#Lowcost 1.76 Meg Disks
17 messages in this thread
Don't know if you are aware……
There is a small gadget which can turn the standard 3.5" 720 KByte floppies
into the 1.76 Meg kind. It punches a small square hole in exactly the right
place of a standard disk… thus the computer recognizes it as the high
capacity kind.
I used it on my PC to change 720 KByte into 1.44 Megs… and it worked. So
tried it with an Amiga 4000…. and again it worked.
I have converted around 50 to 60 disks this way. Tried them out by formatting.
They all came through the ordeal except 2. I suspect I did not use enough care
with the punch in those 2 cases.
Certainly saves quite a bit of $$$$…..
All the best, Hilary.
Hilary,
That's being penny-wise and pound-foolish.
There IS a difference in the media between 720K floppies and 1.44Meg
floppies. While yes, in many cases…they will format, you WILL have problems
with them retaining data in the long run.
I've got a portable that has an external floppy that doesn't care
whether the floppy has the 2nd hole or not…if you tell it to format at
1.44Meg…it will (or at least attempt to). I've formatted several DSDD
floppies on it…they all formatted fine at 1.44 Meg. I copied data to them
just fine and read them just fine. Several days later…I attempted to read
the disks…several tracks were no longer readable. I tested the disks with
PCTools DiskFix program…those tracks were bad, but after reformatting, they
were ok again….for a few days.
With very few exceptions…this is true of all the disks I've tried.
Don
Have been using the little punch on the disks for my PC for the last three
years. No problems at all. There is the occasional disk which bucks the hole
punching, but you can find that out if/when you format that disk.
Needless to say, I am not selling or promoting the gadget, just letting folk
know that the gadget is there and it has saved lots of $$$$….
All the best, Hilary.
Certainly different strokes for different folks. Some people try to do
everything on a budget, others are willing to pay a few extra dollars for
increased reliability and decreased headaches. It's good to know that the
punch exists, and good to know why you might choose not to use them and
why the HD disks cost more.
Dale L. Larson Intangible Assets Manufacturing (info@iam.com)
"That's the best part about being crazy. You see things no one else can see."
Hilary,
Hi again, I can concur with you on the hole punch side. Several years ago
when I had a C64 with a 5? inch floppy drive, I used to use a "disk
notcher" to cut hole in the other side of the floppy and then I could
format the second side of every floppy with any problems.
However with 3? inch disks I have experienced problems if you format DSDD
disks at HD on both PC's and Macs…
Still as everyone says, if it works and saves $$'s then use it! 🙂
Kevin
Flying AutoPilot from Surry in the UK
Yep Kevin. the hole punch has saved me quite a bit on my PC.
It's funny… when the punch first came out about 3 years ago, SONY and other
disk makers were up in arms. They said that the "coating" of HD disks was extra
special – and lots more along those lines. A metals scientist at one of the
universities examined lots of disks from "el cheepo" to the best of the HD's.
Outcome was there was very little difference in the quality of the coating, the
coating method, and the magnetic properties. There were differences in the
quality of the shell… i.e. outer cover and its mechanics.
All the best, Hilary.
Hillary, whatever you do, don't use these disks for your backups! They
may work, or may not, or may work for a while and then not!
User beware!!
DJ
Have been using those "converted" disks on my PC for the last three years now.
So far no problems there. Maybe the Amiga is a bit more timid of the
converts… than the PC ?
All the best, Hilary.
Empirical engineering is not engineering. 🙂
On the other hand, empiricism is great in science. But it doesn't sound
like you've done a serious study with an adequate sample under controlled
conditions.
Dale L. Larson Intangible Assets Manufacturing (info@iam.com)
"That's the best part about being crazy. You see things no one else can see."
C'mon, Dale, live a little! Think of the adrenaline rush wondering
whether those backups are going to restore your fried HD properly …
DJ
That's one adrenaline rush I could do without! 🙂
Bob Comer — Hakuna Matata!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
Hilary,
then you have been very, very lucky. During the production process a
sample of diskettes is drawn from a particular batch and if the disks in
the sample drawn pass the tests to satisfy the DS/HD standard, the batch
is shipped as such. If they fail, but pass as DS/DD, they are certified
as such and so shipped.
Given such a regimen, it should be no suprise that you can convert many
disks to DS/HD by using a nibble-notch type device. However, unless you
rigorously test these diskettes, you will inevitably run into the disk
that actually cause the batch to fail in the first place.
Given the small differential in prices today between the two types of
diskettes, I'm not willing to take the chance. Whether you do or not is
up to you. Recommending that others take the same risk is, in my view,
questionable at best.
The Four Seasons of Southern California:
Fire, Flood, Earthquake, and Riot.
Interesting comments Brian…..
Bye the way… What is the going price for the High Density floppies for the
Amiga ?
All the best, Hilary
Hilary,
the same as for any other machine, actually. I've seen them specialed
at the local office supply store as low as $8.95 a box. Usually a few
buck higher than that, normally.
The Four Seasons of Southern California:
Fire, Flood, Earthquake, and Riot.
Thanks Brian. You have given me a "marker" price of around 89 cents/per disk.
Will take a look in "COMPUTER SHOPPER" which seems to have the lowest prices on
all computer stuff.
All the best, Hilary.
Hi, Hilary, it probably is – 1.76 MB vs 1.44 MB, so you will be pushing
them more, but if it works, what the hey, just remember about those
backups B-)
DJ
Hilary
You are of course free to use this punch but you should know that it is
not just hype, the magnetic media of HD diskettes is different. It is
analogous to the chromium cassette tapes I think only in reverse: the HD
oxide needs a lower power flux than the 720K disk so the punched 720 does
not get magnetized strongly enough for it's type oxide and the result is
loss of data after the diskette lays on the shelf for a while.
I had such a punch that I used to use on 5 1/4" floppies with my old C128
for years and that worked great. It only took me a short time to find out
that last months spreadsheets had holes in them when I did this with HD.
Thought you might like to know that.
Tom
alternate: jonest@hfsi.com
I never met a man I didn't like…Will Rogers