waynem@oakhill.UUCP (Wayne Martinez) (11/28/90)
The scoop: Work: access to the world, able to obtain great stuff via the net. Home: access to work via 2400 baud modem (yuck). Twist: I have a NeXT at work with a DIT CubeFloppy 1.4. The little black box supposedly formats a 720K DOS disk; according to the documentation. However, if I format a disk on the DIT and take it home, the Atari drive reacts as if it were an unformatted disk. If I format the disk on the Atari (from the GEM desktop), the DIT reacts as if the disk were unformatted. If I format the disk using DCFORMAT.PRG and write the MS-DOS boot sector, the NeXT accepts the disk as formatted. If I write files on the MS-DOS boot disk from the Atari, the NeXT does not see them; they do not appear in the directory listing. If I write files on the MS-DOS boot disk from the NeXT, the Atari does not see them; they do not appear in the directory listing. Help: What am I doing wrong? Is the format of the diskettes not compatible? If so, is there any software to transfer between the formats? And if so, from where can it be obtained? Thanks in advance for the help - Wayne | Wayne Martinez | waynem@devnull | Design Engineer | ...!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!devnull!waynem | Advanced Risc Systems | ...!motsps!devnull.sps.mot.com!waynem | ..... .... ... .. . . | devnull!waynem@oakhill.UUCP
gordon@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (John Gordon) (11/29/90)
Well, I don't know about NeXT's, but I do know this: I can format 3 1/2" 720K disks on an IBM, and then both the IBM and my 1040 ST can read and write on the disk. Although, when the ST deletes files from the disk, it kind of messes up the free-space count, so I always delete from the IBM.
rlcollins@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Ryan 'Gozar' Collins) (11/29/90)
My experience with the DIT CubeFloppy is that the software is very buggy.
The hardware is there, the software isn't.
On the other hand, could your drive be a little out of alignment. I
remember reading how 1.44" drive mechanisms are so much more precise than
their 720K counterpart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ryan 'Gozar' Collins ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
o__)\ rlcollins@miavx1.BITNET
/ ) RC1DSANU@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu
/ / ____ R.COLLINS1 (On GEnie)
/(____/__(_) o)_/
/) [ || ] Atari Computers,
"There is no Substitute." [ || ] They're not just
Vs lbh pna ernq guvf, lbh'er geniryvat // || \\ for breakfast
gbb pybfr! // || \\ anymore
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Yea, right, thats what I said.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~waynem@oakhill.UUCP (Wayne Martinez) (11/30/90)
The scoop: Work: access to the world, able to obtain great stuff via the net. Home: access to work via 2400 baud modem (yuck). Twist: I have a NeXT at work with a DIT CubeFloppy 1.4. The little black box supposedly formats a 720K DOS disk; according to the documentation. However, if I format a disk on the DIT and take it home, the Atari drive reacts as if it were an unformatted disk. If I format the disk on the Atari (from the GEM desktop), the DIT reacts as if the disk were unformatted. If I format the disk using DCFORMAT.PRG and write the MS-DOS boot sector, the NeXT accepts the disk as formatted. If I write files on the MS-DOS boot disk from the Atari, the NeXT does not see them; they do not appear in the directory listing. If I write files on the MS-DOS boot disk from the NeXT, the Atari does not see them; they do not appear in the directory listing. Help: What am I doing wrong? Is the format of the diskettes not compatible? If so, is there any software to transfer between the formats? And if so, from where can it be obtained? Thanks in advance for the help - Wayne | Wayne Martinez | waynem@devnull | Motorola | ...!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!devnull!waynem | Advanced Risc Systems | ...!motsps!devnull.sps.mot.com!waynem | ..... .... ... .. . . | devnull!waynem@oakhill.UUCP
waynem@oakhill.UUCP (Wayne Martinez) (11/30/90)
I need help transferring files from a NeXT CubeFloppy to a MegaST-2 The scoop: Work: access to the world, able to obtain great stuff via the net. Home: access to work via 2400 baud modem (yuck). Twist: I have a NeXT at work with a DIT CubeFloppy 1.4. The little black box supposedly formats a 720K DOS disk; according to the documentation. If I format the disk using DCFORMAT.PRG and write the MS-DOS boot sector, the NeXT accepts the disk as formatted. If I write files on the MS-DOS boot disk from the Atari, the NeXT does not see them; they do not appear in the directory listing. If I write files on the MS-DOS boot disk from the NeXT, the Atari does not see them; they do not appear in the directory listing. Help: What am I doing wrong? Is the format of the diskettes not compatible? If so, is there any software to transfer between the formats? And if so, from where can it be obtained? Thanks in advance for the help - Wayne | Wayne Martinez | waynem@devnull.sps.mot.com | Motorola Incorporated | ...!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!devnull!waynem | Advanced Risc Systems | ...!motsps!devnull.sps.mot.com!waynem | ..... .... ... .. . . | devnull!waynem@oakhill.UUCP
ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) (12/04/90)
In article <4267@oakhill.UUCP> waynem@oakhill.UUCP (Wayne Martinez) writes: >I need help transferring files from a NeXT CubeFloppy to a MegaST-2 ... I use the program IBMFMT by Moshe Braner. An equivalent program is PS2FORM. Both are free. I frequently use disks formatted this way, or formatted with the PC, to write files with PC, read with ST, and to write files with ST, read with PC. For casual use, you should limit the number of such disks on the Atari to ONE disk, because the ST system gets confused by the fact that all PC volume serial numbers are the same. If you really have to use two different IBM formated disks *in your ATARI ST*, insert a floppy that has been formatted from the desktop of your ST in between. That way, the ST will know that disks have been swapped, becauze the serial numbers will be different, both times, once changing from a PC disk to an ST disk, and again from ST disk to PC disk. (Think if it sort of like double clutching. :-) I can not say much about the NeXT system and how it interacts with the PC. I suggest that you experiment with a real live PC with a couple of simple text files.
ralph@laas.fr (Ralph P. Sobek) (12/05/90)
In article <1990Dec3.211612.2176@watmath.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) writes: | I use the program IBMFMT by Moshe Braner. An equivalent program | is PS2FORM. Both are free. I recommend FORMAT which, I believe was posted in Sept. It should be available from atari.archive. The major difference between FORMAT and PS2FORM is that a) FORMAT ensures that the floppy has a random serial number, while being MS-DOS (and for that matter SPARCstation) compatible, and b) it creates 3 sector FATs, thereby giving the user 2 extra clusters (the same as if the floppy would have been formatted on a PC). What more can one ask for? | For casual use, you should limit the number of such disks on the Atari | to ONE disk, because the ST system gets confused by the fact that all | PC volume serial numbers are the same. If you use FORMAT this problem is solved!! Virtually all my 100 or so Atari ST floppies are MS-DOS compatible. Until FORMAT came along I had to hack the serial number manually with a disk editor. :-( Finally, FORMAT can format in the background if you install it as an ACC. Just don't use up too much CPU in the foreground, otherwise the formatting will come to a halt. Disclaimer: I didn't write it! For the moment, I'm just a happy user of FORMAT. -- Ralph P. Sobek Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own. ralph@laas.fr Addresses are ordered by importance. ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!laas!ralph If all else fails, try: sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU =============================================================================== Reliable software should kill people reliably! -Andy Mickel, Pascal News #13,78
grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas) (12/06/90)
From article <1990Dec3.211612.2176@watmath.waterloo.edu>, by ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey): > In article <4267@oakhill.UUCP> waynem@oakhill.UUCP (Wayne Martinez) writes: >>I need help transferring files from a NeXT CubeFloppy to a MegaST-2 > ... > I use the program IBMFMT by Moshe Braner. An equivalent program is PS2FORM. > Both are free. > > I frequently use disks formatted this way, or formatted with the PC, to > write files with PC, read with ST, and to > write files with ST, read with PC. > > For casual use, you should limit the number of such disks on the Atari > to ONE disk, because the ST system gets confused by the fact that all > PC volume serial numbers are the same. Moshe Braner's IBMFMT (at least, version 1.1 - don't use version 1.0) puts a random serial number in the place the ST expects to find it, so it's OK to use any number of IBMFMT'ed disks in your ST. As a general prescription, though, Lee Dickey is quite right to warn about IBM-formatted disks. The serial number problem will hit you just when you least expect it, and unless you know what's happening it can be very nasty. If in doubt, stick to one IBM-formatted disk. . . . . . . . (50% rule, eat your heart out) Graham -- Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK JANET: grahamt@uk.ac.sussex.syma BITNET: grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@UKACRL INTERNET: grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk UUCP: grahamt%syma.sussex@ukc.uucp PHONE: +44 273 686758 FAX: [..] 685865
ljdickey@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) (12/08/90)
In article <RALPH.90Dec5162428@orion.laas.fr> ralph@laas.fr writes: >I recommend FORMAT which, I believe was posted in Sept. It should be >available from atari.archive. The major difference between FORMAT and >PS2FORM is that a) FORMAT ensures that the floppy has a random serial >number, while being MS-DOS (and for that matter SPARCstation) >compatible, and b) it creates 3 sector FATs, thereby giving the user 2 >extra clusters (the same as if the floppy would have been formatted on >a PC). What more can one ask for? Not much, I guess. FORMAT sounds great. Thanks for the pointer.