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From: stephen@corp.telecom.co.nz (Richard Stephen)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Disk space for FREE (was Re: super high density formatters)
Message-ID: <1990Nov18.100239.10040@corp.telecom.co.nz>
Date: 18 Nov 90 10:02:39 GMT
References: <1990Nov16.035524.22022@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <4319@ruuinf.cs.ruu.nl> <17184@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Sender: stephen@corp.telecom.co.nz (Richard Stephen)
Reply-To: stephen@corp.telecom.co.nz (Richard Stephen)
Organization: Telecom Corporation of New Zealand
Lines: 58

In <17184@hydra.gatech.EDU> scott@kong.gatech.edu (Scott Coulter) writes:


>>tab), and format it to HD. This way you gain 100% disk space for FREE!!!
>>[...]
>>it is perfectly safe (I did this
>>to about 60 disks, and they did not give one format/read/write/... error at
>all!. The only recomendation I have is that you should use GOOD disks (3M or
>
>I have no doubt that this worked fine on your machine, but have you used
>those disks extensively on a machine other than the one they were
>formatted on?  I find that this is where you usually run into trouble
>when formatting DD disks as HD.  Has anyone else experienced this?

To add my $0.02 worth, I have been doing exactly what hrbaan@praxis.cs.ruu.nl
(Hayo Baan) has been doing with the same success on something over 30
disks with no problems encountered using them (reading/writing) on other
machines.

Back in the February 1989 BYTE, page 30, there is an advert from an outfit
called Biological Engineering Inc, Co. (In Co - (303) 872 8945 or
800-537-4226) that advertised a "Double Disk Converter". I sent for one of
these gadgets ($29.95 + $3.50 s&h) to see what it was all about. I use it
to punch the 2nd hole. The device is simply a pressesd metal plate with a
spring loaded handle that pushes a hollow-ground steel tool the size of
existing hole throught the case. Creates a neat hole with note ragged bits
to drop into the case. It also does not load or distort the disc case.

The advert says they checked out the media of both 720k and 1.44 MB discs
and found no difference. They say they tested a 1000 discs and only one
would not format and two had one bad track but none lost any data.

I think the "no difference in the media" statement could be debated a
while. In principle, I'm inclinded to agree if you view it from a disc
manufacturer's point of view. It would be horribly expensive to run two
production lines, but if you run one production and test *every* disc as
it comes off the line with a special rigorous test for 1.44 MB media
integrity, you have "guaranteed" 1.44 MB discs and the failures are, after
quality checks your 720 K discs. Sound reasonable ?

Connected with this thread, I have an interesting extra. I use a Sun 386i
mostly at work. This has a 1.44 MB capable floppy that can be accessed by
both SunOS and DOS. Under DOS - the drive recognises the modified discs
and generally does not complain. I say generally, because I have had one
disc that won't format, and one disc that wouldn't read one day, but was
Ok the the next !. However, if you try to format a modified disc under
SunOS - no way ! SunOS won't touch it. This I find really wierd. It is the
same physical drive, but different software drivers. What is it that the DOS
BIOS will accept that the SunOS /dev/rfd0 driver coughs on ?

I guess I'm a satisfied customer. I've modified Verbatim and xidex discs.
Moral - caveat emptor !

============================ Richard Stephen ===============================
|   Technology Strategy             |      email: stephen@corp.telecom.co.nz
|   Telecom Corporation of NZ Ltd   |      voice: +64-4-823 180
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