HD Floppies in DD Drives

From: PG Manney <manney_at_nwohio.com>
Date: Fri Nov 14 08:45:31 1997

>Since some of the software for my "old" (first generation PC) computers
>is on 5 1/4" disks of dubious condition, I would like to make copies
>onto new disks. Since HD disks are still readily available and cheap, I
>thought this would be an ideal way to do so.

Try asking for used DSDD disks...I have boxes of 'em that I get free.
'Course, you might get a dirty one...
>
>I also seem to have fried the 5 1/4" HD drive in my PC while sorting
>through some old software. It seems a couple of disks had some dirt on
>them which caused horrible screeching sounds when the disk was spinning,
>and also deposited a very hard black coating on the heads. The only way
>I could remove the deposits was to scratch it off with my fingernails
>(alcohol would not touch it). However, I must have bumped the heads out
>of alignment, because the drive won't read disks any longer.
>
>My question is: can I plug a Double Density drive into the same
>connector in my modern PC and use it for my old disks? I know I will
>have to change my BIOS setting, but is there anything else I need to
>consider?

No. Just specify it as a 5 1/4", 360K. You might want to test the drive you
install (Norton, for example), to make sure it does a good job.

For greatest archive longevity, I'm told that tape (pick something common,
such as QIC-80) *if recorded on a new tape and then not read often* will
outlast anything -- even CD-ROM's.

manney_at_nwohio.com
Received on Fri Nov 14 1997 - 08:45:31 GMT