Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!bsu-cs!mithomas
From: mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: 1.44M disks
Summary: Be careful...
Message-ID: <5608@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 9 Feb 89 18:55:37 GMT
References: <GREYELF%WPI.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> <8902090912.aa19304@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 36

In article <8902090912.aa19304@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>, SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) writes:
> >Have you checked your prices on blank media yet?
> >1.44 Meg disks have twice the storage capacity, but
> >about $80 for a box of 10, as opposed to $20 for 10
> >for normal 3.5 disks.
> 
> Depending on your nerve (and willingnes to back up what you really can't
> afford to lose) use the $20 disks (we do on our PS/2's all the time, and
> except for the 1 in 30 or 40 that refuses to format at the higher
> density, we haven't had any problems).
> 
> Remember in the "old days" (5 or 6 years ago :-) using the reverse
> side of "single sided diskettes?"  The only difference between the DD
> and the HD (besides the price of course) is the warranty (have you EVER
> sent a disk back and claimed a refund because the disk didn't meet
> warranty specs???? ;-)
> 
> Murph Sewall                       Vaporware? ---> [Gary Larson returns 1/1/90]

You had better be careful here.  First of all, a 1M disk formatted to the
density of a 2M disk will fail much more often, so you had better keep good
backups.  Secondly, Apple's new 1.44M drive does not just blindly format a
disk: it looks to see if there are one or two write-protect notches in the
disk.  If there are two (which you will notice is standard on a 2M disk) it
will allow formatting as a 1.44M disk; if there is only one, it will only
format it at 800K.  The same type deal holds for MS-DOS 1.44M disks.  If you
try to insert a 720K disk formatted at 1.44M into an Apple SuperDrive to
be read by Apple File Exchange, it will not work.

Just a warning...

Michael Niehaus
Apple Student Rep
Ball State University
UUCP: ..!{pur-ee,iuvax}!bsu-cs!mithomas
AppleLink: ST0374