bit-computer disk drives.) If one has an XF551 drive, and wants the 2nd side of a floppy to be usable in other drives, then the solution is to flip the floppy as if the drive were a 1050, except that the floppy needs to be punched with a 2nd set (1 on each side of the jacket) of timing holes (I recall reading that the XF551 uses those timing holes when formatting floppies, just as the Percoms do. No, I never got into punching new holes in my floppies to use the 2nd side in my Percoms, but now that I know it will work.... maybe I'll try it, carefully!) Nick DiMasi njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM ...att!ihlpm!njd DELPHI: TURBONICK Uni'q Digital Technologies (Fox Valley Software subsidiary; ^ working as a contractor at AT&T Bell Labs in Naperville, IL) ( | this is an accent mark, supposed to replace the dot over the 'i')