Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!RADC-LONEX.ARPA!koziarzw From: koziarzw@RADC-LONEX.ARPA Newsgroups: comp.sys.zenith.z100 Subject: (none) Message-ID: <8807101250.AA08655@radc-lonex.arpa> Date: 10 Jul 88 12:50:12 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 22 Mail to: info-hz100@radc-tops20.arpa Date: Sun Jul 10 08:50:08 1988 From: koziarzw@radc-lonex.arpa Sender: koziarzw@radc-lonex.arpa Subject: 5.25 High Density Safety cc: none Message: Curiosity finally got the better of me, I decided to check out the affect of mixing 360K and 1.2M 5.25 disks in each others' drive. Guess what -- THEY SURVIVE WRITE OPERATIONS UNHARMED!!!! Each will return a 'SEEK ERROR' but data will not be destroyed. Note that I did not perform an exhaustive test; but my preliminary finding should put Gern a little more at ease. I do agree with Gern that media of different storage capacity should be of different physical size. But, 1.2M 5.25 drives can be found at attractive prices, we know they work, and I have posted the pinouts for the adaptor cable as well as the strapping/jumper settings for the Mitsubishi HD floppy drive. Until the 3.5 drive mysteries are resolved and the price falls, I will continue with 5.25 HD. NOTE: BE SURE OF WHICH DISK YOU ARE FORMATTING, IF USING MIXED 5.25 DRIVES!!! FORMATTING CAN AND WILL DESTROY DATA; IF 'DIR' RETURNS A 'SEEK ERROR' DO NOT ASSUME THE DISK IS UNFORMATTED; IT MAY BE THE OTHER CAPACITY!!!