Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!cbfsb!cbnewsb.cb.att.com!hojo
From: hojo@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (HC Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Having problems with my Spectre GCR
Summary: remember: not all drives will support Spectre GCR
Keywords: floppy access
Message-ID: <1991Feb5.140105.6818@cbfsb.att.com>
Date: 5 Feb 91 14:01:05 GMT
References: <123@klg.UUCP>
Sender: news@cbfsb.att.com
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 26

In article <123@klg.UUCP>, pavneet@klg.UUCP ( KL Group Inc.) writes:
> Hi,
> 
> Ever since I purchased my Spectre cartridge last year, I have had problems
> with it reading Mac floppies.  I have run gcrtest a number of times and
> I get different read/write failures each time.  Has anyone else had these

Just a reminder that not all 720K drives used on Atari's will work with 
Spectre GCR (or Translator one).  The effect of MAC encoding is to cause the
Atari to write on the floppy as if it were a 1.44 meg drive.  

Some 720K drives don't work this way because they have a filter to improve
the signal and won't pass 1.44 meg frequencies.  Others don't have the
full bandwidth in their signal path (heads/electronics).

What to do?

1. replace your built-in drive with one known to work with Spectre.
2. Buy a SF314 that you can TEST first with Spectre.
3. Buy a cheap MAC.  The original Magic-SAC had a program to copy discs 
	from a MAC to the Atari.

Howard Johnson
ATT BELL LABS
att!lzsc!hcj
hcj@lzsc.att.com