burton.osbunorth@XEROX.ARPA (10/12/85)
The heads in a 96 tpi drive are *definitely* narrower than on a 48 tpi drive. I have successfully "read back" from a 96 tpi drive using a Shugart SA 455. I use this drive in my PC AT, and have no problems reading from the 1.2 MB drive. However, I have not been able to get reliable readback using the Tandon or CDC drives IBM uses in PC's, or with Teac drives. It all depends on the head sensitivity, and also the media quality. This approach is strictly for those who don't need backups. For those who can roll their own, for less than 100 today, you can buy a standard half-high SA 455. Five bucks (see PC World back pages) gets you a set of mounting rails. You'll find a trace on the SA 455's motherboard for pin 34. Cut this trace, and voila, you now have an AT-compatible drive. For drives without such a trace or jumper, just cover pin 34 with some tape. Install the drive as drive B, following the AT's Installation Manual instructions, and you now have a two-floppy system. (Always convenient for floppy duplication.) At this price, there's no reason to take chances. Phil Burton, Xerox Corp. (ex-Shugart)