swonk@ccicpg.UUCP (Glen Swonk) (08/11/89)
I've seend many references to the fact that you can format a DS/DD 5 1/2" floppy to 720K instead of the normal 360K. Can someone explain how one can set up their machine to do this. I assume that one must have a high density drive. Any comment on reliability and portability? thanks -- Glenn L. Swonk CCI Computers (714)458-7282 9801 Muirlands Boulevard Irvine, CA 92718 uunet!ccicpg!swonk
cth_co@tekno.chalmers.se (CHRISTER OLSSON) (08/11/89)
In article <35129@ccicpg.UUCP>, swonk@ccicpg.UUCP (Glen Swonk) writes: > I've seend many references to the fact that you > can format a DS/DD 5 1/2" floppy to 720K instead > of the normal 360K. Can someone explain how > one can set up their machine to do this. I > assume that one must have a high density drive. > Any comment on reliability and portability? I use a program called FDFORMAT 1.20. It can format DD floppies to 835K on a high density drive using 10 sectors instead 9 sectors. 82 tracks i realible on many High Density drives. FDFORMAT also formats 18 sectors at HD floppies to 1.44Mb or 1.5Mbyte. But fdformat needs a small program called FDREAD.COM on some machines with some bioses. But FDREAD.COM don't work well in my AT so i must run Alan Jones' 800K.COM resident in my machine to get FDFORMAT to work.
rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert L. Bailey) (08/13/89)
In article <35129@ccicpg.UUCP> swonk@ccicpg.UUCP (Glen Swonk) writes: >I've seend many references to the fact that you >can format a DS/DD 5 1/2" floppy to 720K instead >of the normal 360K. Can someone explain how >one can set up their machine to do this. I >assume that one must have a high density drive. >Any comment on reliability and portability? > Check out your local BBS for a program called CONFMT. This is an excellent shareware program. It allows you to format standard DSDD diskettes to 720K. It works like a champ on many machines. There are some machines with brain dead BIOSs that will not recognize the disk after it is formatted. Fortuanately, mine does not have that problem. I have formatted hundreds of 5 1/4" disks to 720K with no problems. I use CHEAP (25 cent) disks. The few that have bad sectors have also shown the same problem when formatted to 360K. BTW, CONFMT is a TSR program. You can pop it up anytime and format disks in the background! I find this to be very handy. Who likes to sit and twiddle your thumbs while waiting for a disk to format! With CONFMT, I can make productive use of my time. I can edit or whatever while the disks are formatting. I just change disks when prompted by the pop up window. It supports all the standard DOS formats + a couple of non-std such as the 720K 5 1/4". If you can't find it locally, email me & I'll try to send to on the net. Bob Bailey