🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1hohvbINNr47@crcnis1.unl.edu>, vporguen@unlinfo.unl.edu (victor porguen) writes:
> jenk@microsoft.com (Jen Kilmer) writes:
> 
....
> >known about windows 3.1. Windows 3.0 shipped on writable disks; windows 3.1
> >(and the ms-dos 5 upgrade, and most new products being released) are shipped
> >on "permanently" write-protected disks.  
> 
> Of course, backup disks and "backup disks" are not so 
> write-protected... 
> 
> >From a support standpoint, this is seriously cool (unless the user cut
> >a notch in a set of 5.25"s, no viruses, no accidently-deleted-the-file-we
> >-need, etc :)
> 
> Just copy the disk and you have an infectable medium.

a side question....

Is the drive write line hardware gated by the write enable or
is it just another signal passed to the drive controller? I know
when I used to do subsystem design, most of the disk controller
chips could be forced to write regardless of the state of the
write protect. It was up to the device driver to ensure that the
controller was initialized and the protect/enable was set up 
properly (I think that the main reason was to allow the designer 
to change the function of the 'tab' from 'write protect' to 'write 
enable'. To be honest, I still think of the PC as being 'the wrong 
way around'. Too many years of write enable tabs, I guess. :) 

Anyways...the point of my question is can the write protect
on a 'standard' pc/xt/at be disabled with software?

John Benfield
..uunet.ca!attcan!john
john@attcan.att.ca