cory@three.MV.COM (Cory Kempf) (05/31/90)
Lou@cup.portal.com (William Joseph Marriott) writes: >Boy, this is really depressing, the amount of misinformation about these >drives and disks. I'll say! > Especially since many of the posters seems to be the >kind of folks novice users look to for advice. Well, here's some honest >facts and prudent rules: I really would love to know what source you have used to come up with these rules. Really. > >1. Single-sided diskettes should be formatted at single-sided. Double-sided >diskettes should be formatted as double-sided. High-Density disks should be >formatted at high density. Oh? Why? When I used 5.25 in. disks, I regularly bought SS/DD disks and formatted them as if they were DS/DD. I had a few failures, but all of the failures that I had occured during format. And the price difference more than made up for the failures. When I graduated to the world of 3.5 in. disks, I always bought Single Sided disks -- and formatted them at 800k. Very few failures, and ALL at format time. Currently, I am using single sided low density disks as 1.44MB disks -- the few failures have ALL happened at format time. (I have also heard a rumor that HP and Apple used the opposite side for the SS disks if true, which side is the single side?) Have you seen the (retail) price difference between Low and High density disks? > Mac disks should be formatted on a Mac. PC disks >should be formatted on a PC, or on an FDHD Mac running Apple File Exchange. "Mac" disks? "PC" disks? I have yet to see a box that proclaims that the 3.5 in. disks could only be used on one system. What if I buy one of those HP scopes that have disks in them? Where can I get my disks? >2. Never mutilate a disk you intend to later use. Mutilation includes, but >is not limited to: drilling, soldering, bending, cracking, prying, polishing, >immersing, flipping, and melting disks. Why? I have a very nice little gadget here that will punch a hole in a low density disk to convert it to a high density disk. Works fine. I have not yet had to take them up on their guarantee. I do recomend that you use a punch or soldering iron rather than other methods... crumbs, ya know. >3. You can use tape and certain kinds of hardware to format a high-density >disk as 800K or 400K. Even if this operation seems to work, the disk will >behave unreliably, and will ruined for high-density use. I have not yet checked this out, but someone on the net said that a bulk eraser will fix the problem. [very bogis story deleted] As near as I can tell, a disk is a disk. The "lanes" are painted when it is formated. The cause of the problems with cross formatting a formatted disks is that there is space between the lanes. Space that the other format has written in. It tends to confuse the reader. A bulk eraser will remove (almost) everything. The next format will create lanes that are strong enough not to be confused with the gosts from the previous format. +C -- Cory Kempf I do speak for the company (sometimes). Three Letter Company 603 883 2474 email: cory@three.mv.com, harvard!zinn!three!cory
markf@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Mark Foster) (06/01/90)
From article <328@three.MV.COM>, by cory@three.MV.COM (Cory Kempf): I have always been led to beleive that all disks are manufactured using the same process and the same materials. The disks are then tested and branded according to their reliability at the various densities. Who knows ? I may even be wrong, but it sure as hell sounds about right. -- ---Don't take life so seriously.----------///---..You won't get out alive.--- Mark Foster, Computing Service | C= /// | markf @ syma.sussex.ac.uk University of Sussex, Falmer | \\\/// | mef @ cluster.sussex.ac.uk England. BN1 9QH +44 273 607418 | \X// | ccfa3 @ cluster.sussex.ac.uk
jlhaferman@l_eld09.icaen.uiowa.edu (Jeffrey Lawrence Haferman) (06/01/90)
From article <328@three.MV.COM>, by cory@three.MV.COM (Cory Kempf): > Lou@cup.portal.com (William Joseph Marriott) writes: > - stuff deleted - > >>2. Never mutilate a disk you intend to later use. Mutilation includes, but >>is not limited to: drilling, soldering, bending, cracking, prying, polishing, >>immersing, flipping, and melting disks. > > Why? I have a very nice little gadget here that will punch a hole in > a low density disk to convert it to a high density disk. Works fine. > I have not yet had to take them up on their guarantee. I do recomend > that you use a punch or soldering iron rather than other methods... > crumbs, ya know. > While I always try to format 400K floppies as 800K, I have not tried formatting either as 1.4M. However, the June issue of MacWorld has a blurb about this in their "tips" section. They say that although you can punch a hole in the 800K disk, the coatings differ between actual 1.4M disks and 800K disks, and thus, the 800K disks are much more prone to losing data over time if formatted as 1.4M. Mea culpa. Jeff Haferman internet: jlhaferman@icaen.uiowa.edu Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Iowa Iowa City IA 52240