On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Simon Raahauge DeSantis wrote:

> > Insert a formatted 800k floppy, su to root, "newfs /dev/rfd0a", "mount
> > /dev/fd0a /mnt", play around, "eject fd0", have fun.
> 
> Does this mean I need to format the floppy in MacOS? I can't just pop it
> in and newfs it? MacOS 7.6 on my Q650 doesn't seem to want to do an 800K
> format.

That's weird. My G3, running 8.0, was quite happy to format an old 800K
disk. So it's not like Apple's dropped 800K support.

Are you sure you tried with an 800K floppy? HD (1.44 MB) floppies are
keyed to be different, and the Mac can tell the difference between the
two. It will only give you choices appropriate for the floppy you've
inserted. It does this as the recording standard's a bit different between
1.44 and 800K floppies; the write current's lower for 1.44. If 800K-format
data ever gets written on a 1.44 MB floppy, the latter should be bulk
erased before using as a 1.44 MB floppy or else you might get data errors
(it was explained to me that the 1.44 MB erase head might not fully erase
800 K data).

Take care,

Bill