Date   : Thu, 14 Jul 2005 21:32:06 +0100
From   : "Colin" <cwhill@...>
Subject: Re: floppy discs

I think I am getting the idea now.
I have spoken to the previous owner of the BBC Micro and explained about
utilities disk and she tells me she never used it to format her disks. Of
course, she can't remember HOW she used to do it other than she just typed
something in on the keyboard.
Now, I think my problem is this.
As my disks have been formatted for use with a PC, the Beeb can't recognise
them as valid disks so reports "Disk fault 18 at 00/00"
My question now is, is there a way to get rid of the stuff (and the
formatting) already on the disk (using the BBC Micro) and then reformat it
for use in my external disk drive? I don't have access to a 5 1/4 drive on
my PC to erase them - only through the Beeb.
Colin Hill
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Cc: <bbc-micro@...>
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] floppy discs


> On Wed, 2005-07-13 at 23:15 +0100, Colin wrote:
> > Ok, bear with me here as this is getting a little too technical for me
and I
> > perhaps have a too simplistic view of disks and disk drives..
> > I'm going by a PC floppy which you shove in, format it to clear any gunk
on
> > it and have a disk you can use (regardless of what was on it before).
> > I got this pile of disks and I want to scrub everything off them and use
> > them for the BBC Micro.
> > Is what you are saying that these disks are not compatible with a disk
drive
> > for the BBC and cannot be reformatted for use with it? (In other words
they
> > are made differently although they look the same and fit the drive)?
>
> Think of it like putting a 3.5" '720KB' (double density) floppy into a
> PC's '1.44MB' (high density) drive - it'll physically fit, but the
> actual media's different; assuming you can even format to the 'wrong'
> capacity your data won't be particularly reliable. (of course double
> density drives haven't been sold on PCs for a good ten years - they're
> all high density these days assuming you get a floppy drive at all)
>
> I suppose the same was true of 8" floppies too, in that both hard
> sectored and soft sectored disks existed and would fit in any 8" drive,
> but weren't interchangeable.
>
> cheers
>
> Jules
>
>
>
>
>