Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: woody@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: Scanning MAC diskettes on a PC Message-ID: <0008.9003162002.AA00608@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 16 Mar 90 12:25:16 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 30 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu SPBK09@SDNET.BITNET (Brian Piersel) writes: > On Tue, 06 Mar 90 01:12:47 -0500 Howard Haruo Fukuda said: > >MAINT@UQAM.BITNET (Peter Jones) writes: > >I don't think a PC equiped with a 3.5" drive can read a Mac formatted > >disk. A Mac formats the disk to 800K by using a variable speed > >controller which puts more data on the outer rings of the disk than on > >the inner ones. I'm not sure if it's possible to override the ROM on a > I've tried to read an 800K CP/M disk (formatted on a C-128) on a PC, > and the hardware just isn't capable of doing that. In this case, the > disks have 10 sectors/track, and PC drives can't read more than 9. In > the case of the Mac, with variable speed drives, that sure wouldn't > work without hardware modifications. No way to change drive speed > through software. The other problem, is that the 800K CPM disk is encoded with GRC or something similar rather than MFM, in it's native mode. I understand that the CPM disk is MFM, but I have to experience. There is a company, in DeKalb Ill, that produces a product called UNIFORM. Uniform can read and write nearly 200 cpm format disks on a PC. It alters drive tables,and installes a virtual drive that can access the cpm disk. >From that point on, it looks like an msdos disk, you can open files, create files etc etc on the CPM floppy, and it can be read on a CPM machine afterwards With the Compaticard II, you can handle any mix of 5 1/4 3 1/2 and 8 1/2 floppies. They also have a neat product called matchmaker that allows the free reading and writing of Mac disks, andallows full access to them. The actual name of the company escapes me at the moment, but it is something like Microware .... Cheers Woody