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PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition
book

PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

by Robert Bruce Thompson, Barbara Fritchman Thompson
July 2003
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
874 pages
38h 13m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Drive Types

As distinct from diskette types and formats, six drive types have been installed in PC-compatible systems:

5.25-inch 160/180 KB (SSDD)

Single-Sided, Double-Density (SSDD) was the standard FDD in very early PC-class systems. These drives read and write only SSDD diskettes.

5.25-inch 320/360 KB (DSDD)

Double-Sided, Double-Density (DSDD) was the standard FDD in PC-class systems, and was often found as a second FDD in early AT and 386 systems. These drives read and write single-sided (160/180 KB) and double-sided (320/360 KB) formats.

5.25-inch 1.2 MB (HD)

High-Density (HD)—this and all later formats are double-sided, but that part is no longer stated—is the standard FDD in 286, 386, and some early 486 systems, and is often found as a second FDD in early systems with 3.5-inch primary FDDs. These drives read and write any 5.25-inch format. A diskette previously formatted or written to by a 5.25-inch DD drive and then written to by a 5.25-inch HD drive may not subsequently be reliably readable in any 5.25-inch DD drive.

3.5-inch 720 KB (DD)

Double-Density (DD) is an interim standard, commonly found as a primary drive in early low-end 286 systems, and as a secondary drive in a few PC-class systems and many 286, 386, and 486 systems. These drives read and write only the 720 KB DD format.

3.5-inch 1.44 MB (HD)

High-Density (HD) is the standard FDD on mainstream systems for the past decade. These drives read, write, and format any 3.5-inch HD or DD diskette.

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 059600513XErrata Page