[Coco] VCC Emu problems

Bruce W. Calkins brucewcalkins at charter.net
Mon Aug 6 08:28:32 EDT 2007


>> One big problem with using a 1.2MB  5.25 inch floppy drive is that the 
>> head
>> steps at a finer resolution (96 tracks-per-inch I believe). A 5.25 inch 
>> CoCo
>> floppy has 48 tracks-per-inch, so VCC would need to step the head twice 
>> for
>> each track. This might work for READING CoCo floppies, but if you WRITE 
>> to
>> the disk, it only writes on 1/2 the width of the track. This could make 
>> the
>> disk unreadable on a CoCo 5.25 inch drive.
>> Darren



> From: "Gene Heskett"
> And don't forget that the 1.2 meg drive spins at 360 rpm, not 300, and 
> that it
> expects its data to 500 kilobaud, not 250 kilobaud.  If you can find the
> jumper that slow it down to 300 rpm, then its a 100% functional 
> replacement
> for a 720k drive.  The comments re the track width are spot on though.



I must report some success using a 1.2 Meg drive on a PC to transfer data to 
a CoCo disk.  First the disk must be bulk erased.  Second you must not write 
to the disk from the CoCo.  Backing up the disk using the CoCo works 
alright.  This works well for a time, then you must restart by bulk erasing 
the disk.



Bruce W.






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