ables@ut-ngp.UUCP (King Ables) (11/18/83)
Can someone send me a COMPLETE set of differences between hard and soft-sectored 5 1/4" floppy disks?? I bought my H89 used and just found out (to my surprise!) that my drive is hard-sectored. I'd really appreciate any help anyone can give. king (ables@utexas-11.ARPA or ...!ut-sally!ut-ngp!ables.UUCP)
ABN.COSCOM-CE%usc-isid@sri-unix.UUCP (11/21/83)
As far as I know the difference between hard sectors and soft sectors is analogous to the difference between using a cartridge versus a disk to load a program on an ATARI. A disk has to have certain pointers and directory space formatted onto it. Otherwise the drive or computer would not know where the software is located on the disk. With systems that use hard sectored disks, the software to ormat a disk is not included with the system and the disk formatting is done by the manufacturer. With soft sectored disks the formatting software is included or can be purchased and the disk is purchased virtually blank. One advantage for the hard sectored type is that the operator does not have to understand how to format. Additionally, the company then has more control over the disk market. That is why hard sectored disk are almost always provided with dedicated word processing systems such as Lanier and Micom. So, like the cartridge versus disk, the hard sectored disk is an unwritable format scheme while the soft sectored disk is a writable scheme at the operator level. (not a very hot analogy I realize but I tried) Kevin Rappold 1LT US Army
MCMANIS%USC-ECLC%sri-nic@sri-unix.UUCP (11/23/83)
From: Chuck McManis <MCMANIS%USC-ECLC@sri-nic> A Note on Hard Sectoring Vs. Soft Sectoring. Disks are divided up into tracks, each track is a concentric circle spaced some regular distance from the previos track. The number of tracks you can possibly read or write on a disk is designed into the hardware, typically between 30 and 80 tracks for a 5-1/4" floppy. Each track is then cut into segments called sectors. These vary in length depending on how close to the center you are. EVERY floppy disk has an Index hole to tell the hardware where the first sector starts on all of the tracks, in addition to this some floppie controllers allow you to divide up the track into as many or as few sectors as you want, these are called soft sectord because the the controller writes sector information on the disk, and can change it later if it so desires. However, to simplify hardware requirements some people got the great idea of adding a series of hole on the hub of the disk to indicate where all of the sectors started, then the timeing wasn't so critical since the disk told you when a new sector came up however you could NOT change the size of the sectors. Hence the name "hard" sectored. You will find that word processors need only minimal disk functions and hence every penny one can save is more profit, so that is why their disks are hard sectored because it is cheaper to build interfaces for them. Hope this clears this up somewhat. --Chuck -------
howard%brl-bmd@sri-unix.UUCP (11/23/83)
From: Howard Walter <howard@brl-bmd> While it is true that every floppy disk that I know of has a hole which can be used to tell where the first sector starts, it is not true that all disk drives use this hole. Apple drives, in particular, are completely soft sectored. All sector information is written on the disk by a formatting program. The drive does NOT contain circuitry to sense the hole in the disk. (A penny saved is a penny more profit). Howard Walter