Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!epiwrl!parker
From: parker@epiwrl.EPI.COM (Alan Parker)
Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm
Subject: Re: Hard Sectors????
Message-ID: <2800@epiwrl.EPI.COM>
Date: 3 Aug 89 22:18:55 GMT
References: <8908012103.AA03920@lll-lcc.llnl.gov> <1515@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Reply-To: parker@epiwrl.EPI.COM (Alan Parker)
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Washington, DC
Lines: 21

In article <1515@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> morris@jade.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Mike Morris) writes:
>I asked a friend of mine who has a Z89 and he says that the hardware
>is capable of either hard or soft, it's all in the BIOS, which is on the
>system tracks of the boot disk.  IOW, to "convert" his machine to a
>soft-sectored machine, simply get your hands on a soft-sectored boot
>disk, and do it. 
>
This is not true.   The drive is pretty much the standard 5 1/4" drive
(of that day), but the controller is completely different.
Heath/Zenith and a number of third party suppliers sold soft-sector
controllers (called H37 format), but I'm not aware that any of these
would also do hard sector (though I guess that could be possible).  Many
people had both hard sector and soft sector drives on H-89s.

You either need to move stuff between the machines the with the serial
lines or install a soft sector controller in the 89 (not too easy to
find now).  

HUG sell (for about $15) a package that allows a PC to emulate an 89.
This includes a pretty nice utility for moving stuff between them with
the serial lines.