Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!cybrspc!roy
From: roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Formatting a 1.44 MB disk to 720 kB - not so easy!
Message-ID: <L03024w164w@cybrspc>
Date: 21 May 91 03:52:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: cybrspc.L03024w164w
References: <1777@giaea.gi.oz>
Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN
Lines: 24

doug@giaea.gi.oz (Douglas Thomson) writes:

> Under MS-DOS 3.3, the format option required to format a low density disk
> in a high density drive is /n:9. The command would be:
>     C:\>format b: /n:9
> 
> However, if you try this with a high density disk DOS responds with:
>     Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable
>     Format failure
> [that nice high density disk just isn't good enough for low density work :-)]

Not always so, it would appear.  I just fed a blank HD floppy into my
3.5" drive, and used 'pcformat a: /f:720' to format it 9 sectors, 80
tracks.  I didn't cover the HD indicator hole, either.

For the record, it's PCFormat 4.30, a Taiwan HD controller in my XT (also
Taiwan, with DTK bios), and an Orchid 286 card. (yeah, it's a kludge,
but what the hay... she runs and she's paid for :-) DOS 3.30 and 4dos
3.03.

--
Roy M. Silvernail --  roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu - OR-  cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu
  perl -e '$x = 1/20; print "Just my \$$x! (adjusted for inflation)\n"'
        [space reserved for clever quote]{mail your submissions}