Re: No HDs on my //e?

[nathan@cco.caltech.edu (Nathan Mates)]

In article <CxnpJ3.61p@news.Hawaii.Edu>,
Galen Tatsuo Komatsu <gkomatsu@uhunix3.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> wrote:
>	I was running low (well, out =^) of floppies for my //e so
>I went to buy some (5.25) floppies.  All they had were High Density
>disks, no (lower priced) Double Density disks.  I shrugged and
>bought a 30 disk set of disks (best bytes for the buck. =^)

>	Came home, popped one in the disk drive to format (these
>say "MD-2HD IBM PC/AT Formatted") and "Error, Track $00" *stop*
>These things aren't supposed to format on my //e?  (and there's
>more to diskettes than just flat discs of "magnetic stuff"?)

   They're nothing more than flat plastic discs with a layer of
magnetic stuff on them. But, different types of drives need different
properties in the magnetic layer: from what I remember, I think higher
density disks (1.2 MB) disks need media with a much higher flux. So,
the disks may look the same, but they behave rather differently to
your drive.

   If you want to get low density 5.25" disks, get a copy of Computer
Shopper magazine, and poke around. You can get DD 5.25" disks for
dirt cheap, and in very large quantities, too :)

Nathan Mates



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