Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!pacbell!ditka!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: ??HELP?? DOS 3.3: How to format 1.44 MB ?
Message-ID: <1439@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jun 89 00:51:58 GMT
References: <330001@hpbblb.bbn.hp.com>
Reply-To: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Rick's Home Grown Unix; Portland, OR
Lines: 37

In article <330001@hpbblb.bbn.hp.com> peteru@hpbblb.bbn.hp.com (#Peter Uhlemann) writes:
<I've got an AT clone with a 1.2 MB drive (A) and a 1.44 MB drive (B).
<They are correctly configured in the setup. But anyway I can only read, 
<write and format 720 MB floppies in the 1.44 MB drive. 
<I have no special settings or drivers in config.sys.
<The floppies I tried are really high-density ones.
<
<What could be the problem? I heard some rumours that this is a general DOS
<problem. BTW, I am running DOS 3.3.

Well, I run DOS 3.3 ( actually Compaq 3.31) and and the same setup
(1.2 meg A, 1.44 Meg B). The only time I have trouble is if the floppy
isn't a hd floppy. All HD floppies have a hole opposit the write-protect
hole that indicates to the hardware that they are HD disks.

The most likely possibility is that the density select jumper on the drive
is set wrong. On my drive there are 3 possible settings:
software selectable
normal (default setting)
reversed
 
With software selectable, the drive will ignore the HD sensor on the drive.
With normal, it will only write in HD mode if the HD hole is present on the
disk. With reverse, it would write in HD mode only if the hole was *missing*!

Try formatting a NON-hd disk and see what happens. If you can format it to
1.44 meg, then you need to get the jumper moved. Note that both IBM PS/2s
and Compaq 286/SLTs have their drives set to "software select".

FORMAT B: /N:18 should format to 1.44 (the /N:18 *should* be optional!)
FORMAT B: /N:9  should format to 720k (the /N:9 *shouldn't* be opitional)

-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short