[Coco] Utility To Determine If A Floppy Has Never Been Used

[S Klammer]

AFAIK, the only way to tell if floppies are unused is if the cellophane is
still on the box :D

I had the same issue until I found an unopened box... but that lasted as
long as a few days when my son started "mixing them up".  Then it once
again became "well, if I don't know what is on it, then it must be blank".

The device you're referring to may be the CatWeasal (sp?)

sk
On May 28, 2013 11:10 PM, "Kip Koon - Computer Doc" <computerdoc at sc.rr.com>
wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
>
> I have been down for the count recently due to muscle spasms in my back and
> otherwise not available due to my Dad’s oldest sister and very close friend
> of the family passing on last week.  I’m glad to report that with
> medication
> my back is back to normal and I’m back home now.  I have been out of town
> for the last two weekends.
>
> I remember reading about a utility that could read ANY type of floppy no
> matter what it was and put the contents of the disk into a file on the PC.
> I believe this was an external PCB with USB capability.
>
> This device lead me to the thought -  can this device tell me if a floppy
> has NEVER been used?
>
> Also I was wondering if a utility has been written or could be written to
> determine if a floppy disk – 3.5” or 5 ¼” – has NEVER been used by using a
> standard floppy setup on a Windows PC without the need for the above
> mentioned device.
>
> I’m just looking for a utility that would simply tell me whether or not
> something is present on the disk.  I would not need for the program to tell
> me what that something might be as there are several possible incompatible
> choices.
>
> Has anyone ever heard of such a program running on the Coco, Windows, or
> Linux based PC?
>
> I have found a box of 5 ¼” floppies that are not labeled and I consequently
> do not know if they are used or blank.  I have used both 40 track and 80
> track drives in the distant past as well as Cocos and Windows PCs so there
> is no easy way to tell other than trying each floppy in each and every
> possible floppy drive configuration I use to use.
>
> I’m trying to find a couple blank floppies in my collection to test the
> DSDD
> and DSHD 5 ¼” drives I have installed on my Coco 3 setup.
>
> Thank you for any help or information you all my have.
>
> Kip
>
>
>
>
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