Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!att!whuts!homxb!homxc!rps From: rps@homxc.UUCP (R.SHARPLES) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: 3.5" disk drives and diskettes Summary: You can do that but... Message-ID: <4489@homxc.UUCP> Date: 7 Dec 88 14:31:23 GMT References: <10208@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <6332@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel Lines: 32 In article <6332@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>, hutto@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Jon Hutto) writes: > >additional hole on the side opposite the protect hole. My 3.5" drive will > >not even think about formatting at 1.44Meg unless this hole is present. My > >question is, "Can I punch holes in my 720K diskettes and use them at > >1.44Meg?" > You might, but expect about 500k-720k of errors, or more. > You don't know what's under there, first of all, and you don't > know how the drive will act when it finds no track there. Will it slip > to a different track, and only format 720k, while telling you it did 1.44? > Also, the whole may be for MAC single sided drives, so you can use both sides > of the disk. I think some places still make disks that way. > I have punched a hole in the top left corner of a Storage Master brand 3.5" disk. It formated out to 1.44 meg with no bad sectors. I copied a bunch of files to it and periodically check them. After several months they are still all there. However, I have had 2 Maxell MF2-HD (1.44mb) 3.5" disk go bad on me. In general, I would not recommend using a product in a manner other than that for which it was designed (e.g. using 720K as 1.44) - unless you know as much or more about it than the manufacturer. But, it has worked so far with my one SM disk. This is not an endorsement of either Storage Master or Maxell, although I would watch out for those Maxell MF2-HD disks if you are using them. Russ Sharples homxc!rps NOTE: The above in NO WAY reflects the opinions of AT&T. These opinions are my own and the results of un-scientific and highly irregular analysis methods.