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MMD > Archives > March 2009 > 2009.03.29 > 08Prev  Next


Formatting Floppy Diskettes for PianoDisc
By Jon Page

Upon further studying the PianoDisc web site, I see that I need a low
density or DD disc to upgrade the software on a PDS128.  Unfortunately,
not only do newer PC's not have a 3.5" drive, [recent] Windows will not
format a disc for 720K.

So that's the dilemma, where to get a formatted DS DD disc to install
the upgrade.  Perhaps I need to find someone with a real old Windows
version to format.

An HD disc can be converted to a DD disc in the PDS drive and
formatted.  I did that but you still need to format the disc on a PC.
The PC recognized the 720K and was formatting it, but then the
controller decided to quit.  I plugged in an external USB floppy drive
and proceeded to format again but it went right into a HD (1.44 MB).

To make matters worse, at one point I had the upgrade installed on the
disc, the PDS drive recognized it but there was a disc failure (bad
data or such).  Now it is stuck in 'producer' upgrade mode.

It was one of those days.

Regards,
Jon Page

 [ At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk : "However, if by
 [ whatever means a diskette is formatted at the wrong density, the
 [ result is a substantial risk of data loss due to magnetic mismatch
 [ between oxide and the drive head's writing attempts."  -- Robbie


(Message sent Sun 29 Mar 2009, 21:57:17 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Diskettes, Floppy, Formatting, PianoDisc

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