Re: HD floppies in a DD drive.

[madsci@tribeca.ios.com (Eric Dietrich)]

In article <85784-832711373@mindlink.bc.ca>, Michael_Ewen@mindlink.bc.ca
(Michael Ewen) wrote:

>   >   As many also-PC users will recall, it was once standard procedure to
>     >punch a hole in the left corner of DD 3.5" diskettes and use them for
>       >1.44MB HD's. The DD's were a lot cheaper and usually worked fine.
> 
>       Does this mean that the opposite applies?  All I need to is cover up
> that hole and it will work as a DD disk?


Actually, you don't even have to cover the hole.  The hole is only on HD
disks so that HD drives can sense them and see that they are different
from DD.  Since the DD drive knows nothing about HD disks, it dosen't
sense the hole. DD drives just assume that all disks are DD.

However, if you take thoses disks an put them in a HD drive, you'll get an
error, because the drive will try to read it as a HD disk.  Thats when
you'll need to cover the hole.

As far as using HD disks as DD disks, I have to go against the grain here
and NOT reccomend that you do so.  In every instance that I have done it,
the disks worked for a while and then croaked.  No matter what grade of
media I used, from Sony to white-box, the disks invariably failed.  In
fact, I recently bought a copy of Spectrum, and the DD disks that it was
on originally had died. The person I bought it from included working
disks, however, they were Fuji HD disks.  They worked ONCE in my drives
before failing.

You can, if you look, find DD disks easily.  It might be a good idea to
pick up a Computer Shopper and flip through it.  Any Computer City or
CompUSA woth its salt should stock at least one brand of DD disks (my
local store sells 5.25" SINGLE sided disks!).  Other sources might be
computer fairs. I bought 100 DD disks at a fair a while ago, all of them
periwinkle blue, and I am yet to have one die on me.  Your results may
vary.

-Eric