19 Dec
2008
19 Dec
'08
11:48 a.m.
DSDD floppy disks work fine, but I don't believe that you can buy them anymore.
I think the Cat only uses 265K of disk space, and will format them if required.
Steve.
--- On Thu, 12/18/08, Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> wrote:
From: Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com>
Subject: Canon Cat: what density 3.5"?
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Date: Thursday, December 18, 2008, 8:04 PM
What type of 3.5" floppies are people using in their Cats? Would off-the-shelf
double-density suffice? Any special preparation required?
--
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-- Nuclear war would really set back cable. -- Ted Turner ---------------------
19 Dec
19 Dec
12:49 p.m.
steven stengel wrote:
DSDD floppy disks work fine, but I don't believe
that you can buy them anymore.
I think the Cat only uses 265K of disk space, and will format them if required.
Steve.
We just had this conversation on the Ensoniq Mirage mailing lists.
There are plenty of places selling DSDD disks on eBay. The last lot I
bought appeared to be reasonably new (manufacturing dates on the carton
in this century), rather than NOS.
Gordon
2:41 p.m.
From: gordonjcp at gjcp.net
steven stengel wrote:
Hi
I've been using 1.44M disk without much problems. I usually
format them several times. There is a disk surface test in the
ROMs that I've used a number of times. I expect that the drive
doesn't write as deeply into the surface and once the disk
is cleaned well enough, the 1.44M disk work OK. A bulk erase
would most likely be enough.
It is really suppose to use 720K disk but the drive is only
single sided.
I've fiddled in the Forth code with the disk. The disk is
a full 360K on the one side but the Cat only uses 256K
part of it since that is all that is needed for the editor.
One could hide special code or data in the unused parts.
Dwight
Googles group for the Cat is canon-cat
_________________________________________________________________
It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster.
http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_…
DSDD floppy disks work fine, but I don't
believe that you can buy them anymore.
I think the Cat only uses 265K of disk space, and will format them if required.
Steve.
We just had this conversation on the Ensoniq Mirage mailing lists.
There are plenty of places selling DSDD disks on eBay. The last lot I
bought appeared to be reasonably new (manufacturing dates on the carton
in this century), rather than NOS.
Gordon 
2:55 p.m.
heres a couple links to some dsdd floppies
http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/p4_Floppy-Diskettes_97406_Business_S…
10/3.29
http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/p4_Floppy-Diskettes_14717_Business_S…
100/29.99
On 12/19/08, Gordon JC Pearce MM3YEQ <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:
steven stengel wrote:
DSDD floppy disks work fine, but I don't
believe that you can buy them
anymore. I think the Cat only uses 265K of disk space, and will format them
if required.
Steve.
We just had this conversation on the Ensoniq Mirage mailing lists. There
are plenty of places selling DSDD disks on eBay. The last lot I bought
appeared to be reasonably new (manufacturing dates on the carton in this
century), rather than NOS.
Gordon
3:10 p.m.
--- On Fri, 12/19/08, Chris Halarewich <halarewich at gmail.com> wrote:
heres a couple links to some dsdd floppies>
<snip>
Those are DSHD floppies. Different media. While these will _typically_ work, it's
really best to use the proper disk. HD floppies tend not to be as reliable when used as DD
floppies.
If anyone needs DSDD floppies and can't find any, I found a source a while back and
stocked up - perhaps too much. Let me know, and I'd be glad to sell some.
-Ian
3:13 p.m.
If anyone needs DSDD floppies and can't find any,
I found a source a while
back and stocked up - perhaps too much. Let me know, and I'd be glad to
sell some.
Fortunately, I stock up on DSDD drives to keep my 1581 disk drives happy.
Thanks for the responses, everyone.
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8:31 p.m.
DSDD ("720K") 3.5" disks are 600 Oersted.
DSHD ("1.4M") 3.5" disks are 720 to 760 Oersted.
The Canon Cat uses 600 Oersted (DSDD, "720K") diskettes.
If you use the wrong ones, they will not be as reliable, but, because the
two common types of 3.5" diskettes are CLOSE to the same coercivity, you
can often GET AWAY WITH using the wrong ones. (You can certainly GET
AWAY WITH IT much better than the more extreme difference between 5.25"
disk types)
Using too high a coercivity diskette results in your data "fading" over
time! We can get into that some other time, or Tony can explain it.
The Cat is, IIRC, single sided, but using a double sided disk won't
matter. Due to the weird shell configuration of 3.5" diskettes,
"flippies" are not an option. During the early days of 3.5", single sided
diskettes were manufactured, as well as ones with manual and ones with NO
shutter. Those will all work, but I'm not parting with them.
DSED and floptical disks should not be used.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
8:39 p.m.
On Fri, 19 Dec 2008, steven stengel wrote:
DSDD floppy disks work fine, but I don't believe
that you can buy them anymore.
I think the Cat only uses 265K of disk space, and will format them if required.
Steve.
And if you put a PC or Mac diskette in it,
it will gleefully just go ahead
and reformat it into a Cat diskette.
Jef (R.I.P.) and I had some serious discussions about just how "automatic"
such things should be.
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cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dkelvey＠hotmail.com -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
halarewich＠gmail.com -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
spectre＠floodgap.com -
tosteve＠yahoo.com