Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!brown
From: brown@nicmad.UUCP (Mr. Video)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Formatting and writing 360K diskettes with 1.2M drive.
Message-ID: <2977@nicmad.UUCP>
Date: 4 Aug 88 22:25:34 GMT
References: <11069@cgl.ucsf.EDU>
Reply-To: brown@nicmad.UUCP (Mr. Video)
Distribution: na
Organization: Mr. Video's Hangout
Lines: 25

In article <11069@cgl.ucsf.EDU> kneller@socrates.ucsf.edu.UUCP (Don Kneller) writes:
<I know this has been hashed around a few times, but I seem to recall that
<there is a software package that will allow reliable formatting and writing
<of 360K diskettes on a 1.2M drive.  [...]

The problem with 360K on 1.2M drives is hardware not software.  The track
is 50% smaller.  The head only writes 1/2 the amount of data flux changes.
(I'm not sure how it erases the previous 360K normal width track portion
that was used.)  Some 360K drives just can't read the flux density changes,
because they just aren't "loud" enough.  I had to put a 360K drive into
my Compaq 386/16 because I couldn't reliably write 360K diskettes for another
machine.  Sometimes it would work, but mostly it wouldn't.  And the other
machine has two 360K drives.

It is a problem that hounts us here.  Some Compaq 386 machines have 1.44M,
3.5" drives as drive B:, while fewer machines have 360K drives as drive B:.
Some other marketing ATs only have the 360K, because they have to send
some diskettes out to the field and they only have 360K machines.  That way
we were sure it would work.

It has been a real hassle for me.
-- 
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