Do you mean a 1581? Don't those need a drive that can be amiga compatible or something like that? I seem to recall a story about unused 1581 drives being gutted of their mechanism so they could be used in Amigas when the 1581 wasn't selling well, and that's why for a while there were empty 1581 shells you could find.
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Can a 1.44 MB FDD replace a 720 KB one?
- Thread starter Ruud
- Start date
RetroHospital
Experienced Member
My understanding is that 720 disk drives use stronger magnetic fields ; which makes disks formatted or written by 720k drive more error prone if they get back to a 1.44 one
The disk themselves are similar . Except for the holes obviously
But as someone said above ; there is a lot of conflicting littérature
But I believe this one
The disk themselves are similar . Except for the holes obviously
But as someone said above ; there is a lot of conflicting littérature
But I believe this one
Chuck(G)
25k Member
In fact, when writing HD media a stronger write current is involved. But the media is most certainly different. Similar coercivity (magnetic "stiffness", albeit HD media uses a slightly "stiffer" formulation), but the big difference is in particle size and coating thickness, as well as coating composition.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
As far as using an HD drive, write current is reduced when DD media is being written, so no difference between an HD and DD 3.5' drive.
(The first WikiP article is interesting in that I'm cited as one of the references. )
Mods: Can we please put this in a sticky? We should be getting tired of answering the question.
Disk density - Wikipedia
Coercivity - Wikipedia
As far as using an HD drive, write current is reduced when DD media is being written, so no difference between an HD and DD 3.5' drive.
(The first WikiP article is interesting in that I'm cited as one of the references. )
Mods: Can we please put this in a sticky? We should be getting tired of answering the question.
Last edited:
Ruud
Veteran Member
No, please see Boost your 1571: a project where a 720 KB drive is added to (or replaces the original drive of) a Commodore 1571. That does make sense. The 1571 can handle 360 KB floppies, so why not 720 KB ones?
Did even the later/final 1.44MB drives continue to do this? I've got a USB 1.44MB floppy that normally can write 720K disks and then I can read them in my T1100 plus. But then there are other 720K disks (they seem really early) that if I try to write them in the USB 1.44MB floppy drive, they won't read on the T1100 plus. If I format it on my PS/1, it reads fully there, and then reads fully on the T1100 plus. So to summarize is seems I have a USB 1.44MB drive - can write some 720K disks, but not others.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Later USB floppy drives are pretty variable--and a lot are just plain trash. The Teac FD05PUB is pretty reliable.