360K in a 1.2M drive (was: Parallel port hard drives?

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Sun Mar 26 15:39:15 2000

I remember a discussion on the Beginners/????? area on Prodigy many years
ago when I had a discussion with an "expert" who argued it didn't make any
difference. It really didn't matter to me, but the beginners who took that
sad advice could well have problems and never know why. Hence I did argue
the point, fruitlessly I might add, and of course, I knew this was one
"expert" whose advice on anything was suspect.

"Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" wrote:
>
> > It doesn't matter whether the diskette is a 1.2 MB one or a 360K type, but
>
> Give us a break! YOU know better!
> YES, IT WILL MATTER!
> And it is NOT necessary for any idiot to say, "But I use the wrong type of
> diskettes all the time."
> 360K is 300 Oerstedt. 1.2M is 600 Oerstedt.
> My personal experience is that using a 600 Eorstedt diskette in a 300
> Oerstedt application results in a significantly reduced lifetime for the
> data. Sometimes minutes!
>
> > the drive which wrote it make a great deal of difference. 1.2 MB drives can
> > read 360k diskettes just fine, but you can't expect a drive designed to
> > operate on half the track width (twice the density) and even more bit
> > density, to erase the writing of a 48 TPI 360K drive properly. It works OK
> > the first time, and less well the second ... and so on until it fails
> > because the residue left behind by the 48tpi drive generates too much noise
> > for the 96 tpi drive to discriminate between noise and signal.
>
> If you HAVE to use a 1.2M drive to write 360K diskettes, it is best to
> start with a virgin disk. And ALWAYS bulk erase it (preferably with a
> better bulk eraser than the one on your refrigerator door). THEN format
> it as 360K ("/4" in DOS). If the diskette is EVER written to by a 360K
> drive (even "ERASE"ing a file), then bulk erase and FORMAT in the 1.2M
> drive again.
>
> You have to take these steps if you want reliable writes to 360K in a 1.2M
> drive, even if you might sometimes get away with not doing it right.
>
> --
> Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Sun Mar 26 2000 - 15:39:15 BST