zgel05@apctrc.trc.amoco.com (George E. Lehmann) (07/26/89)
This is both a followup to several previous articles and a quest for help... Several days ago in previous articles: >In article <11079@ibmpcug.UUCP> Ronald.Khoo@ibmpcug.CO.UK writes: >>In article <597@philmtl.philips.ca> ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Raymond Dunn) writes: >>! A diskette written at 360K density on a 1.2M drive has a track half >>! the width written on a 360K drive. That is the cause of the problem. >>! It could only be overcome by having a drive with two heads, one used when >>! dealing with 360K diskettes, the other when dealing with 1.2M. There are no >>! such drives to my knowledge. >>I actually heard some *rumour* that a new NEC (?) drive is sort-of such >>beast, except that it is the same head with two different effective widths >>depending on which density is selected (two windings switchable between >>opposing and aiding, I guess ?) NEC here in the UK seems to be keeping their >>head down about this drive, so DATA% is scarce. >I can - I've got one, but it's not *that* new, I've had it for about 2 years. >It's an NEC FD1155C, and it works great! It was fitted as standard to the AT >that the company (name below) were selling at that time, a bonus whose value I >didn't realise until much later. >I guess it's the split-head system, but I don't know. FYI, it came from: >Comcen Technology Ltd, 45/51 Wychtree St, Morriston, Swansea SA6 8EX, UK. I thought this was too good to be true. After reading this posting I thought I had found the answer to a severe problem (ie, writing 360k, 1.2M, 720k and 1.44M diskettes from the same machine). I called NEC, starting with 1-800-366-3632 (FONE-NEC, cute eh?), leading to 508-264-4300, and talked to a tech support person named Don. He didn't know anything about the drive, but promised to talk to his product manager and call back. He just did moments ago and he assured me that the FD1155C did *NOT* have any multiple- width head technology. Anybody have any solutions to this ongoing problem other than 'don't use this diskette for anything except loading my software unless you re-format it first!'? Thanks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- To live and not fly is not living... George Lehmann PP/ASEL/IA ...!uunet!apctrc!zgel05 -or- zgel05@amoco.com Amoco Production Co. PO BOX 3385, Tulsa, Ok 74102 Voice:918-660-4066