Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!percy!parsely!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Formatting 720K disks to 1.44 Megs HELP!!
Message-ID: <1818@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 18 Dec 89 00:09:50 GMT
References: <1989Nov27.212809.7241@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1114@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM> <89Nov28.223437est.19733@me.utoronto.ca> <236@watserv1.waterloo.edu> <5941@wpi.wpi.edu> <4180@hydra.gatech.EDU> <21109@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
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Organization: Rick's Home-Grown UNIX; Portland, OR.
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brs@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Stupar R Brian) writes:

<In article <4180@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt3070b@prism.gatech.EDU (Jeff Watkins) writes:
<>
<>Well, about this 720k vs 1.44Meg thing...
<>   With the following equipment & materials I modified my 1.44Meg 3.5" drive
<>to ignore the presence or absence of a small hole on the left side of a disk:


<Another solution to your problem is to find a copy of PcTools'
<disk formatter (pcformat.exe).  Pcformat.exe will format a disk
<to whatever parameters are given, regardless of whether the disk
<has one or two holes.  This is the procedure that I use, and I
<have never had any problems with it.  My 720K disks format to
<1.44Meg every time, without sacrificing reliability.  This
<may be a solution worth considering before you decide to
<rewire your drive.

Sorry, but the inability to format 1.44meg disks (under DOS 3.3 or later)
is *totally* hardware controlled. If the jumper on the drive is set to
check for the second hole, then you will get a hardware error report from
the drive if you try to use a 720k disk as a 1.44M. But it shouldn't
require re-wiring. On Toshiba drives I *know* that it is controlled by a 
jumper on the drive (3 positions: software select, hardware select, 
*reverse* hardware select[!!]). I don't have docs for the Teac drive I'm
about to install, but I'll be experimenting with jumper settings...
if that fails, I'll get a copy of the docs.
-- 
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