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5.25 Inch 360kb diskettes fail



PROBLEM - The use of low density 360KB 5.25" diskettes may fail with "sector not found" errors in a PS/Valuepoint 6381/si.

The low density 360KB 5.25" diskette was previously formatted to 720KB. Once the newly formatted 720KB diskette is used, errors may occur if the diskette is then re-formatted back to 360KB.

The errors occur as a result of the formatting process. The 720KB formatting process single steps the floppy drive heads, formatting a total of 80 tracks. The 360KB formatting process double steps the drive heads, formatting a total of 40 tracks. The 360KB formatting process essentially writes only on the even tracks of a 720KB format. Therefore, the information put on the odd tracks of a 720KB format will still be there even after the media has been reformatted to 360KB.

Machines AFFECTED - All Valuepoint models 6381 Si

SOLUTION - To reuse low density 360KB 5.25" media that has been formatted to 720KB capacity, the diskette must be bulk erased (using a device that produces strong alternating magnetic fields typically called bulk eraser or video/audio tape eraser) before it can be reformatted to 360KB density again.


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