wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) (05/18/91)
As anyone who has studied the issue will be aware, the recording head designs in 360KB and 1.2MB 5.25-inch floppy drives are different. This means that the two types of drive are not totally compatible, even when dealing with low-density (360KB) diskettes. (Specifically, a disk that has been formatted or written on by a 360KB drive cannot thereafter be reliably written on by a 1.2MB drive.) In theory, I'd suppose it would be possible to design a dual-density 5.25-inch floppy drive that could work properly with both kinds of disk. Such a drive would presumably have either two sets of recording heads, or else a single set of special heads that could somehow be made to act properly in either 360KB or 1.2MB mode. Does anyone know if such a drive exists? If so, who makes it, what is the model name/number, and about how much should I expect to pay for it? -- Rich Wales <wales@CS.UCLA.EDU> // UCLA Computer Science Department 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (213) 825-5683
rich@aoa.UUCP (Rich Snow) (05/24/91)
In article <1991May17.214849.3103@cs.ucla.edu> wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) writes: >As anyone who has studied the issue will be aware, the recording head >designs in 360KB and 1.2MB 5.25-inch floppy drives are different. This >means that the two types of drive are not totally compatible, even when >dealing with low-density (360KB) diskettes. (Specifically, a disk that >has been formatted or written on by a 360KB drive cannot thereafter be >reliably written on by a 1.2MB drive.) I haven't seen this problem with any of the recent 1.2Meg drives. It is true that it occurred with the first generation of 1.2Meg drives. I assume the positioning needed to be more accurate in order to assure compatibility. It is quite a trick to double up the tracks in order to make it compatible with 360K drives. In fact, the new 'floptical' drives reliably read and write 360K format. They get a greater track density by using an optical rather than purely mechanical postioning system. -Rich -- * Rich Snow AOA-----------------* * (617)864-0201 * rich@aoa.utc.com * aoa!rich@bbn.com