SyQuest drive compatibility

From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
Date: Mon Feb 11 13:08:27 2002

On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Gary Hildebrand wrote:

> Interesting, as I have one of each. I can't format 44 & 88 meg from the
> 200 meg drive, but the 88 does both 88 and 44. How does it know the
> difference in the media?? I looked all over for special notches, etc.
> and couldn't find anything. And do you know of a good CHEAP source for
> disks?

According to the FAQ (http://www.kassj.com/articles/SyQuest.html) the 200
can read, write and INITIALIZE (not format) the lower capacity disks.
Initializing is basically getting the disk ready for action (writing a FAT
and directory to it I suppose). Formatting is an actual low-level format,
and only the respective drives can format their own disks.

Are you sure you don't mean "initialize" when you say the 88 can "format"
both 88 and 44? You probably have an 88c which can initialize 88 and 44.
The original 88 model could only read 44 and not write to it.

I don't know how the drive knows the difference between disks. The FAQ
doesn't seem to cover this.

Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Mon Feb 11 2002 - 13:08:27 GMT

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