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From: rt@lexicon.com (Robert Tillman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: 1.44M vs 720K floppy compatibility
Summary: Are they?
Message-ID: <582@lexicon.com>
Date: 4 May 90 15:07:54 GMT
Reply-To: rt@lexicon.UUCP (Robert Tillman)
Organization: Lexicon Inc. Waltham, MA
Lines: 18

Since 1.2M and 360k 5.25" floppies are somewhat compatible, I bought a
1.44 meg 3.5" floppy drive for my AT clone (12Mhz, AMI bios) thinking
that that I could use it transfer files between my machine and a
machine with a 720K drive.  I was wrong!  When I try a "format /4" on
my machine, it responds with something like "drive doesn't support
this format".  When I try to read a disk formatted and written on a
machine with a 720K drive, I get the old "Abort, Retry, Fail?"
message.

Is it at all possible to do what I want to do?  Do some 1.44M drives
support 720K format, and others don't?  Is "/4" the right format
switch to use?  Is this a controller problem?  Should I give up?

Please email.  Will summarize + post if...etc.  Thanks for your help.

- Bob Tillman
rt@lexicon.com
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