Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen
From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 360K Disks Formatted on 1.2M Drives read on 360K Drives
Message-ID: <1078@sixhub.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jun 90 02:32:36 GMT
References: <3426@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <1990Jun4.170105.4401@cbnewsc.att.com>
Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY
Lines: 28

In article <1990Jun4.170105.4401@cbnewsc.att.com> tjr@cbnewsc.att.com (thomas.j.roberts) writes:

| I am puzzled by your problems.
| 
| I do this all the time, and have NEVER had a problem or a read-error.
| I have transferred data from a 1.2Meg drive to a 360kb drive at least
| 50 separate times, without a single error. 

  It makes no diference that you have done it many time, nor that it
failed for someone else. The practice leads to machine dependent
failures, because the track laid down by the 1.2 drive is half as wide
(actually a bit less) than the track read by the 360. With the right
drive allignment, right media, etc, it will work just fine. Without it
you will have some degree of errors.

  What you want to do is to bulk erase the disk, then format in a 1.2,
and read in 360. If you can't do that, format as 720 (if you have 3.3 or
later) and then as 360. This lays some predictable stuff down on the
other half track. There are programs which lay real "silence" on the
alternate half tracks, and these work for some people.

  The heart of the matter is that for best results you write on a 360k
drive.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me