Master Diskette 3 DX5052

[cubelindo]

Hi there,

 

I just found a smal sealed bag with five 5.25" disks. The first one is labelled "Master Diskette 3 - Atari DX5052"

 

I have no idea why or how I got those - I have no Atari computers (just consoles) so I have no use for them

But I want to know what they are (It's some kind of DOS version), but the other 4 disks? Should I open them?

I'd rather sell them at the next retro meeting so I wouldn't like to open them if it's quite straightforward that is a full DOS set or something like that

 

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

[+orpheuswaking]

DOS 3.0 comes on one disk, so it's either 5 copies of that, or a pcak of 5 different pieces of software. Only one way to find out.

 

If it's 5 copied of DOS 3 then it's not worth to much as it's the least desirable of the DOS versions. If it's 5 different pieces of software there might be a little more interest.

[cubelindo]

DOS 3.0 comes on one disk, so it's either 5 copies of that, or a pcak of 5 different pieces of software. Only one way to find out.

 

If it's 5 copied of DOS 3 then it's not worth to much as it's the least desirable of the DOS versions. If it's 5 different pieces of software there might be a little more interest.

 

I was - of course 5 - copies of DOS 3

[+orpheuswaking]

Well I'm sure someone will take them off your hands if only for the disks themselves. If you were in the US I'd throw you a few bucks and shipping.

[BillC]

Hi there,

 

I just found a smal sealed bag with five 5.25" disks. The first one is labelled "Master Diskette 3 - Atari DX5052"

 

I have no idea why or how I got those - I have no Atari computers (just consoles) so I have no use for them

But I want to know what they are (It's some kind of DOS version), but the other 4 disks? Should I open them?

I'd rather sell them at the next retro meeting so I wouldn't like to open them if it's quite straightforward that is a full DOS set or something like that

 

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Either B&C or Best, possibly both, used to sell surplus DOS 3 disks at lower prices than blank floppies, this is likely what you have.

[+bf2k+]

I've got 2 10-packs of them here - I think I got them from B&C. They are just blanks to me

[carmel_andrews]

Unless you have some programs or data written specifically in dos3 format, i suggest you get dos 2.5 (or spartados) and format the dos3 disks...then you'll have some fresh blank disks

[Nukey Shay]

The OP mentioned having no use for them (no computer)

 

Regarding the question of value: The DOS was included in the first run of 1050's, and Atari sold some on the side...so the disk is as common as dirt. Only useful as a non-HD disk (those are getting rarer as time goes on) to format with some other DOS.

[OldAtarian]

DOS 3 originally came with the 1050 disk drives but it uses a very inefficient format that wastes a lot of space. The sectors are huge and if you have a file that goes just one bit over a sector boundary the entire sector is marked as used even though it is mostly empty. Multiply this by several files and the wasted space really adds up especially with small files as every file takes up a minimum of one full sector no matter how small it is.

[walter_J64bit]

DOS 3 originally came with the 1050 disk drives but it uses a very inefficient format that wastes a lot of space. The sectors are huge and if you have a file that goes just one bit over a sector boundary the entire sector is marked as used even though it is mostly empty. Multiply this by several files and the wasted space really adds up especially with small files as every file takes up a minimum of one full sector no matter how small it is.

oh, I didn't know how DOS 3 wasted space, I didn't use DOS 3 much back in the day, everone was using 2.x so I just went the flow.

[Nukey Shay]

It's file management system (FMS) allocated 1024-byte "blocks" instead of sectors. So if a file was 1025 bytes long, 1023 bytes would be wasted on the disk. Dos 2 compatables only wasted 127 bytes maximum.

[qix_maniac]

I've got 2 10-packs of them here - I think I got them from B&C. They are just blanks to me

 

I have 5 packs myself of 10ea...the cool thing about them is the atari logo sleeves not dos