Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!19634.UUCP!BSR
From: BSR@19634.UUCP ("And now for something completely different...")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Single sided -> double sided
Message-ID: <8904121505.AA12156@cernvax.uucp>
Date: 13 Apr 89 00:19:02 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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X-Unparsable-Date: Wed, 12 Apr 89 17:04 GMT +0100

Hi y'all,
 Could some floppy disc guru tell me if the following is a good thing to do or
not? I bought a 520 ST with single sided floppy a couple of years back. I used
double sided discs and formatted them single sided, as one would. Now I have
just bought a double sided drive, and I would like to use the other sides of
all those discs I have collected. What I have tried to do is this: format the
tracks on side 2 using Flopfmt, then shift all the existing tracks on side 1 so
that consecutive tracks are now opposite each other on the disc. This diagram
shows the conversion process from SS to DS...

         0123456789   flopfmt  0123456789   shift   02468ACEGI
    SS   ----------     ->     ----------    ->     ----------  DS
         unformatted           formatted            13579BDFHJ

 I then redo the boot sector to specify the double sidedness.
The new tracks A to J are now clear and usable. The disk now has twice the
space as before. 
 My query is, is this a sensible thing to do? I have written a program that
does this, and it seems to work okay. Would anyone like to comment on it?
Please email me, and I'll summarize the response. Thanks

Barry Rowlingson
JANET: BSR@uk.ac.lancs.ph.v1    BITNET: BSR@v1.ph.lancs.ac.uk
maybe: BSR@19634.decnet.cern   <- does this work for you?