Date   : Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:58:15 +0000
From   : mike@... (Mike Tomlinson)
Subject: Re-using floppies

In article <d8834d21003211345h2d228da9lc0bda7c59cabee6d@...>,
Alex Taylor <zeem.uk@...> writes

>I've read somewhere that this a combination of the issues of magnetic
>coercivity

Yes.  HD drives use more write current, If you compare the disk surface
through the window of a DD and HD disk side by side, you'll see the DD
one is brownish, and the HD is a dark grey,

> and the fact that modern HD floppies come preformatted as
>FAT12, so so reformatting them with a double-density format doesn't
>work properly.

I don't see how the choice of filesystem has an effect on the ability to
format.

> The same thing I was reading went on to say that the
>disks are close enough in spec to work if you erase them in a bulk
>eraser first, then use them as DD disks. I have no idea if this works
>though, not having access to a bulk eraser.

Hmmm. I'm not sure about that.  Sounds like urban myth to me.  I
wouldn't use HD on BBC drives for anything I wanted to keep.

-- 
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