[Coco] Read Coco floppies in my PC

[gene heskett]

On Saturday, March 31, 2012 12:00:20 PM Michael Graham did opine:

> Well, if you'd like, I guess you could try the bulk erase method listed
> in that link.  I found a copy of the BULKERAS.EXE that it mentions here:
> http://retro.icequake.net/dob/files/cp2pc/bin/cp2pc600/

No program can duplicate a true bulk eraser.  It will be a waste of your 
time, and if they charge for the program, money.  The drive can only erase 
where its heads travel, and I have yet to see a micro-stepping driver in a 
floppy drive that would allow the intertrack spaces to be erased.

True erasure means the disk is being subjected to a strong magnetic field, 
generated by the powerline frequency, strong enough to flip the magnetic 
signals fully one way or the other.  The disk needs to be moved slowly over 
the working face of the eraser and removed slowly such that as the 
alternating magnetic field fades with increasing distance, so the magnetic 
coating on the disk is essentially left in a neutral, no net magnetism one 
way or the other remaining state.  The shack once sold a handheld rig that 
was strong enough for disks but not anything thicker than a 1/8" cassette, 
but I haven't seen one of those on the pegboard for close to 20 years.  
That leaves Guardiner who supply a belt driven carrier model strong enough 
to wipe a  2" quadruplex video tape.  But it will need a 240 volt circuit 
rated for a 20kw load and you will need several thousand to buy it with.

Much much cheaper to find an old 360k drive.  Hopefully with good heads 
yet, some of mine are dying from worn heads.  My fav drive, a Teac 55 360k 
gave up the ghost about a year ago from worn out heads.  I expect they had 
the equ of 3 million miles on them though.  It had been my /D0 for nearly 
26 years.

> I might have to try it myself next time I go back home to my old
> desktop, I hadn't run across that method the first time I was searching.
> 
> On 3/31/2012 9:08 AM, Bill wrote:
> > So basically, regardless of the OS, I still ain't gonna get any good
> > results 'till I find me a 360.

That is in this case, the least headache method, by a very large margin.
 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com
> > [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Aaron Wolfe
> > Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 12:31 AM
> > To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> > Subject: Re: [Coco] Read Coco floppies in my PC
> > 
> > http://www.oldskool.org/guides/oldonnew/hardware/1.2mb_to_360k.html
> > "Everybody knows that trying to write to a 360K disk in a 1.2MB drive
> > usually works fine for the 1.2 MB drive, but then renders the disk
> > mostly unusable for the 360K drive. "
> > 
> > 
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> 
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Cheers, Gene
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