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