[rescue] Durango Poppy II

Fri May 23 18:43:49 CDT 2003

A yes... the 80 track DSDD format...  I'm told the floppy drive in
my Altos 886 may be one of those....  would be the first one I've
run across yet.

My guess is that DSHD drives can handle the format if you can get
software to do it (I'm sure Linux can do it, and there are probably
utilities for Windows, DOS, etc to do it).

-- Curt

>From: "Michael Free" <mfree80286 at adelphia.net>
>To: "The Rescue List" <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] Durango Poppy II
>Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 19:33:11 -0400
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>AT machines typically were the first to have CMOS batteries... if yours are
>dead, the machine may have defaulted to no HDD and a 360K 5.25" drive in
>BIOS.
>
>DSDD 96tpi drives are not compatible with current drives, if that's the
>5.25" drive I'm thinking of. It was also used in the Tandy 2000 model...
>regular DSDD 5.25" disks are 48tpi. Somewhere out there, there may be a hack
>to run a 1.2 meg DSHD to read/write these disks.
>
>Mike Free
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Curtis H. Wilbar Jr." <rescue at hawkmountain.net>
>To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 7:24 PM
>Subject: Re: [rescue] Durango Poppy II
>
>
>> >Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 21:38:32 +0200
>> >From: Walter Belgers <walter+rescue at belgers.com>
>> >To: rescue at sunhelp.org
>> >Mail-Followup-To: rescue at sunhelp.org
>> >User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i
>> >X-message-flag: Outlook : A program to spread viri, but it can do mail
>too.
>> >Reply-By: Tue, 24 Jul 2000
>> >Subject: [rescue] Durango Poppy II
>> >
>> >Hi,
>> >
>> >Anybody familiar with the Durango Poppy II? This thing has a 80286 (and
>> >80287) in AT casing, 640KB memory, 6 serials + console port, 5.25" drive
>> >and a ST506 5MB HD.
>> >
>> >The BIOS tries booting from floppy, then HD. The HD spins up but the
>> >BIOS doesn't detect an OS. The person I got it from said it was working
>> >many years ago when it was switched off. Do ST506 crash easily?
>>
>> More easily than newer drives I'd imagine.
>>
>> Check all connections, card seating and contact cleanliness.  Any chips
>> should be checked for creep making sure they are seated properly.
>>
>> >
>> >I also have boot floppies, which are "Xenix 3.1f Upgrade+" but they have
>> >too many errors on then to be useful.
>> >
>> >If anybody has some OS for this thing.. it should run MS-DOS, CP/M 86,
>> >Xenix and MP/M 86.
>> >
>> >On a related note, how compatible is a DSDD 96tpi floppy drive with a
>> >'current' floppy drive?
>>
>> Not sure what you mean here.  Your system probably has a 360K floppy drive
>> (DSDD).  You can read them fine on 1.2Meg (DSHD) 5.25" drives, however
>> writing with a DSHD drive to a DSDD medium writes a narrow track...  if
>> the disk you are writing to is magnetically clean, then it should work
>fine,
>> but it generally considered better to write 360K disks on 360K drives.
>> Also, never format a DSDD 5.25" disk to DSHD, or format a DSHD diskette
>> at DSDD format.... data loss will result, if not right away, very soon...
>> 3.5" floppy disks were much more robust in tolerating using the wrong
>> format on the wrong medium.
>>
>> >
>> >Cheers,
>> >Walter.
>> >--
>> >Walter Belgers         "Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus
>> >walter at belgers.com       Latinis alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!"
>> >_______________________________________________
>> >rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
>>
>> -- Curt
>>
>> Curtis Wilbar
>> Hawk Mountain Networks
>> rescue at hawkmountain.net
>>
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Curtis Wilbar
Hawk Mountain Networks
rescue at hawkmountain.net

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