Nil embroidered on the monitor :
You used to be able to buy either unformatted floppy disks or
preformatted ones. You paid a premium for the pre-formatted ones.
Formatting floppies was a time-consuming process, and it was worth the
cost to some people to save that time by buying preformatted ones.
So, no, the term "IBM" didn't have anything to do with formatted vs.
unformatted. It had to do with floppies that were formatted with file
systems (usually MS-DOS or close relatives like IBM-DOS or PC-DOS or
clones) that could be read by IBM-type PCs, rather than other platforms
and operating systems.
My response seemed to launch a few memories of "the old days"
(nightmare visions of plucking Oriental playing cards out of my 5.25"
floppy drive), but I specifically did not address the history of floppy
formatting and the marketing of unformatted vs. formatted because what
used to be isn't relevant to the question at hand. That was then, this
is now. Obviously, I failed here.
Although I could be mistaken, to the best of my knowledge "unformatted"
3.5 floppies haven't been sold for many a moon. What is still sold
(and not easily found anymore) are IBM Pre-formatted disks.
The OP posted he specifically needed an IBM Pre-formatted disk and was
considering using a sector editor to go about making one out of a
Windows formatted disk. The disk was intended for BIOS and not a
Windows program. My point, which I guess I wasn't clear about - sorry
- was why bother? Just take it out of the box and don't format it.
You have nothing to do to turn an IBM Preformatted disk into an IBM
Preformatted disk.
--
-There are some who call me...
Jim
"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
