You can format FAT disks in windows to allow you to have 1.7Mb on a HD disk. You cant use the normal format command, but something like winimage can do it.
IIRC, a version of Windows came on 1.7Mb formatted disks. -- Andy Taylor http://retrocomputers.wordpress.com ________________________________ From: Michael Ebbage <michael.ebb...@googlemail.com> To: peterboro@mailman.lug.org.uk Sent: Tuesday, 27 October, 2009 12:24:32 Subject: Re: [Peterboro] 144 disk drive It's not a 144 drive though, it's a 3.5" High Density, Floppy Disk Drive. 1.44Mb is the size after (Microsoft compatible) formatting. Same goes for the 720k disks. It's worthwhile noting that the 1.44Mb refers to 1024000 bytes as a "megabyte", not 2^10 or 10^6 bytes. Amiga's formatted theirs to 1.72Mb and 880k, so calling it a "144 drive" in this industry is far too vague and inaccurate. :P Best regards, Michael Ebbage > Message: 7 > Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:33:44 -0000 > From: "Brian Smith" <br...@briansmithonline.com> > Subject: Re: [Peterboro] 144 disk drive > To: "'Peterborough LUG - No commercial posts'" > <peterboro@mailman.lug.org.uk> > Message-ID: < > b443fdb1bc5e4ee6932d6ff978175...@brian> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi Simon, > > I'm sure others will answer this as well - and I may be completely wrong - > but here's my twopen'orth: > > The first computers didn't have hard drives so everything was stored on > floppy discs. When I first met floppies on the BBC computer they were > five-and-a-quarter inches across and square. But they *were* floppy. Before > long, the three-and-a-half inch "floppy disc" became ubiquitous. Teachers in > the UK were confused and worried about children's understanding of maths and > English. The floppy disc was, after all, neither floppy nor round. However, > if you take one apart you do find a very floppy disc of magnetic material > inside the hard square case. > > The old BBC disc held 100K of data (if memory serves). The standard 3.5 in > floppy held 720K. Later a high density version was introduced which looked > the same but held 1.44 megabytes of data. You had to have a high density > disk drive to read it and these became standard very quickly. I think that's > what your wife has found tucked inside the photo album. It probably has > family photos on it. > > But am I right? It's only recently that computers have appeared with no > floppy disc drive so surely we haven't forgotten what floppies are yet? Or > have we? > > Others please correct me. > > Brian _______________________________________________ Peterboro mailing list Peterboro@mailman.lug.org.uk https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro
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