Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mcdchg!chinet!chaz
From: chaz@chinet.chi.il.us (Charlie Kestner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Making a floppy drive ignore high density hole
Message-ID: <1990Jul23.045347.1597@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 23 Jul 90 04:53:47 GMT
References: <1990Jul19.021714.10040@world.std.com> <803@digi.lonestar.org> <1361@wet.UUCP>
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Lines: 30

In article <1361@wet.UUCP> rick@wet.UUCP (Rick Rutledge) writes:
>Matthew Frohman writes:

  [stuff deleted]

>
>
>If the disks have a hole in them, they were manufactured with high-density
>media in them (unless you've found a mfr. who is totally ignorant of the
>standard).  It would be in your best interest to use disks at the `density`
>for which they were manufactured, but that's up to you.
>
>Rick Rutledge        {hoptoad|ucsfcca|claris}!wet!rick            rick@wet.UUCP

  This was hashed out on Compuserve over a year ago.
  Unlike the 5.25" disks, the low-density and high-density 3.5"
disks are VERY close to each other in terms of recording sensitivity.
(Low-density=600 oersteds, High-density=630 oersteds.)
  The person who had put this up (I no longer have the message avail-
able) had called various floppy manufacturers, and asked their engineers
"If the sensitivities are SO close, can't you simply format the low-
 density as high-density?"
"Welllllllll...we really can't SAY that."
  It's pretty much a given that 3.5 l-d disks will function perfectly
as h-d disks (although there is always that "little voice in the back
of your mind"...).
  In any event, since one can get 3.5" HD from places like MEI Micro
for $ 0.89, I don't know why anyone'd bother with that hole-punching
business anymore.  (And if you DON'T punch, it gets kinda tricky to
try to give someone else a disk.)