Because data is stored magnetically, you can retrieve it, record over it, and erase it-just as you play, record, and erase music on a cassette tape.

Types of Diskette Drives

Your computer has at least one 1.2MB diskette drive. You may also have a second diskette drive, and it may be the same type or it may be different. The following list describes the types of diskette drives you can use in the Equity 386 and which diskettes you should use with them:

360KB drive-With this drive, use 5¼-inch, double-sided, double- density, 48 TPI (tracks per inch), 360KB diskettes. (You can also use single-sided, 160KB or 180KB diskettes.) These diskettes contain 40 tracks per side, 8 or 9 sectors per track, and hold up to 360KB of information which is approximately 150 pages of text. (With 8 sectors per track, a diskette holds up to 320KB.) KB stands for kilobyte; each kilobyte equals 1024 bytes. Each byte represents a single character, such as A, $, or 3.

1.2MB drive-With this drive, use 5¼-inch, double-sided, high- density, 96 TPI, 1.2MB diskettes. These diskettes contain 80 tracks per side, 15 sectors per track, and hold up to 1.2MB of information-approximately 500 pages of text. MB stands for megabyte; each megabyte equals 1,048,576 bytes (1024KB).

720KB drive-With this drive, use 3½-inch, double-sided, double- density, 135 TPI, 720KB diskettes. These diskettes contain 80 tracks per side, 9 sectors per track, and hold up to 720KB of information-approximately 300 pages of text.

1.44MB drive-with, this drive, use 3½-inch, double-sided, high- density, 135 TPI, 1.44MB diskettes. These diskettes contain 80 tracks per side, 18 sectors per track, and hold up to 1.44MB of information-approximately 600 pages of text.

If your computer has more than one type of these drives or if you use diskettes from other computers with other drive types, you need to be aware of certain incompatibilities between the drives and the diskettes they use.

4-10 Using the Equity 386