Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!mailrus!uwmcsd1!marque!uunet!mcvax!unido!ztivax!holzer From: holzer@ztivax.UUCP (Walter Holzer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Problem with reading 40-track diskettes on 80-track drives Message-ID: <505@ztivax.UUCP> Date: 2 Dec 88 12:16:44 GMT Reply-To: holzer@ztivax.UUCP (Walter Holzer) Distribution: inet Organization: Siemens AG in Munich, W-Germany Lines: 29 Hi Netlanders, Being in possession of a NON-switchable 80-track drive and often receiving data on 40-track drives, I have been giving some thought to the possiblilities of reading 40-track diskettes on 80-track drives using software tricks only. Would somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but would it not be possible to take a 40-track diskette, put it in an 80-track drive and using the XBIOS commands floprd and flopwr physically copy every OTHER track from the 40-track diskette to a standard 80-track diskette? This should then result in an 80-track diskette which only has data on the first 40-tracks, but which non-the-less should be able to be read quite normally by TOS? To make things a bit clearer here is a description of such a programm: Copy track 0, side 0, drive A to track 0, side 0, drive B Copy track 2, side 0, drive A to track 1, side 0, drive B Copy track 4, side 0, drive A to track 2, side 0, drive B Copy track 6, side 0, drive A to track 3, side 0, drive B up to Copy track 78, side 0, drive A to track 39, side 0, drive B and then Copy track 0, side 1, drive A to track 0, side 1, drive B Copy track 2, side 1, drive A to track 1, side 1, drive B Copy track 4, side 1, drive A to track 2, side 1, drive B Copy track 6, side 1, drive A to track 3, side 1, drive B up to Copy track 78, side 1, drive A to track 39, side 1, drive B If all this should work as I have described, obviously the next question is, has anyone out there already done such a program and if so would he or she be good enough to let me have it? Thanx in advance /Walter