Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!iuvax!bsu-cs!cptpower
From: cptpower@bsu-cs.UUCP (Mike Wildridge)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Was: Flight Sim II <=> XF551 incompatible forever
Summary: More on the XF551 Drive...
Keywords: SubLogic sez "bye bye"
Message-ID: <4593@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 4 Nov 88 17:09:36 GMT
References: <12907@eecae.UUCP> <4578@bsu-cs.UUCP> <31836@bbn.COM>
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 31

In article <31836@bbn.COM>, slackey@bbn.com (Stan Lackey) writes:
>
> > ...  (The XF551 writes on the back of the disk BACKWARDS - leave it to
> > Atari to make unnecessary improvements.)
> 
> I have seen references to this several times now.  Why does anybody care
> what the back of a 1050 disk looks like?  Is there a way on the 551 to
> access the back of a 1050-formatted disk without turning it over?  Under
> Atari DOS? 
> Please explain using no more than 2-syllable words.
> -Stan

OK, let's see if I can relay this through my experience.  I bought the XF551.
It seemed like there was nothing major different about it.  On the 1050, when
I filled disks, I formatted the front, notched a hole on the left side,
formatted the back, and then filled both sides of the disk with whatever.
Well, when I tried this with the XF551, it wouldn't work.  It formatted the
front fine, everything seemed the same.  But, when I notched the left side,
turned the disk over, and tried to format the back, it crashed.  I'm not
sure how it all works, but when reading the ad for the XF551 Enhancer, it
said that the XF551 writes to the back of the disk BACKWARDS!  So, apparently
while we don't really care what a 1050 formatted disk looks like, it does.
I just know that before I bought this chip I couldn't do everything I used to
be able to do with the 1050.  Now that I have it, 98% of everything is back
to normal (I'd say it was a well-spent $30).

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