Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!ames!ncar!umigw!mthvax.cs.miami.edu!wb8foz From: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Formatting 1.2 Meg disks to 360K question Message-ID: <1479@umigw.MIAMI.EDU> Date: 14 Jan 90 01:19:53 GMT References: <3226@ucrmath.UCR.EDU> <7715@nigel.udel.EDU> Sender: news@umigw.MIAMI.EDU Reply-To: wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) Lines: 23 >This would imply that 1.2M drives cannot write data on 360K disks, but >people do this all the time. >The problem with formatting 1.2M floppies at 360K is the difference >in the width of the recording heads. Alas, more half facts. A little RTFMing would disclose that 1.2 meg drives change not just rotational speed when working with 360k diskettes, but write current, too. That's how they cope with the different permeability. See, for example, the schematic for the drives, or the controller. This does not, of course, solve the head width problem. It does solve the problem of writing to the 360k diskettes at all. -- A host is a host & from coast to coast...wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu no one will talk to a host that's close..............(305) 255-RTFM Unless the host (that isn't close)......................pob 570-335 is busy, hung or dead....................................33257-0335