Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!rutgers!att!occrsh!uokmax!rmtodd
From: rmtodd@uokmax.UUCP (Richard Michael Todd)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: 68K minix
Summary: Mac & Atari don't have same disk format scheme.
Message-ID: <1983@uokmax.UUCP>
Date: 2 Nov 88 21:26:18 GMT
References: <5089@louie.udel.EDU> <1600@ast.cs.vu.nl>
Reply-To: rmtodd@uokmax.UUCP (Richard Michael Todd)
Organization: University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Lines: 25

In article <1600@ast.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
>I am not much of a Macintosh expert, but the Atari disks are standard 720K
						              ^^^^^^^^
"Standards are wonderful, there are so many to choose from." (a famous quote,
usually attributed to Andy Tanenbaum(!)). 
>3.5 inch disks.  If you take the program readfs, compile it on the macintosh
>with any C compiler, you should be able to insert an Atari diskette and
>read the MINIX file system from it, since readfs can handle the 3.5 inch
>disks (actually, it doesn't know or care; it just sees a linear list of
>blocks).  I would think this approach should be reasonable. 
It would except that Macintoshes don't use the same disk recording scheme as
MS-DOS machines and Ataris.  MS-DOS and Atari systems use MFM, whereas 
Macs use GCR (I think--anyway *not* MFM).  I don't think sticking an Atari
disk into a Mac will produce anything except garbage.  Reportedly the newest
Mac floppy drives (on the MAc IIx) do have the ability to read DOS-formatted
diskettes (presumably they threw in an MFM controller chip), so you could do
it on one of those machines, but not on most Macs.  

>An alternative approach is to hook up a PC and a Macintosh using kermit.
In this case I think it's the only approach.
-- 
Richard Todd	Fido:1:147/1     USSnail:820 Annie Court,Norman OK 73069
Try one of these: rmtodd@chinet.uucp, rmtodd@killer.dallas.tx.us,
   rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu  or ...!sun!texsun!uokmax!rmtodd.
"MSDOS is a Neanderthal operating system" - Henry Spencer