rt@lexicon.com (Robert Tillman) (05/04/90)
Since 1.2M and 360k 5.25" floppies are somewhat compatible, I bought a 1.44 meg 3.5" floppy drive for my AT clone (12Mhz, AMI bios) thinking that that I could use it transfer files between my machine and a machine with a 720K drive. I was wrong! When I try a "format /4" on my machine, it responds with something like "drive doesn't support this format". When I try to read a disk formatted and written on a machine with a 720K drive, I get the old "Abort, Retry, Fail?" message. Is it at all possible to do what I want to do? Do some 1.44M drives support 720K format, and others don't? Is "/4" the right format switch to use? Is this a controller problem? Should I give up? Please email. Will summarize + post if...etc. Thanks for your help. - Bob Tillman rt@lexicon.com ...!harvard!spdcc!lexicon!rt
dale@wucs1.wustl.edu (Dale Frye) (05/05/90)
Original poster talked about formatting 720K disk in a 1.44M drive.
He was trying to use the /4 option.
The /4 option is for formatting 360K disks in a 1.2M drive ONLY!!!
You must have DOS 3.3 (or 3.2???) or DOS 4.0 to do what you want.
In DOS 3.3
FORMAT B: /T:80 /N:9
In DOS 4.0
FORMAT B: /F:720
or use 3.3 method.
I am of course assuming that drive B: is the 1.44M drive.
Another related problem with adding 1.44M drives is that older
machines do not support 1.44M in their BIOS. You must use
a driver (included with DOS 3.3 and 4.0).
Dale Fryegribble@cica.cica.indiana.edu (gribble) (05/07/90)
1st, read the DOS manual it explains all of this quite clearly. the correct line should be format b: /n:9 /t:80; this formats a 720kb disk in a 1.44mb drive (pages 7-128-129 IBM DOS Reference V3.30). -- ************************************************************************ * Steve Gribble Internet: gribble@cica.cica.indiana.edu * Lead Computer Consultant swg@iumail.ucs.indiana.edu * Dept. of Sociology, Indiana University Bitnet: gribble@iubacs