Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!sigma
From: sigma@jec302.its.rpi.edu (Kevin J Martin)
Subject: Re: Can I Low Level Format my MFM drive with 17 < SECTORS < 26 ?
Message-ID: <_F==DQ+@rpi.edu>
Nntp-Posting-Host: jec302.its.rpi.edu
References: <5832@trantor.harris-atd.com> <1991Mar16.022315.28142@digi.lonestar.org> <5855@trantor.harris-atd.com> <1991Mar19.185406.29567@digi.lonestar.org>
Date: 21 Mar 91 05:22:35 GMT
Lines: 16

kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org (Kevin Gallagher) writes:
>IBM first came out with floppies with 8 sectors per track and later
>upgraded to 9 sectors per track on 5.25 inch drives.

Just to nitpick, that modification was made by DOS 2.0 with NO HARDWARE
CHANGES.  You could format 180K on single-sided 5.25" disks - the original
drives that came with IBM-PCs.  The difference was that DOS 2.0 installed a
different drive parameter block, specifying smaller gaps between sectors
(and improved timing parameters, too) and other technical details.

Such an approach isn't available with hard drives, however - the hardware
definitely handles the high-speed data encoding needed.

-- 
Kevin Martin
sigma@rpi.edu