Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!boulder!sunybcs!rutgers!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!oberon!cit-vax!tim
From: tim@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Timothy L. Kay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: new floppy format proposal
Message-ID: <4289@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Sun, 25-Oct-87 01:44:42 EST
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.4289
Posted: Sun Oct 25 01:44:42 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Oct-87 01:38:46 EST
Reply-To: tim@cit-vax.UUCP (Timothy L. Kay)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 22

It seems to me that when I format a double-density floppy on a high-
density system, the first half of the tracks always format OK.  This
is because the actual cylinders are longer on the outside of the disk
compared to the inside of the disk, so the media density is greater.
After about 60-70 tracks, lots of bad sectors start showing up.  Because
of this, I am reluctant to use low-density floppies formatted as high-
density floppies. 

Here is a new idea which is mine.  My idea, which now follows is my idea. :-)

How about defining a new floppy format where the outside of the disk is
formatted high-density, and the inside is formatted low-density.  This
way, you should be able to comfortably and reliably pack about 800k-1000k
of data on the dirt-cheap floppies.  All you would need to do is rewrite
the DOS block device driver to recognize this special format automatically.

Any comments?

Is there anybody out there sufficiently familiar with all the necessary
stuff to do what I recommend?

Tim