Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ukma!xanth!ames!bionet!agate!usenet
From: marquis@qal.qal.berkeley.edu (Roger Marquis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Modified drives (Was: 3.5" Disk "notcher" wanted)
Message-ID: <1989Aug22.151518.19636@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 22 Aug 89 15:15:18 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 31

>In article <13809@netnews.upenn.edu> wist@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Bundy Wist) writes:
>>Another solution for you hardware hackers is to actually bypass the switch
>>sensor that looks for the 1.4/720 hole. On my TEAC 1.4M, this switch is just
>>opposite the write protect switch.
>
  I made a functionally equivalent hardware modification to my Toshiba
drive by simply cutting the pin that senses the high/low density hole
with a Swiss Army knife. Why should I let my drive decide which format
I want?

>>of the notches in it. No probs as of yet (except no other "normal" 3.5"
>>drives can read my 1.4M disks because they are still in the 720K shell---
>
In article <1827@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu> kubla@uiuc.edu (Kubla Khan) writes:
>This is precisely why I chose to return the jumper to its normal setting - 
>what good is a floppy disk if only _I_ can make use of it? That's what I have
>a hard disk for! I want floppies so that I can transport files to other
>machines. Of course, this is only my own preference - I'm sure you have your
>reasons for not wanting to take floppies you write on your system over to
>your office or a friend's house... :-)
>
  If you feel the need to reduce your options fine. The rest of us
don't need to spend nearly twice the money for disks whose only
advantage is a strategically placed 2mm hole. Not only have I never
heard of a "low density" diskette failing to hold 1.44MB but drives
that check for the hole are rare and getting rarer every day. If I
bought a drive that had a "density" sensor I would return it as
_defective_.

	Roger
		marquis@qal.berkeley.edu