Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!think!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!oliveb!intelca!mipos3!omepd!hah From: hah@isum.intel.com (Hans Hansen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: An Amusing Anectode (The tale of the 2 Meg disk) Message-ID: <873@omepd> Date: Sun, 12-Jul-87 11:13:21 EDT Article-I.D.: omepd.873 Posted: Sun Jul 12 11:13:21 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 13-Jul-87 04:20:13 EDT References: <398@rocky.STANFORD.EDU> <1649@cadovax.UUCP> Sender: news@omepd Reply-To: hah@isum.UUCP (Hans Hansen) Distribution: world Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro Lines: 21 In article <1649@cadovax.UUCP> keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) writes: >In article <398@rocky.STANFORD.EDU> ali@rocky.stanford.edu (Ali Ozer) writes: >>Anyway, now I have a 2.0 Meg capacity floppy disk. 8-) > >Well, if 2.0M 3.5" floppys achieve their high density in the same way >HD 5.25" floppys do, you might not want to use it. HD disk drives use >a higher write current, because the floppy media is less sensitive, which >for some reason permits higher density. Normal disk drives will not >put out a high enough write current to write the media reliably. I >remember having all kinds of problems trying to format HD disks on >non-HD drives until this was explained to me, and I gave up trying. > The new HI-Density Disks use PERPENDICULAR rather than PARALLEL magnetic particle alignment. The 2Meg floppy doubles the track count or has 160 cylendars. Upgrading the A1000 with a 2Meg drive while sounding neet and deliver more bytes for the buck, unless commodore gets on the band wagon (HINT HINT), will cause a compatibility nightmare. What I would like to see is a driver that can recognise both types of drives and automatically adjust the cylendar count. Hans