Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!ANDREW.CMU.EDU!rs4u# From: rs4u#@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Richard Siegel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: 512K Mac/800K Drive Message-ID:Date: Fri, 12-Dec-86 11:25:07 EST Article-I.D.: andrew.MS.V3.18.rs4u.80020be1.knox.ibm032.2208.1 Posted: Fri Dec 12 11:25:07 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 15-Dec-86 05:59:37 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 67 [Line-Eater? What Line-Eater? *Chomp* 8-) ] Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa. Position: Confused Undergraduate I've been using a plain-vanilla 512K Macintosh with Apple's 800K disk drive for a while now; here are some comments and responses: I have a system disk that has my favorite INIT resources (SortMenu), and the Hard Disk 20 file on it. I boot with that. In the external drive, I put in an 800K HSF system disk. Depending on what I am doing, it's either my Lightspeed Pascal development disk, or else it's a disk that has MacWrite, MacDraw, and full set of fonts and desk accessories, and still plenty of room for documents. With the 800K disk outboard, I can use the internal drive (single-sided, of course) as my "Data Disk", where I keep all my documents. It is possible to format an 800K disk as MFS, but it's not desirable, since HFS is much nicer. But of course, there are some nonstandard applications that don't like HFS. So here's how to do it: Prepare a startup disk that has a System, Finder, and modified Hard Disk 20 file on it. The modified Hard Disk 20 file is made in the following way: make a copy of the Hard Disk 20 file. open it up with ResEdit. You'll notice that in the file there are three 'PTCH' ("Patch") resources. Remove ALL of them >>EXCEPT<< the one called '.Sony'. (This is the driver for the double-sided drive). Save the file and quit. Boot with this modified disk. You've removed that patches that make the system recognize HFS, so when you format a disk in the 800K drive, it'll be formatted as 800K MFS. Disks formatted in the single sided drive are 400K MFS. Notice that if you boot with this disk the Finder won't recognize HFS floppies at all ("This is not a Macintosh disk"). As I said, format your doublesided disks as HFS, because it's the better way to go. Formatting a 400K disk as HFS is a waste of time, in my opinion... Just hold down the Option key when you choose "Erase Disk", and hold it down until it's done, and if you're naming a new disk via the Initialize box, hold down the Option key when you hit Return or press the OK button. But you have to have the Hard Disk 20 file loaded at bootup. You must have the new system software to run with the external 800K drive, if you haven't got the new ROMs. I think. 8-) There's nothing wrong with using a 400K disk in an 800K drive. What's a little riskier is using a 400K disk, formatting it on both sides, and then using it as an 800K disk. I have done it, but you're playing with fire. Spend the extra money to get doublesided disks. I learned the hard way, when I started getting random I/O errors. I copied stuff to a new double-sided disk, and all my problems went away, and have stayed away. If you insist on using single-sided disks as double-sided disks, DON'T USE ANYTHING BUT SONY. Anything else is certain trouble. Hope this helps.... --Rich