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From: goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Formatting 3.5" Diskette
Message-ID: <7439@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Date: 12 Jan 90 19:46:46 GMT
Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA
Lines: 31


In article <25acfdbc.507@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>, jdudeck@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (John R. Dudeck) writes...
>Interestingly, some systems (e.g. American Mitac 286) automatically detect
>whether you have inserted a 720k or 1.44m diskette in the drive, and format
>accordingly.  Others (such as my no-name clone) do not.  I suspect that
>either it is a difference in the FORMAT routine sold with the version of
>DOS that you have bought, or else it is related to the BIOS support, or both.

I momentarily thought it a disadvantage when my clone didn't notice that 
the disk I tried to format had no HD hole, and went bonkers with errors.
Then I realized that this arrangement had two advantages.  One, I can 
use DD disks as HD without punching additional holes.  They sell devices 
for $27 to do this; see Computer Shopper for the "Crackpot Engineer".  
Two, it provides a wonderful "torture test" on DD diskettes.  The Very 
Best of them should be able to handle it, but most won't format right.
The outer (first) tracks always do well, but the inner tracks don't.
How far you get and how many bad sectors you get probably tells you 
about how good the disk is.

F'rinstance, a no-name bulk-erased 50 cent DSDD disk, formatted in HD 
mode, had more bad than good sectors (what a painful noise the drive 
made!).  A Maxell "Reliable/Durable" DD disk got about 1.1M, not so
bad.  Any suggestions for whose DD disks really work HD?

Of course, this also tells me that the people selling hole punches
are chalatans!
     fred
---
Fred R. Goldstein   goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com 
                 or goldstein@delni.enet.dec.com
                    voice:  +1 508 486 7388