Date   : Mon, 04 May 2009 14:47:44 +0100
From   : zeem.uk@... (Alex Taylor)
Subject: Preservation of information (floppy discs, etc.)

2009/5/4 Philip Pemberton <philpem@...>:

> or if the machine that
> wrote the disc didn't have a "standard" controller (e.g. Commodore Amiga,
> 1st-gen Apple Mac and Lisa, Commodore 64, ...)

Add the Apple II series to those last two machines and you've got a
group that uses GCR-encoded disks, which is what presents a massive
barrier to reading them on generic modern hardware. In fact I think
all 8-bit Commodores use GCR, except the 1581 floppy drive. Plus the
Mac (pre-iMac) uses its own variable spin-speed floppy drives which
makes it even more difficult! (For 800K anyway, 1.44MB HFS disks use
straight MFM).

-- 
Alex Taylor