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From: dca@toylnd.UUCP (David C. Albrecht)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: HD floppies
Message-ID: <315@toylnd.UUCP>
Date: 8 Mar 90 07:57:38 GMT
References: <1990Mar5.205252.28816@Neon.Stanford.EDU> <90065.140254JAM160@psuvm.psu.edu>
Lines: 23

In article <90065.140254JAM160@psuvm.psu.edu>, JAM160@psuvm.psu.edu (James MacKenzie) writes:
> In article <1990Mar5.205252.28816@Neon.Stanford.EDU>, rokicki@Neon.Stanford.EDU
> (Tomas G. Rokicki) says:
> >
> >Do not use HD floppies in a normal Amiga floppy drive.  The HD disks are
> >*different*---different magnetic properties.  They will work---to a point.
> >Your data isn't worth it, and the DD are cheaper anyway.
> >
> Sorry, Tom, but there is NO difference in the magnetic media of HD and DD
> 3-1/2" disks...in fact, you can take a DD 3-1/2" disk and put a hole in
> it where the extra one is on a HD, and it will work.
> 

Well, that doesn't really prove anything.  Having it work and having it work
well are two different things.  I haven't tried this particular economy
myself (though I've seen plenty of ads for hole punchers) but, last I
read was that while it would work fairly reliably as long as you use the
same drive they tend to be flakey going from one drive to another.  If true,
this is bad enough behavior to make it an unwise economy in my eyes.  I
would have nightmares about my current drive going belly up and the
replacement being unable to read a significant portion of my disks.

David Albrecht