[Coco] Read Coco floppies in my PC

[Michael Graham]

Well, that's a free download, there, so I don't see that I'd have 
anything to lose by trying.

But I already have multiple 360k drives by now, so this is really only 
for the benefit of the OP.

On 3/31/2012 10:22 AM, gene heskett wrote:
> 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. "
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Coco mailing list
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>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> --
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>
> Cheers, Gene