Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!aplcen!haven!uvaarpa!hudson!bessel.acc.Virginia.EDU!gl8f
From: gl8f@bessel.acc.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Reading IBM PS/2 disks
Message-ID: <2026@hudson.acc.virginia.edu>
Date: 24 Sep 89 01:24:20 GMT
References: <797@metaphor.Metaphor.COM> <798@lzaz.ATT.COM>
Sender: news@hudson.acc.virginia.edu
Reply-To: gl8f@bessel.acc.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Organization: Dept. of Astronomy, University of Virginia
Lines: 23

In article <798@lzaz.ATT.COM> hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes:
>In article <797@metaphor.Metaphor.COM>, lgold@bambam.metaphor.com (Lynn Gold) writes:

>> The 314s on my ST can't read high-density IBM 3.5" floppies; they
>> can't read low-density disks produced by a high-density drive.

>Try formatting on the ST.  Either use TOS1.4, or a PD formatter that
>can put the IBM magic in sector 0.

This isn't the entire answer. There is a longstanding problem in the PC
world related to mixing high density and normal drives. Yes, she needs
to use TOS1.4 and a PD formatter when formatting disks on her ST, but she
also needs to make sure that she formats disks on the same type of drive
she writes on them with, and that she only writes on a single disk from
one type of drive.

The DOS docs do say this, in a very round-about fashion. To verify that
this is indeed the problem, she can try reading the disk in a IBM normal
3.5" disk drive, such as one on a PS/2 model 25 or 30.

------
Greg Lindahl       |  Welcome to Mars, Earthling. We Martians don't like
gl8f@virginia.edu  |  illegal aliens, so we'll just have to deport you.