How do you "fake" a 2.88 floppy disk using a 1.44 ???
Glenayers
Greetings Everyone:
Once again I seem to remember a side discussion in a past post that mentioned
the possibility of faking a ps/2 with a 2.88mb floppy drive into thinking a
1.44mb disk was really a 2.88 disk.
I think it was Peter W.? who said there was something different about the
holes on the disks.
Does anyone know what to do or better yet has anyone actually done it? I'd
like to try the 2.88 linux boot floppy that was posted here a couple days ago
but I need the 2.88 floppy first. The 1.44 disk doesn't seem to work.
CAN IT BE DONE ????
Thanks for the help!
Glen -on my spiffy 9577s
PS. That linux boot disk was at:
ftp://glycerine.itsmm.uni.edu/pub/Incoming
Its called: bigbroot.img and there is also a bigbroot.txt
I tried using rawrite2 from dos to copy it to the 1.44mb floppy. I also had to
use ftp to download, the browser couldn't find it, but maybe that's just AOL.
Christian Hansen
Glenayers wrote in message <19980916214008...@ng84.aol.com>...
>
>Greetings Everyone:
>
>Once again I seem to remember a side discussion in a past post that
mentioned
>the possibility of faking a ps/2 with a 2.88mb floppy drive into thinking a
>1.44mb disk was really a 2.88 disk.
>
>I think it was Peter W.? who said there was something different about the
>holes on the disks.
>
>Does anyone know what to do or better yet has anyone actually done it? I'd
>like to try the 2.88 linux boot floppy that was posted here a couple days
ago
>but I need the 2.88 floppy first. The 1.44 disk doesn't seem to work.
>
>CAN IT BE DONE ????
2.88 within the same space as a 1.44 calls for a higher track density. As
far as I recall, they achieved this by using a different orientation of the
magnetical polarity, compared with standard 1.44. The standard magnetical
material on 1.44's is not well suited for the different polar orientation.
The special 2.88's was manufactured with a different kind of magnetical
material, suited for the different way to record the data. Like different
materials are used on VHS tape than on ordinary audio tape. The original
2.88 diskettes are hard to come by, and costs a lot.
Never the less, it is possible to fool the drive to believe, that a 1.44
diskette is a 2.88, holes, notches or what have you.
From a DOSprompt issue the command FORMAT A: /U /F:2880
Because of the different magnetizing technique, not pallable to normal
diskettes, don't use a cheap one. Choose a fresh high quality diskette.
It works on my 9576i
>
>Thanks for the help!
>
>Glen -on my spiffy 9577s
>
>PS. That linux boot disk was at:
>
>ftp://glycerine.itsmm.uni.edu/pub/Incoming
>
>Its called: bigbroot.img and there is also a bigbroot.txt
>
>I tried using rawrite2 from dos to copy it to the 1.44mb floppy. I also
had to
>use ftp to download, the browser couldn't find it, but maybe that's just
AOL.
regards
Chr. H.
Ian Cummings
<glen...@aol.com> writes
>
>Greetings Everyone:
>
>Once again I seem to remember a side discussion in a past post that mentioned
>the possibility of faking a ps/2 with a 2.88mb floppy drive into thinking a
>1.44mb disk was really a 2.88 disk.
>
>I think it was Peter W.? who said there was something different about the
>holes on the disks.
A 1.44MB floppy disk has the "media sense" hole directly opposite the
write-protect tab. A 2.88MB disk has an identical hole, but it's a bit
nearer the shutter end of the disk
>
>Does anyone know what to do or better yet has anyone actually done it?
The only 2.88MB floppy equipped machines I've got here are models 8535,
8557 and 9556. They'll all format an HD floppy to 2.88MB under DOS by
using the command
format a: /u /f:2.88
(I've found them to be reliable, though I only use it as a quick way of
getting data from one machine to another. For important stuff, I've a
(limited, unfortunately) supply of _free_ ED disks:)
Interestingly, MS-DOS5/6/7 have problems re-formatting these disks to
1.44MB, though Caldera DR-DOS (my preferred DOS atm) doesn't seem to
mind).
(Maybe that says something about Micro$oft's "format" ?)
regards,
--
Ian Cummings
Peterwendt
>I think it was Peter W.? who said there was something different about the
>holes on the disks.
??? I'm not responsible for *everything* going on in this NG. .... ;-)
To differ the disks:
- DD = 720K / 2 x 80 tracks, 9 sectors per track with 512 bytes per sector.
No hole at the right side (Left side: WP-slide of course)
Base material is FeO2 (Ferro-Oxide)
- HD = 1.44MB / 2 x 80 tracks, 18 sectors per track with 512 bytes per sector
A hole in the same height than that of the WP-slide
Base material is FeCr (Ferro-chrome)
- XD = 2.88MB / 2 x 80 tracks, 18 sectors per track with 1024 bytes per sector
A hole of same size as on HD but with 5 mm offset away from the lower edge.
Base material mainly FeCr but similar to video-tape (different coercitivity /
magnetic saturation).
The XD-standard however knows a different layout with 2 x 80 tracks 36
sectors per track and 512 bytes per sector again. The total number of
user-available bytes and the data-density are (almost) the same - but due to
the higher number of sectors the data-overhead is a bit higher than on the 18
sector / 1024 bytes solution.
The XD-floppies are pretty expensive - and therefore sold rather poor, which
didn't make the prices fall.
The HD-floppies should not be used with 2.88-format. It might work, but the
"write current" in 2.88MB-format is different (lower) than on the 1.44MB format
and therefore the written data-bits might be a bit insecure. It is a similar
reason why you should not format a 1.44MB-disk to 720KB and other way round:
the different media takes the magnetization in a different way and cannot be
reformatted with the proper format in the worst case. I'd accidently destroyed
some 1.44MB-floppies with formatting them to 2.88 - and they choked later with
a "Track 0 bad or unusable" error on the attempt to re-format them.
Very friendly greetings from Peter in Germany
http://members.aol.com/mcapage0/mcaindex.htm
RHS Linux User
I apologise for starting this thread. The original poster was trying to
install my BigBroot 2.88meg 1-floppy Linux, and I had assumed rawrite
did 2.88 . I am mortified.
Fortunately, the required tweak of rawrite was trivial, and worked
the first time on a windog C compiler I was able to beg the services of
from the gracious Mark Vitnell on the other side of the planet from me.
The result of that global compile, raw288, is in Incoming with
BigBroot and an embarrassing sequence of related .txt files.
/glycerine.itsmm.uni.edu
I was able to make a 2.88 image with raw288 after using the aformentioned
format a: /f:2.88 .
The tweak needed was to add
36,
to the array that tries various sector-per-track values to figure out the
capacity. If you have a windog C compiler, rawrite is ripe for an upgrade.
raw288 is just an emergency measure.
BigBroot, BTW, needs about a 6 meg ramdisk, which required an equally
trivial tweak of the Linux kernel. BigBroot is a rather cushy
demo/rescue/install type disk, with Pico,
a spreadsheet, ethernet stuff, and the feature-rich
Bourne-type shell, GNU Bash.
Oh. And the first vestiges of some documentation.
Halloween is approaching. If you're around a bunch of PS2's keep a copy of
BigBroot handy for giving people white hair.
I'm working on a umsdos version now, which won't be PS2-specific, and will have
the first vestiges of a Lynx-based UI/documentation system.
Thanks to the glycerine people for the use of thier Incoming.
Rick Hohensee http://cqi.com/~humbubba
colorg on EFnet IRC #linux chanop
Forth C Linux Perl graphics music Md., USA
This is your brain on colorg --> (@#*%@#() <---~~~_()()(
Any questions?
--
Rick Hohensee http://cqi.com/~humbubba
colorg on EFnet IRC #linux chanop
Forth C Linux Perl graphics music Md., USA
JUNE BANISTER
PE>The HD-floppies should not be used with 2.88-format. It might work, but the
>"write current" in 2.88MB-format is different (lower) than on the 1.44MB form
>and therefore the written data-bits might be a bit insecure. It is a similar
>reason why you should not format a 1.44MB-disk to 720KB and other way round:
>the different media takes the magnetization in a different way and cannot be
>reformatted with the proper format in the worst case. I'd accidently destroye
>some 1.44MB-floppies with formatting them to 2.88 - and they choked later wit
>a "Track 0 bad or unusable" error on the attempt to re-format them.
>Very friendly greetings from Peter in Germany
>http://members.aol.com/mcapage0/mcaindex.htm
Running a permanent magnet over them will repair any
damage you may feel you have caused: the disks will then
format properly.
BUT with a ps/2 and the Norton 8 Safeformat utility there
should be no trouble. I have 1.44 disks formatted to 2.88
and the archived files from 4 years ago are as good as
new. Five years is what the IRS, for example, needs so
for important stuff like that perhaps you ought not to
take risks.
---
ş SLMR 2.1 ş
RHart61650
all you do is .when you format a 144 you tell it its a288it works i bought
some 288 disks and then found out you could use 144 look in the dos manual 50
under format