26 Mar
2000
26 Mar
'00
6:16 a.m.
It doesn't matter whether the diskette is a 1.2 MB
one or a 360K type, but
Give us a break! YOU know better!
YES, IT WILL MATTER!
And it is NOT necessary for any idiot to say, "But I use the wrong type of
diskettes all the time."
360K is 300 Oerstedt. 1.2M is 600 Oerstedt.
My personal experience is that using a 600 Eorstedt diskette in a 300
Oerstedt application results in a significantly reduced lifetime for the
data. Sometimes minutes!
the drive which wrote it make a great deal of
difference. 1.2 MB drives can
read 360k diskettes just fine, but you can't expect a drive designed to
operate on half the track width (twice the density) and even more bit
density, to erase the writing of a 48 TPI 360K drive properly. It works OK
the first time, and less well the second ... and so on until it fails
because the residue left behind by the 48tpi drive generates too much noise
for the 96 tpi drive to discriminate between noise and signal.
If you HAVE to use a 1.2M drive to write 360K diskettes, it is best to
start with a virgin disk. And ALWAYS bulk erase it (preferably with a
better bulk eraser than the one on your refrigerator door). THEN format
it as 360K ("/4" in DOS). If the diskette is EVER written to by a 360K
drive (even "ERASE"ing a file), then bulk erase and FORMAT in the 1.2M
drive again.
You have to take these steps if you want reliable writes to 360K in a 1.2M
drive, even if you might sometimes get away with not doing it right.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com