Greg Mayman wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 -=> Roy J. Tellason said to Greg Mayman
 -=> about "SILICON CHIP ON LINE" on 05-27-04  04:06.....

 RJT> You *can* format a "1.44" as 1.2MB,  and it'll work if
the system is
 RJT> expecting such,  but things sure could get confusing if you try and put
 RJT> that into another drive or if the system isn't set up correctly.  Maybe
 RJT> I'll try it one of these days and see how well it works...

 GM> Hmmm... that's a realy odd size for a 3.5" disk. But I agree that
 GM> it should be possible to format one to that size.

Sure,  why not?  You can format all sorts of ways...

 RJT> There isn't a 5.25" drive in there,  it doesn't do any hardware test, 
 RJT> and the default is apparently hard-coded into the BIOS.

 GM> One of these goldanged non-standard machines!

Nope.  One of those "older MBs".    :-)

 GM> I've had two of them that eventually died on me and couldn't be 
 GM> repaired with standard parts....

This is a pretty standard MB,  a 386dx40.  I guess when it was new the 1.2M
drive was the standard.

 GM> Hmmm... is it possible that someone replaced a 5-1/4 with the
 GM> 3-1/2" drive at some time?

I did.    No,  I started with a bare board and built up this box
from parts. The case was sitting here in a closet,  the drive was just
laying around.  There's no CD drive in there,  only a video card,  network
card,  and the floppy and hard drives.

 GM> If there is no hardware test, and the disk size is hard-coded,

Not hard-coded,  just the default when CMOS loses its settings.

 GM> then that would explain a lot. Changing back to a 5-1/4" drive 
 GM> would allow you to use 1.2m 5-1/4" floppies.

No particular reason I'd want to.

 GM> The *BIG* problem would be to find a 5-1/4" drive these days.

Not really,  I have some around,  have one here in this box AAMOF, though I
don't recall the last time I used it.

 GM> I guess it would be a lot easier to format a 3-1/2" disk to 1.2m.

Easy enough,  I suppose.

 GM> Have you ever tried this?

Nope.

 GM> And does the machine accept such a disk?

No idea.

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