doug@giaea.gi.oz (Douglas Thomson) (05/20/91)
In article <1991May16.220514.23423@ariel.unm.edu>, ee5391aa@triton.unm.edu (Duke McMullan n5gax) writes: > Just that...how? For background, I have a 12MHz `286 box, which runs messdos > 3.3 with 4dos. Drive A: is a high-density 5.25" floppy; drive B: is a high- > density 3.5" microfloppy. Can this be done? Am I staring right through the > answer, which is sitting right there in the doc.s for all to see? Under MS-DOS 3.3, the format option required to format a low density disk in a high density drive is /n:9. The command would be: C:\>format b: /n:9 However, if you try this with a high density disk DOS responds with: Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable Format failure [that nice high density disk just isn't good enough for low density work :-)] To actually make it format, you must do two things: first, cover up the high density hole on the disk so that the disk looks like a low density disk, and second, use the /n:9 format option. When I do all this with a high density disk I get: C:\>format b: /n:9 Insert new diskette for drive B: and strike ENTER when ready Format complete 730112 bytes total disk space 730112 bytes available on disk The exact results may of course vary from one version of DOS to another, and from one BIOS to another. I am using MS-DOS Version 3.30 without 4DOS, and with an AMI 10/10/90 BIOS (all on a '386SX if it makes any difference)... Doug. (doug@giaea.oz.au) ...!munnari!goanna!giaea!doug
roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) (05/21/91)
doug@giaea.gi.oz (Douglas Thomson) writes: > Under MS-DOS 3.3, the format option required to format a low density disk > in a high density drive is /n:9. The command would be: > C:\>format b: /n:9 > > However, if you try this with a high density disk DOS responds with: > Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable > Format failure > [that nice high density disk just isn't good enough for low density work :-)] Not always so, it would appear. I just fed a blank HD floppy into my 3.5" drive, and used 'pcformat a: /f:720' to format it 9 sectors, 80 tracks. I didn't cover the HD indicator hole, either. For the record, it's PCFormat 4.30, a Taiwan HD controller in my XT (also Taiwan, with DTK bios), and an Orchid 286 card. (yeah, it's a kludge, but what the hay... she runs and she's paid for :-) DOS 3.30 and 4dos 3.03. -- Roy M. Silvernail -- roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu - OR- cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu perl -e '$x = 1/20; print "Just my \$$x! (adjusted for inflation)\n"' [space reserved for clever quote]{mail your submissions}