marquis@qal.qal.berkeley.edu (Roger Marquis) (08/22/89)
>In article <13809@netnews.upenn.edu> wist@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Bundy Wist) writes: >>Another solution for you hardware hackers is to actually bypass the switch >>sensor that looks for the 1.4/720 hole. On my TEAC 1.4M, this switch is just >>opposite the write protect switch. > I made a functionally equivalent hardware modification to my Toshiba drive by simply cutting the pin that senses the high/low density hole with a Swiss Army knife. Why should I let my drive decide which format I want? >>of the notches in it. No probs as of yet (except no other "normal" 3.5" >>drives can read my 1.4M disks because they are still in the 720K shell--- > In article <1827@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu> kubla@uiuc.edu (Kubla Khan) writes: >This is precisely why I chose to return the jumper to its normal setting - >what good is a floppy disk if only _I_ can make use of it? That's what I have >a hard disk for! I want floppies so that I can transport files to other >machines. Of course, this is only my own preference - I'm sure you have your >reasons for not wanting to take floppies you write on your system over to >your office or a friend's house... :-) > If you feel the need to reduce your options fine. The rest of us don't need to spend nearly twice the money for disks whose only advantage is a strategically placed 2mm hole. Not only have I never heard of a "low density" diskette failing to hold 1.44MB but drives that check for the hole are rare and getting rarer every day. If I bought a drive that had a "density" sensor I would return it as _defective_. Roger marquis@qal.berkeley.edu
sid@brambo.UUCP (Sid Van den Heede) (09/04/89)
Is the "strategically placed 2mm hole" used by the write electronics or is it just feedback for software to enquire the type of disk for writing purposes? My software allows me to format a DD disk for 1.44Mb but it starts to have problems near the 20th cylinder. This suggests to me that either the media is incapable of the required number of fluxes or that the switch is used by the electronics.