Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!dpz
From: dpz@athos.rutgers.edu (David P. Zimmerman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Formatting 720K/ERSO BIOS
Message-ID: <850@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 88 20:36:25 GMT
References: <3894@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> <207@mccc.UUCP>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 19

In article <207@mccc.UUCP> pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg) writes:

> I have a 3.5" 720K on my XT clone (put it there last fall) and I seem to
> recall that FORMAT B: would produce but 360K (no banging).  I believe
> I had to format it as F: (I have 2 HDs and a ramdisk for C:, D:, E:) to get
> 720K.  Actually, I now use PCTools formatter and that works on B: directly.

I wonder if a different BIOS might help.  I've got an Ultra-Comp 10MHz
XT clone with only a single 3.5" drive, and am having the same problem
as you.  FORMAT A: (or B:, doesn't matter) produces the most wonderful
360K disk with no banging, but nothing more.  I can even get a 180K
disk if I ask nicely (with the /1 option).  I am also running with
an ERSO BIOS, version 2.39 of 1986.  This is REAL fishy to me, noting
previous comments about funky behavior using "old" versions of ERSO,
and I begin to wonder if mine is "new" or "old", and if switchng to
another version (or brand) might help things.
-- 
David P. Zimmerman, Rutgers University Center for Computer and Info Services
Internet: dpz@rutgers.edu     UUCP: rutgers!dpz     Bitnet: zimmerman@zodiac