mtools: more sectors

1 
1 2.7.1 More sectors
1 ------------------
1 
1 The oldest method of fitting more data on a disk is to use more sectors
1 and more cylinders. Although the standard format uses 80 cylinders and
1 18 sectors (on a 3 1/2 high density disk), it is possible to use up to
1 83 cylinders (on most drives) and up to 21 sectors. This method allows
1 to store up to 1743K on a 3 1/2 HD disk. However, 21 sector disks are
1 twice as slow as the standard 18 sector disks because the sectors are
1 packed so close together that we need to interleave them. This problem
1 doesn't exist for 20 sector formats.
1 
1    These formats are supported by numerous DOS shareware utilities such
1 as `fdformat' and `vgacopy'. In his infinite hubris, Bill Gate$
1 believed that he invented this, and called it `DMF disks', or `Windows
1 formatted disks'. But in reality, it has already existed years before!
1 Mtools supports these formats on Linux, on SunOS and on the DELL Unix
1 PC.
1