Date   : Fri, 05 Oct 1990 16:59:21 GMT
From   : zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!nosun!qiclab!techbook!fzsitvay@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Frank Zsitvay)
Subject: MAXRom and TEAC FD55 drive 1.2M??

In article <36369@cc.usu.edu> SLSW2@cc.usu.edu (Roger Ivie) writes:
>In article <1990Sep24.235858.13077@techbook.com>, fzsitvay@techbook.com
(Frank Zsitvay) writes:
>> 
>>    Well, in theory you could use a 1.2 meg drive as a 750k drive, but
it would
>> be a waste of money to do so.
>
>Not if you happen to have a bunch of 1.2 meg drives hanging about... :-)
    do you have a couple 1.2 meg drives sitting about??   i'd be glad to
trade you a dsqd drive (brand new tandon tm101-4, still in shipping carton)
for one, since i really need another one.

>
>>    problems with going the 1.2 meg drive route....   the tracks these drives
>> write are substantially narrower than even the dsqd drive tracks, to say 
>> nothing of the dsdd tracks.   also, the write current is also greater.
>
>Not true. 80 tracks is 80 tracks, right? They get the extra capacity by
>running at 500 KHz data rate instead of 250 KHz used by dsqd.
  nope.  they do write a narrower track.

  remember, these drives use a higher write current than the dsqd drives,
and need media with a higher coercivity.  (magnetic hardness)  the data
would run into ajacent tracks if the tracks were the same width as the
dsqd drives.   the number of tracks and the spacing of the tracks is
the same as the dsqd drives.

   what is getting to be a popular alternative use for these drives is to
use them on systems that used double density 8 inch drives.  the drive
electronics are virtually the same as that found on the 8 inch counterparts.
of course, you need to build a cable adapter.

-- 
fzsitvay@techbook.COM - one of these days i'll get it right...

Version 2 of anything is usually the version that works.