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From: ask@ulysses.att.com (Art S. Kagel[tfw])
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Floppy drives and differing formats
Summary: about MAC SuperDrives and Copy II PC Option boards, etc
Message-ID: <14119@ulysses.att.com>
Date: 13 Dec 90 21:42:21 GMT
References: <5350@rex.cs.tulane.edu>
Sender: netnews@ulysses.att.com
Lines: 22

In article <5350@rex.cs.tulane.edu>, keating@rex.cs.tulane.edu (John W. Keating) writes:
> Why hasn't anyone come up with a floppy disk that can read and write in both
> IBM and Macintosh (and Amiga, and ...) formats?  Is the hardware so different
> that no one even wants to attempt it, or is it a matter of proprietory
> hardware?
>

Note that the newer MacIntosh SuperDrive diskette drives can read IBM format 3 1/2"
diskettes and that the Copy II PC Option board, an internal card, can allow a PC
to read (and I think write) Mac floppies.

> 
> On the same note, why hasn't a 5.25 inch drive been created for the IBM that
> can read and write in both 360K and 1.2M formats correctly?
> 

I have a Toshiba 5 1/4" 1.2M floppy drive and for four years have successfully
read, written, and formatted 360K diskettes which were readable on every 360K
drive I have carried them to (except one badly aligned drive which sometimes
had trouble reading its own output.)  The secret is the alignment of the 1.2M
drive must be near perfect.  This Toshiba drive has held its alignment since
installation.