Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!emory!gatech!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!corton!chorus!opera.chorus.fr!mir
From: mir@opera.chorus.fr (Adam Mirowski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: HELP, How to read a Macintosh disk ?
Message-ID: <9267@chorus.fr>
Date: 12 Apr 91 15:33:31 GMT
References: <1991Apr9.160320.984@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> <80330020@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com>
Sender: mir@chorus.fr
Reply-To: mir@opera.chorus.fr (Adam Mirowski)
Organization: Chorus systemes, Saint Quentin en Yvelines, France
Lines: 31

In article <80330020@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com>, knotts@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com (Tom Knotts) writes:
%% Hi, does any body know if there is a way to read a macintosh diskette from a PC ?
%% One method is to buy the Deluxe Option Board. This half-height board is
%% inserted between the Floppy controller and a 3.5" 1.44-Meg floppy drive.
%% [...]
%% One warning; the board is only guaranteed to work for certain drives
%% such as the TEAK. The PC drive must be 1.44Meg, and the MAC disk density
%% can only be 400K or 800K. It costs about $115 mail order. It's one of
%% the best $115 I've ever spent.
%% 
%% As an added plus, the product also allows to copy disks that have been
%% copy protected, and do direct bit scanning and editing of (PC) disks.

Don't be so pessimistic !

I don't own the board, but have spent some time in a store reading the
documentation (v5.4):

- The manual explicitely states that nearby all 720Kb drives can be used.
  Restrictions are only on 1.44 Mb brands. I remeber seeing Mitsubishi and
  Mitsumi (my brand :) as not compatibles. TEAC (not TEAK) is compatible.

- The board supports 5.25" drives, both 360 Kb and 1.2 Mb. It handles copy
  protection on 360 Kb only. CPS says they will examine the possibility of
  supporting high-density copy protection in the future.

I didn't found anything about reading high density Mac diskettes. I wonder
if they couldn't be read with the standard controller.
-- 
Adam Mirowski,  mir@chorus.fr (FRANCE),  tel. +33 (1) 30-64-82-00 or 74
Chorus systemes, 6, av.Gustave Eiffel, 78182 Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines CEDEX