29 Oct
2007
29 Oct
'07
11:20 a.m.
On 28 Oct 2007 at 20:13, Atsushi Takahashi wrote:
Does anyone have a source for hard sector (10
sector) 5.25" floppy
disks? I have a Northstar double density disk controller in an old
IMSAI that I would like to get running. I also have single density
NorthStar Disk controller at my parents home in a Netronics Explorer-85
(8085) S-100 bus system I built in the 80s. I'm afraid to use it too
much before I have some backups of the precious code I have on the old
disks.
You could always make your own, by punching or drilling additional
index holes in soft-sector media. Or you could use soft-sector media
and employ something like a PIC microcontroller to simulate the
additional sector holes via software. With a bit of programming,
said PIC could determine if HS or SS media was present in the drive
and generate sector signals only if required.
In any case, I'd strongly advise you to back what you have up to
other media--old disks won't last forever.
Cheers,
Chuck