Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!matai.vuw.ac.nz!ctl.co.nz!mof.govt.nz!wanda!hendricp
From: hendricp@wanda.waiariki.ac.nz (Peter Hendricks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Stuck with 3.5's when I only have 5.25
Message-ID: <124.2719900e@wanda.waiariki.ac.nz>
Date: 14 Oct 90 22:31:41 GMT
References: <14422.27130f51@max.u.washington.edu> <90285.143630CHAS@MTUS5.BITNET> <1990Oct13.160534.23139@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Lines: 18

In article <1990Oct13.160534.23139@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>, stephenc@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Stephen Chung) writes:
> Hi,
> 
> My machine has a 3.5" high density drive.  However, it does not read low
> density 3.5" disks formatted for 720K.  It only reads 1.44M disk format.
> Any reason why?  The 5.25" HD drive reads both 1.2M and 360K...

Most likely you have one of those drives that don't have the density sensor.
You probably know that 1.44 disks have a second hole.  I have struck a
Mitsubishi drive that didn't have the sensor for this hole.  It tries to read a
1.44 disk, and that fails, of course.

Try using DOS's DRIVER.SYS with default parameters. You may be able to access
720k disks on that drive with a different drive letter then.

Before buying 1.44 drives, it pays to check whether they have the sensor.

Peter