Date   : Tue, 11 Oct 2005 00:06:24 +0100
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: 3.5" Floppy For A Master

Mike Tomlinson wrote:
> In article <20051010214103.1FE0582D01@...>, Jason
> Watton (Lycos) <jason.watton@...> writes
> 
> 
>>(1) My BBC drives [double-density, 80-track, plus two others of same spec]
>>did **not** work in my PC.
> 
> 
> Mine did.  It had to be configured in the CMOS setup as a 720k drive
> (which is correct - 80 tracks, 9 sectors per track), but worked fine
> with FDC and Anadisk.  I used a BBC style straight-through cable instead
> of a PC-style twisted cable.

Jumpering, cabling and CMOS issues aside though, isn't the main issue 
that the PC's floppy hardware only ever really supported MFM data 
recording (except for the really early days) and so won't support the FM 
needed to read/write DFS disks?

No amount of setup will get around the hardware being physically 
incapable of doing it, and that's where it's found that some PC 
motherboards / controllers will handle it whilst others won't.

(all of my useful references are on the bookshelf back home unfortunately)

*if* you have a controller (on-board or not) in your PC capable of doing 
it, then yes, it's just down to setup in software / BIOS and getting the 
jumpers and cabling right on the drive. By all accounts, new PC 
motherboards seem to (strangely) stand a better chance of working than 
anything built between (say) 1990 and a couple of years ago.

cheers

Jules