Floppy disks...

Thursday July 24, 1997, Evgeny Milun Pavel Fedin once quietly said:

PF>> People, IMHO it’s time to talk about this. Don't you think it's time
PF>> to stop shunning 3.5" floppy disks? Otherwise they're gone...
EM> They haven't lost anything. Quite the contrary... It's the owners of 3.5" floppy disks who've gone the way
EM> - they buy a floppy disk with a capacity of at least 1.44 MB, and use only
EM> some 650 on it!

So - advantages of 3.5"
1) Closed and dust-protected case.
2) Guaranteed storage of data on a 1.44 MB layer,
which is ensured by almost 2 times lower recording density.
3) Extreme ease of transferring data between PC and Speccy.
N. Shalaev’s disk utilities in his emulator allow you to easily
how to format and write these discs (at the same time, the Spectrum reads them as
its own). Also in the reverse order.
4) And finally, the 3.5" drive itself is almost 3 times cheaper than 5.25".

EM> That is, less than half !!! the last one."

I wouldn’t say that I have that much money. However, I attached
all sorts of bells and whistles to the Spectrum - two AYs for example...
Everyone thinks for himself what to stick with. ;)

EM>are in short supply. Moreover, many have 5-inch drives -
EM> megabytes, i.e. They work very well with these disks.

Yes? Only something needs to be soldered in the engine so that it is 300 rpm and not 360.
Otherwise the VG93 will not understand... But what can I say? If you want to know something more specific, go to Origin.
I have a lot of experience with Spectrum hardware. And I installed 3.5" in an hour.
I forgot what problems with scratched disks and unreadability are! ;)

Have a nice time!
_Amadeus Voxon (Flash Inc.)_

24 Jul 97 07:02, Evgeny Milun reported to Pavel Fedin about {Floppy disks...}:

EM> By the way, I see no reason why you can’t switch to
EM> 5-inch disks with a capacity of 1.2 MB.

By the time such a transition is over, HD 5'25 risks becoming
as rare as DD.

Warm greetings, Slava!

EM> they've gotten it -
EM> they buy a floppy disk with a capacity of at least 1.44 MB, and use it
EM> only some 650!!! Those. less than half!!! IMHO - those who don't have a lot of money
EM> can afford this, but for the rest it's better to "hold on until the last
EM>".

And the last has already come. Moreover, 1.44 disks are bought only
because 720k disks are very rare these days. :-( I found one for 720 -
bought it. In general, the difference in the price of one package is 10 thousand.

EM> By the way, I see no reason why you can’t switch to 5
EM> inch
EM> disks with a capacity of 1.2 MB. As far as I know, they are not yet
EM> in short supply.
EM> Moreover, many 5-inch drives have megabytes, i.e.
EM> very
EM> even work well with these disks.

What difference does it make, what to switch to? Unless, if we switch, then immediately to
modern...

for now, with all the best wishes, Pavel Fedin.

SN> In this case, these are everyone’s problems, because Almost no one has it. And
SN> you want to give a floppy disk to a friend with a five-inch flop - so what? Copy?
SN> What if there are a lot of floppy disks?

Recommend to a friend to install a new drive.

SN> PS: Maybe it’s better for everyone to switch to screws? And sell unnecessary used floppy disks
SN> cheaply to traders (500 rubles each), who check them
SN> with a check disk, and if everything is OK, then they sell software for them.

Anyway, this is not a solution.

EM>> they bite, he can afford it, but for the rest it’s better to “hold on
EM>> to the last.”
RA> Even if the cost of 5" by 720 begins to exceed the cost of
RA> 3"?
Is this where people get so perverted? ;)) Here, even if you want, you won’t be able to make the cost of 5" 720s more than 3" - their weight categories are too different.

Good luck! Evgeny.

Answering yld Friday, the 25 of July 1997:

MB> So - the advantages of 3.5"
MB> 1) Closed and dust-proof housing.
MB> 2) Guarantee of data storage on a layer designed for 1.44 MB,
MB> which is ensured by almost 2 times less density records.
MB> 3) Extreme ease of transferring data between PC and Speccy.
MB> H. Shalaev’s disk utilities in his emulator allow you to format and burn these disks without problems
MB> (at the same time, the Spectrum reads them
MB> also in reverse order.
MB> 4) And finally, the drive itself is almost 3.5". 3 times cheaper than
MB> 5.25".

All this is good, but using 1.44 mega floppy disks for less than half is
blasphemy. Now, if only someone made a new DOS (replacement of TR DOS), working with both
five-inch disks and three-inch ones, but to the fullest...

Hasta la vista, Michael! See you in Eden! Novikov Sergei AKA Spirit/STEP
[Team ZX ASM] [Team AMD - Amiga Must Die] [Team Aries Rulez Forever] [Team EM²D]

PF> Recommend to a friend to install a new drive.

How to copy? Bummer, sir? All you need is a DOS that supports both five-inch and three-inch drives, but with full use of disk space (1.44 Mb). Compatibility may suffer, but in very rare
cases.

Hasta la vista, Pavel! See you in Eden! Novikov Sergei AKA Spirit/STEP

MB> I wouldn't say I have that much money. However,
MB> attached all sorts of bells and whistles to the Spectrum - two AYs for example...
What does AY have to do with it??? He doesn’t need “consumables” (floppy disks).
MB> Everyone thinks for themselves what to stick to. ;)
Here you are absolutely right. I think so too.

EM>> are in short supply. Moreover, many have 5-inch drives -
EM>> megabytes, i.e. they work very well with these disks.

MB> Yes? Only in the engine you need to re-solder something so that it is 300 rpm and not 360.
FAQ-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o !!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????
Did you go there with a soldering iron ?????????!!!!!!!!!!! Isn’t it easier to rearrange one
maximum two jumpers?
MB> Otherwise, VG93 won’t understand...
But, he understands?
MB> What can I say? If you want to know something more specific
MB>, go to Origin. I have a lot of experience with Spectrum hardware.
And I have a 5" drive for 1.2 :))))
MB> And I installed 3.5" in an hour. I forgot what problems with scratched
MB> disks and unreadability are! ;)
Well, why “forgot”? Any disk can be scratched, even some floppy drives do this on their own.
And “unreadability”... I have never seen more of a mess than what happens with 3.5"
floppy disks and floppy drivessaw. Once, I already read about this topic in some echo. There they agreed (and I fully support them) that now 3.5" floppy disks are complete crap, either they have forgotten how to make them properly, or something else.

Good luck! Evgeny.

Once upon a time, specifically Wednesday July 30, 1997 at 09:45 Sergei Novikov
wrote Michael Belousov:

SN> All this is good, but using 1.44 mega floppy disks for less than
SN> half is blasphemy. Now, if only someone made a new DOS (replacing TR
SN> DOS), working with both five-inch and three-inch disks,
SN> but to the fullest...

Will VG93 handle this format?
If it doesn’t, you’ll have to switch to 8272 or something else -> full
compatibility with TR-DOS goes to hell :(
By the way, it’s now a problem to get 8272 in its pure form. You’ll have to either take
the development of a MM with a pisish io-card, or remake the controller, which
no one will do.

Dead end?

With respect, Tim. [Team AMD - Amiga Must Die]
[Team Aries Rulez Forever]

Wed 30-Jul-97 09:45, Sergei Novikov (2:5020/689.1) wrote a letter to Michael
Belousov:

SN> All this is good, but using 1.44 mega floppy disks for less than half
SN> is blasphemy. Now, if only someone made a new DOS (replacement of TR DOS), working
SN> with both five-inch and three-inch disks, but to the fullest
SN>...

Sprinter.

With best wishes, Vladimir.

SN> How to copy? Bummer, sir? All you need is a DOS that supports
SN> both five-inch and three-inch drives, but with full
SN> use of disk space (1.44 Mb). It is possible that
SN> compatibility will suffer, but in very rare cases.

What is needed is not DOS, but a controller. If someone had modified the controller, then
involving this matter in DOS would have been reduced to rearranging a few bytes
- 30 sectors instead of 15.

Friday July 25 1997 11:38, Michael Belousov wrote to Evgeny Milun:

MB> 3.5" is almost 3 times cheaper than 5.25".

???!? :-[ ] It can’t be!
And about the advantages - everything is true...

C u l8r,
Dmitry aka ZDW.

EM> And “unreadability”... I’ve never seen more of a mess than what happens with 3.5"
EM> floppy disks and drives. Once, I some kind of eh
EM> already
EM> read on this topic. There they agreed (and I fully support them)
EM> that this
EM> time of 3.5" floppy disks is complete crap, either they forgot how to do them normally,
EM> or
EM> something else.

For some reason it turns out that you can write on 5.25 is much more reliable. I already have two
boxes of crumbling 3.5 floppy disks, this hasn’t happened since 5.25. Although, it is possible that when
recording on 720 such a disruption will not happen.

EM> Good luck! Evgeny.

//Wicked Cyril [Team Vacation - Sux!]
[Team Coitus Ergo Sum]
e-mail: mcy...@deeds.spb.ru
cy...@star.spb.ru Ravel support [http://www.star.spb.ru/~cyril/]
■ If vegetarians eatvegetables, I guess that makes me a humanitarian.

Imho it’s not worth it. Now, if such a DOS were made for Speck, and it would become more widespread and TR-DOS - then it would make sense to emulate it.
And to destroy standards, and, moreover, for another platform - this, IMHO, is blasphemy. ;)

Sincerely, Help.

And when the hanging man began to pry, the brothers stole Him and buried him nearby.
Three days later it turned out that he had recovered and disappeared from the coffin.

DZ> ???!? :-[ ] It can’t be!

At least in our 5000 it has always been like this.

__ With cre...@online.nsk.su
__/// Best 39:245/1.0@amiganet
\XX/ Regards 2:5000/28.19@fidonet

31 Jul 97, 22:35, Vladimir Bogdanovitch wrote to Sergei Novikov on the topic
"Floppy disks...":

[skipped]

VB> Then support up to 2.88 MB. 1.44 is already yesterday. But what
VB> games
VB> can be crammed onto such a floppy disk. The game makers are going wild. And
VB> maybe someone can come up with a program for TR-DOS - you launch
VB> a 3.5" floppy disk (720 KB), the 2.88 MB mode is turned on and asks you to insert such a
VB> capacity disk with the game. And then you understand...

Hmm.... is it really so strong in Krasnoyarsk Are 2.88 drives widespread? I haven’t seen one live in St. Petersburg yet, despite the fact that my work with
PiS hardware is connected, IMHO 2.88 is a stillborn standard...

[skipped]

Happy connections.
Roman.

04 Aug 97, already 16:08

Tuesday August 05 1997 13:06, Vladimir Bogdanovitch wrote to Vlad Ipatov:

VB> just narrow the circle of users. And users with hard drives are
VB> still only a few. So the simpler option is a two-floppy version with
VB> sequential loading - suitable for all disk machines. Vladimir

Screws are getting cheaper by leaps and bounds, in 2 years - 100mg a screw will cost
~10-15$ And to connect to a Speccy is another ~10$ Total price of a Speccy :) who knows
a screw is a point and the Spec community is drawn to it.

With respect, Vlad