Date   : Sat, 05 Jun 2004 21:11:36 +0100
From   : "Chris Richardson" <chris@...>
Subject: BBC Floppies

Hello all
I have been watching the discussion on discs and drives with interest. This
is a subject that I have spent a lot of time on over the years.

In short, my opinion is that it is definitely not a good idea to use HD
floppies on a BBC.

You can get HD to work. 3.5" and 5.25". My experience with 5.25" is that
there is no hub ring for the drive to grip. Some drives will and you can
format them. They will work for a short time

You can fool a 3.5" drive to read/write an HD floppy by covering the
read/write hole and this is OK as long as you don't write to the disc too
many times. Some of the discs in the 8BS pool are on HD floppy, the data is
still OK after over 10 years.

Unfortunately, I have many sad stories of folks that have placed their
life's work on to an HD floppy and lost it. Generally track 0 with the
catalogue is shot as this is the bit used most which therefore wears out
first.

The main point of what I am trying to say here is that I have several
thousand new and very carefully looked after and working (but old as
manufacture ceased some time ago) floppies (5.25" and 3.5") available for
anyone that wants them

Chris


8 Bit Software The BBC and Master Public Domain Library
http://8bs.com