From: kr-lund@nogarbage.online.no   
      
   Emort007@hotmail.com wrote:   
   >   
   >  Ok, here is my problem(s)   
   >   
   >  My 1984 Model IV Is a non-gate array unit. Over the years I've   
   > upgraded this unit to green screen, and 128K with the Pal chip.   
   >   
   >  My Dual 5.25 180k Drives work ok, but the floppys are all getting   
   > old,and worn out. my disks are suffering from mold, and I wanted to   
   > upgrade the unit to dual 3.5 720K drives. So, I found two good drives   
   > and tested both of them on  a IBM. They check out fine. I'm using DSDD   
   > 720k disks. But when I installed them on my IV. I can't format them as   
   > Double Sided. So I only get 360K out of them... Is this normal? If I   
   > try and format them as DD, 2 sided 80 track, it counts to 79 and   
   > fails.   
   >   but If I leave them, as DD 1sided 80track it formats fine. This   
   > happens on  both drives in any cobo of installation   
   >   
   >  Do I have to tell LS-631 dos that they are 2 sided drives? or is this   
   > a limitation of my Floppy controller?   
   >   
   > HELP! my unit is in pieces untill I get this squared away.   
   >   
   Does your cable have all the "pins"? Both my model III and 4 had cables   
   where the sideselect was pulled as well as the drive selects. The   
   behavior seems consistent with sideselect not working.   
      
   The sideselect signal is in the right place and is always handled as   
   such on the models III and 4 (not 4th driveselect). 3rd drive and 4th   
   drive selects goes only to the bottom connector and comes out there as   
   1st and 2nd driveselects there. With 3 internal drives I have a cable   
   that goes down and connects to the bottom for the 3rd drive (I didn't   
   want to modify the card).   
      
   I don't remember so well but I think LS-DOS doesn't need to be told that   
   the drives are double sided. If you get the 'number of sides' question   
   when you do a format without parameters. I'd assume it is capable as it   
   is configured.   
      
   I did a 720K format just to see the sequence and yes verify happens   
   after formatting track 79. It starts by verifying track 0. If sideselect   
   doesn't work then you will have 2nd side track written over the 1st side   
   track.   
      
   --   
   Knut   
   (delete 'nogarbage.' for email)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)