Re: Help with Formatting please

[rubywand@aol.com]

In article <32e010c4.5193057@167.152.149.11>, drsmooth@relex.com (Edhel
Iaur, Esq.) writes:

>
>>Could someone answer a question for me.  I have an Apple II and can't 
>>seem to format any disks.  I was wondering if you can only format single

>>density disks.  I was speaking with someone who said you could format 
>>double density disks, but only on the IIe.
>
>I just tried to format some high-density disks, and it doesn't seem to
>work at all.
>
>

     The usual low-density 5.25" diskette _is_ Double Density. (It would
be difficult to find a "single density" 5.25" diskette.)  DD 5.25"
diskettes supply about 140k bytes of storage per side. All Apple II's with
5.25" drives format and read/write 5.25" DD diskettes. DD diskettes are
the standard.

     It is well-established that true High Density 5.25" diskettes cannot,
generally, be used in Apple II 5.25" drives. The formulation used for
coating HD diskettes is harder to magnetize than the one used for DD
diskettes.

     If there is a problem formatting a bunch of diskettes, the usual
explanations are  (1) the drive's R/W head is gunked-up (cure: use a Radio
Shack Cleaner Diskette to clean the head)   and/or  (2) the diskettes are
High Density diskettes sluffed-off by some well-meaning PC user (cure: get
some DD diskettes).
   

Rubywand