DOS feature on formatting disk

From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordon_at_gjcp.net>
Date: Tue Jan 18 17:16:07 2005

Dwight K. Elvey wrote:

> Sure but what about not reading track 0 before formatting
> means it should abort the formatting without first doing
> a low level format of that track. It is just stupid.
> If I completely erase the track, it formats just fine.
> As Sellam says, it is just stupid design.
> Dwight

I'll bet you'll find that the drive isn't seeking back to track zero
correctly. All other tracks will be OK but there will be a small
buildup of shite on the slider knocking the head a tiny bit "inside" the
proper place for track zero.

What this means is that it partially overwrites track zero, and rewrites
a new one. But there will be a certain amount of interference between
the two tracks, and it will not successfully read.

Gordon.
Received on Tue Jan 18 2005 - 17:16:07 GMT

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