On 07/16/2018 06:40 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > On 8", notch is write protect; no notch is write enabled. > on 5.25", notch is write enabled; no notch is write protected. > I think that that justifies calling the 8" a "write protect notch", and > calling the 5.25" a "write enable notch". > Used 8" drives that I got sometimes had write-enable tabs in them that > had fallen off. Once out of the enclosure, you did not need tiny > fingers to work on 8" drives.
Well, it's a matter of half-full/half-empty. The 5.25" notch was always called write-protect, so go figure. I've got a few old 5.25" DSDD floppies with a very clover adaptation--they use a little aluminum slider in the jacket so that one doesn't have deal with finding sticky things for protection. The placement of the 5.25" notch, under whatever terminology--on the jacket *side* was very convenient. It was possible to poll the sensor to detect disk insertion/removal without the need for powering the spindle motor. I coded some stuff up in the late 70s for a "Put that back!" alarm when the disk contained files open for writing. I've got some 3M-branded 8" notched floppies that came with a strip of transparent *red* stick-ons. The result was that even when applied, the disk to some drives was still write-protected. Very frustrating the first time encountered. --Chuck
