Re: [NTLK] Formatting & Erasing Linear Flash Cards

John,

First of all, thank you for taking the time to reply. I greatly appreciate
your feedback.

Now, I am a bit confused by what you wrote in your first paragraph. You are
basically saying that it is impossible for a Mac or PC to format any linear
card and have it work in the Newton. If that is so, then that would mean
all Linear cards would have had to be especially formatted for the Apple
Newton, otherwise they would not work. That would in turn mean that only a
select few vendors would have ever sold such flash cards. That would also
mean that anyone trying to buy a linear flash card today could only find
one's on EBAY, sold by someone who has a "magically formatted card" that
will work on the Newton. It just seems hard for me to see that is the truth
here.

You then say that all modern computer PC card slots are 3.x volts whereas
the Newton is 5v. My linear card says it is 5v, that's true. And indeed,
it worked great for me for two years, so I know that voltage issue to be
true. But the fact is, the friend of my friend was able to erase this card
just fine (not format, which we tried but could not do because the MCE
software wouldn't let us). I'm not sure of the voltage of his PC card slot,
but his computer is about 8 years old.

And so where does that leave us? Did Apple really sell a special "card
formatter" device to its Newton dealers for the purpose of formatting linear
flash? I don't see how one could use just any linear flash if John is
correct about PCs and Macs not being able to format cards in a way that the
Newton can read.

Any further advice would be appreciated. With all the experts on this list,
I have little doubt that someone out there must know. Because really, most
of use use linear cards, right? And am I to believe that I alone have ever
experienced such a problem? I doubt it. So please chime in if you have
some suggestions. Even so, I'm finding a real dearth of info on this
subject, even after much Googling.

Thank you!

James Wages

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Received on Mon Aug 4 23:31:51 2008