🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec11.204253.26900@cs.mcgill.ca> spader@statler.cs.mcgill.ca (Yoo-Shin LEE) writes:
>I'd also like to know about programs such as FDformat which allow you 
>to format for 2 mbs on a hd disk.  Are they safe and reliable?
>I have a friend who used to always fdformat(2meg) his disks and use the
>double hole punch routine.  His 1.44 meg drive is screwed now and doesn't
>copy reliably.  I think it is because of his abuse of the above methods.
...

FDFORMAT is OK.  It still records are the rated bit density of the
media.  It really doesn't have much choice, since the hardware enforces
the transfer rate based on the media type.  There is one potential
danger for 5.25" drives only.  In a 5.25" HD drive, FDFORMAT can put 80
tracks on a 360K disk that would normally have only 40 tracks.  If you
try to access such a disk without the FDREAD TSR loaded, you can bang
the seek mechanism against the stop, since the controller will be set
up to double-step to accommodate the standard 360K disk format.

As for punching a hole to convert 3.5" DD disks to HD, that will cause
data to be recorded unreliably, but it shouldn't hurt the drive unless
plastic debris was left inside the shell (from drilling, rather than
punching, the hole).

Bob Nichols
AT&T Bell Laboratories
rnichols@ihlpm.ih.att.com