Machine Disk
Floppy disks are available in a variety of formats. The word format is a confusing term that is both a noun (ex., the disk format is FMC) and a verb (ex., format the disk to FMC). It is important to understand that the format of a disk is related to not only the machine make and manufacturer, but also the technology that was available at the time the format was created.
A disk format can be best described as a language. When you format a disk you are teaching the disk to speak the chosen language. If a disk is formatted in FMC, for example, you cannot talk to it in DOS. When reading or writing to these types of diskettes it is important to understand the limitations of each. |
Note Do not use DS/HD disks for formats that require DS/DDdisks. There are claims that these disks will work if a piece of tape is placed over the opening on the diskette. This can cause irreparable damage to your floppy drives. |
Some of the very early disk formats were written in FM (Frequency Modulation). These disks were 5 1/4 inch in diameter, their capacity was 360 KB. You may have seen one of these drives on old 286 or 386 computers. The term Floppy disk was coined due to the flexible nature of these old disks. The FM format was carried over into the next generation of floppies, the 3 1/2 inch as we have today. The original 3.5 inch floppies were much improved over the original 5 1/4 design. Not only were they smaller in size, data could be written to both sides, and the density of the data was doubled. The capacity of these disks jumped to 720KB. Being housed in a rigid plastic case this disk was more durable though not nearly as flexible as the old 5 1/4. The 3.5 inch disk is still referred to as a floppy none the less.
About this time, engineers were working on ways to package their data onto these disks. Several different formats emerged including, but not limited to, Apple, DR DOS, CPM and others. The Barudan and Zang machine companies based their new machine languages on the CPM format. While Tajima and Melco chose the MS DOS format. As we all know now, the story of Microsoft's dominance in the computer software business resulted in making all other formats obsolete as far as PC users are concerned. The 720KB DS/DD disk was replaced by the 1.44MB DS/HD diskette.
With the release of Windows XP, Microsoft has ceased supporting the 720 DS/DD diskettes. Many PC's purchased today do not have floppy drives, and external USB drives do not support the CPM formats. If you need to access these older disks, ensure any pc you purchase has an internal disk drive. Still, whether or not it will work with the older disks is not guaranteed. The only way to really tell is to actually try to read an FMC. FDR. or ZSK formatted diskette.
But, as luck would have it, embroidery machines have outlived the formats that were designed to run them. Therefore, we the software provider must maintain compatibility. An FMC or FDR Diskette is not compatible with MS DOS and thus cannot be read by MS DOS or any Windows version. Embroidery software manufacturers have developed their own programs over the years to make the Windows machines read, write and format these old languages. But, as the computer evolves and hardware changes, compatibility with the old formats becomes more difficult. Many computers available today cannot by any means, recognize a CPM formatted disk.
Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Full featured Documentation generator