[Coco] 4 drive system

[Bruce W. Calkins]

Another issue; Disk Extended Basic (DEB) did not leave the space in the ROM 
for working with more than 4 single sided 35 track 160k drives.  Between the 
4 drive select limit and the lack of space for more than one Granule 
Allocation Table larger than the standard size, attempts to use 40 track 
and/or double sided drives quickly ran into problems.  Operating systems 
that allowed the use of 40 tracks and/or double sided disks were not 
completely compatible with DEB so your data would get corrupted if you moved 
the disks from one system to DEB.

Bruce W.

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----- Original Message ----- 

From: "George Ramsower"

> Okay, I finally dragged out the book on controllers and it WAS designed 
> for
> three drives with the side select line used for the fourth drive.
> So a four drive system is available for use on a coco, using them as 
> single
> sided drives.
> Otherwise, it's three double sided drives with patches to RSDOS or 
> upgrades
> to OS-9.
> I wasn't sure until I looked in that book.
>
> George
>  ----- 
>  Now that I think on this, it may have been a THREE drive system. (faded
>  memory)