Date   : Sun, 09 Sep 2001 13:34:04 +0100
From   : "Richard Gellman" <r.gellman@...>
Subject: Re: XFER

>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Michael McConnell [mailto:soruk@...]
>> > Sent: 09 September 2001 10:45
>> > To: Colin Fraser
>> > Cc: 'BBC mailing list'
>> > Subject: RE: [BBC-Micro] XFER
>> >
>> > The A3000 has a DD floppy system - so you can talk 720K DOS but not
>> > 1.44Mb.  If it has RiscOS 3, it'll talk to the DOS discs natively, if
>> > RiscOS2 you'll need a third party app that can talk the DOS
>> > filesystem.
>>
>> That may be trouble for some - I had serious problems getting my PC to
>> read/write 720k disks until I installed an older floppy.
>> Some newer floppy drives seem to have the density select fixed for 1.4M
>> disks.
>
>That strikes me as odd - I know there are issues with 5.25in discs, but
>3.5in should be fine...

I can concur with the statement on 720k disks not working on a 1.44M drive.
I have numerous times attempted to format a 720K disk as 720K on my PC, and
received nothing but "Invalid media or track 0 bad", from a disk I know
works. These 720K disks also show up as unformatted when you try to read
them.

>Are you trying to use an HD disc as a DD one? This as I've discovered is
>prone to failure...

I've used DD PC disks on an A4000 before.. They quite capable of being
formatted to 1.6Mb (acorn format) and worked reliably. Any disk can be
formatted to any density, as long as the entire disk has a magnetic surface
(as most do), as the drive sorts out where the data goes, and as long as the
drive supports it. Except it seems on PCs, where the format program looks at
the existing format, determines its 720K and decides thats the limit. PCs
are odd.

-- Richard Gellman

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