Reading NorthStar Horizon hard sector disks on PC

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: Reading NorthStar Horizon hard sector disks on PC
>   From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
>   Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:18:41 -0700
>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>On 31 Jul 2007 at 9:53, Dave Dunfield wrote:
>
>> Also, the N* disks are hard-sectored. This means that the controller
>> needs to see the individual holes to know where each sector data
>> starts. The PC disk controller has no means to aligning individual
>> sector data to index holes, even if it could see the sector data.
>
>Not all Northstar diskettes are HS.  One of the models (Advantage?) 
>isn't--and it's that format that the Microsolutions MatchPoint will 
>read, not the others.  It's been too long since I've seen the darned 
>things...

Error!  Advanatge is the same format as the MDS [Aka Horizon) and does
both SD and DD formats.  Least mine does.

I believe there was an aftermarket board that would fit the Advantage
bus (non S100) to provide things like a soft sector FDC. There was 
also a hard disk controller.


Allison

>
>Cheers,
>Chuck