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From: cirian@einstein.eds.com (Steve Cirian)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: TECHNICAL ?'s ABOUT 1.44M FLOPPIES
Summary: y
Keywords: 1.44M floppies
Message-ID: <355@einstein.eds.com>
Date: 15 Feb 91 23:02:14 GMT
References: <1991Feb12.215709.17456@coplex.uucp>
Organization: EDS/TSD - Troy, MI
Lines: 27

In article <1991Feb12.215709.17456@coplex.uucp>, dannie@coplex.uucp (Dannie Gregoire) writes:
> I have been trying to find some information on the hardware differences
> between 720K and 1.44M floppies.  Specifically, what are the differences
> in the pin outs (and signals sent to the PC) between the drive's connectors.
> 
> What signal (if any) is sent to the PC when the drive detects that a high
> densisty has been inserted.

As far as I know, the pinouts would be the same.  The way the computer
knows what density the drive supports is through the BIOS setup.  The 1.44 MB
drives also support 720K, but I am not sure which pin the signal would be sent
on when the drive senses a high density or low density floppy.

I am sure this has been covered in this group before, but I am relatively new to
it, so please forgive me if it has:  It is possible to use a low density floppy
in a high density drive, if you punch a hole in the appropriate place.  I have
seen advertisements for a device that will punch a hole in your floppy to 
enable it to be written to at the higher density, I don't know if I would
trust floppies so modified with mission-critical data.  The media IS different.)

Steve Cirian

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