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Black 1.2MB Floppy Drive

They do exist, but are rare. (I have never heard of any full-height high-density drives, though.) The only computer I've ever had a black 1.2 MB floppy drive in was a Wang 286.

It might actually be easier to get a beige or white 1.2 MB drive and then a black 360 KB drive of the same design (TEAC, Mitsumi, etc.) and then swap the faceplates.
 
I didn't think about that. I currently have a black 360 KB drive (or could be 720, not sure). I'll see what model it is. Thanks for the suggestion.

Is there a reason to keep a 360 KB drive instead of replacing it with a 1.2 MB drive in a regular old 486 DOS PC?
 
Yup--if you have a need to make some real 360K floppies, rather than half-tracked simulacra.

Better question--any reason to keep a Teac FD55F (96 tpi QD) rather than change it out for a FD55FG (1.2M)?

I've got a couple of the F's in black faceplates. I'll trade them for FGs.
 
Is there a reason to keep a 360 KB drive instead of replacing it with a 1.2 MB drive in a regular old 486 DOS PC?

1/ You'll need a 360 to write DD disks.
2/ 360 KB disks and drives are cool
3/ 360K is probably all you need
4/ they're older
5/ you can often have more than one drive in a box
6/ you don't have any 1.2 MB diskettes
7/ you like360's best

And so on. :) However, if you have no other machines requiring you to write DD disks on the 486 then the 1.2MB drive is probably more period appropriate.
 
I have a new, black, Teac 55GFR 1.2M drive if that's of interest.

I also have some high quality 1.2M DS/DD floppy disks.

1/ You'll need a 360 to write DD disks.
As fas as what Ole said above, that's not really accurate. An accurate statement would be... You'll need a 360 to ‘reliably’ write DD disks.

A 1.2M drive will write 360K disks that it or other 1.2M drives can read with no problems whatsoever. The read reliability goes down when a 360K disk written on a 1.2M drive is then used on a 360K drive. Some 360K drives will have a problem with this and some will not. However the readability goes up if the 360K disk is first formatted in a 360K drive and the disk is then written in a 1.2M drive.
 
However the readability goes up if the 360K disk is first formatted in a 360K drive and the disk is then written in a 1.2M drive.

That's not my experience. The most reliable way you can write a 360K disk in a "1.2M" drive is by formatting and writing a degaussed floppy in the same 1.2M drive. No real downside, other than a lower S/N ratio.
 
I meant that the readability goes up in 360K drives if the 360K disk is first formatted in a 360K drive and then written in a 1.2M drive. And, by goes up, I didn't mean to imply that it gets as good as a disk both formatted and written in a 360K drive.
 
I don't want to drag this thing out, but if you want to preserve readability in 360K drives, re-writing anything on a 96 tpi drive that was originally written on a 48 tpi drive will preserve readability in the 96 tpi drive, but the 48 tpi may not be able to read the result at all. I believe that IBM even had words about this. (I include "formatting" as writing).

Taking an utterly blank, degaussed floppy, and writing it on 96 tpi drive will create a floppy that can be read and written in a 48 tpi drive. However, the converse is not true.

I just performed this experiment in a box that has both Teac 55BR and 55GF drives.
 
I've never had the degree of compatibility problems between 360K drives and 1.2MB drives that everyone warns about. The only drive I have that tends to be fussy about that is the full-height Tandon drive in my IBM 5150. I think many of the later half-height 360K drives use a narrower head in order to improve compatibility with disks written to by 1.2MB drives.
 
I've never had the degree of compatibility problems between 360K drives and 1.2MB drives that everyone warns about. The only drive I have that tends to be fussy about that is the full-height Tandon drive in my IBM 5150. I think many of the later half-height 360K drives use a narrower head in order to improve compatibility with disks written to by 1.2MB drives.
I have to agree with you completely. I wrote thousands 360K disks on my 1.2M drives for 10 years and those disks were used on literally hundreds of different machines without any problem. You know, I think they purposely sent all the really good HD drives to us in the East and let the Left Coast get most of the junk! :)
 
Well, you guys obviously have your own opinions.

I refer you to the IBM 5170 Technical Reference, page 9-5 "Diskette Drive Compatibility".

It may well work for you, but it's not reliable. On the other hand, formatting and writing 360K disks on a 360K drive is very reliable--I've done many thousands.
 
That's particularly dangerous. :)

Similar to the guy who observes that filling his propane tank while he has a lit cigarette hanging from his lips observes that the practice is safe--he does it all the time.
 
I come from a Mac world, so I wasn't sure if a higher capacity drive could read/write older disks. I think Apple kept the variable speed motors in their 3.5" drives so you could still do 800k and 400k floppies even in a 1.4MB drive. The drive I have is a Mitsumi D503 half-height drive. Google says it's a 360KB drive, so I'll hold onto it to ensure maximum compatibility. Good info to have, thanks guys!

So I am looking for a 1.2MB drive, then, to accompany my 360KB drive. Black so it matches my PC. :D PM me a price if you have one.
 
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