Personal Computer User Manual

D 360KB drive-With this drive, use 5
l/4-inch,
double-sided,
double-density, 48 TPI (tracks per inch), 360KB diskettes.
(You can also use single-sided, 160KB or 180KB diskettes.)
These diskettes contain 40 tracks per side, 8 or 9 sectors per
track, and hold up to 360KB of information, which is
approximately 150 pages of text. (With 8 sectors per track, a
diskette holds up to 320KB.)
NoteNote
Before you can use them with MS-DOS, you must formatBefore you can use them with MS-DOS, you must format
new diskettes using the MS-DOS FORMAT command.
Formatting erases all the data on a diskette and prepares it to
receive new data, so be sure to format only new blankreceive new data, so be sure to format only new blank
diskettes or diskettes that contain data you want to erase. Seediskettes or diskettes that contain data you want to erase. See
Chapter 4 for instructions on formatting diskettes.Chapter 4 for instructions on formatting diskettes.
Drive and diskette incompatibilities
If your computer has more than one type of diskette drive, or if
you use diskettes from other computers with other types of
diskette drives, you need to be aware of certain incompatibilities
between the diskette drives and the diskettes they use.
Because of the size difference, you cannot use 5
l/4-inch
diskettes
in a 3
l/z-inch
drive or vice versa. There are also certain
limitations on using diskettes that are the same size as the drive
but have different capacities. The following tables summarize
the possibilities and limitations.
3
‘/I-inch
drive/diskette compatibility
Drive type
Diskette types it can read from and write to
720KB 720KB
1.44MB
720KB, 1.44MB
Using the Equity 386SX
3-13