Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!maccs!cs4g6ag From: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Formatting 1.2 Meg disks to 360K question Message-ID: <25A7C5BB.14759@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> Date: 7 Jan 90 22:42:02 GMT References: <3226@ucrmath.UCR.EDU> Reply-To: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn) Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Lines: 30 In article <3226@ucrmath.UCR.EDU> lulu@ucrmath.UUCP (david lu) writes: $I just tried to format some 1.2 Meg, high density disks in my $360K drive (as 360K), and I got the following error message: $ Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable $Now, I know that I can't format 360K disks to 1.2 Meg in a $1.2 Meg drive, but why can't I format 1.2 Meg disks to 360K $in a 360K drive? I thought that "blank" disks are just that $-- blank. They can be reformatted as long as the density is $"thick" enought, right? As you found out, trying to use 1.2M diskettes as 360K disks doesn't work. I don't know the physical reason for this, but trust me - don't do it. Even if you can get them to format, they won't last long before you start getting a lot - and I mean a _lot_ - of errors on them. As for doing it the other way round (buying 360K disks and formatting them at 1.2M), I don't recommend it either. I've found that I can typically get 700-800K on such a disk using PCTools PCFORMAT - the outer tracks can handle the higher density, but the inner ones can't and have large numbers of bad sectors. Fine, so what's the problem, you say? After a fairly short while, these disks begin to experience large numbers of errors, too. BTW, why would you want to use expensive (HD) disks when cheaper (DD) ones will suffice? -- Stephen M. Dunn cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n"; **************************************************************************** If it's true that love is only a game//Well, then I can play pretend