Converting A Single-sided Floppy Disk To Double-sided Using A Drill
| Field | computers |
| Went Obsolete | mid-late 1990s |
| Made Obsolete By | Zip disks, recordable CDs?, USB memory |
| Knowledge Assumed | Difference between double density and high density, 3.5” floppies, how to use a drill |
| When useful | If you had a 3.5” double density floppy and you needed more space without time or money to go out and purchase a new disk, you could convert it to high density by drilling an extra hole in the right place in the plastic case |
Note: Double density disks are called that because they contain twice the data of the 360KB 5.25” floppy disks. High density allowed your 720 KB 3.5” disk to be formatted as 1.44 MB.
If looking at the label side of the disk, with the metal, sliding cover facing down, a hole about 6mm would be drilled in the top, left-hand corner of the disk. Disks that had been drilled were generally considered to be less reliable, but the process was reliable enough for short-medium term storage.
This process could be done with a drill, a hand-held hole-punch or a screw driver, though the hole-punch was a bit more dangerous as the hole is quite large and the reliability of the disk depends on keeping dust out. Special hole punches were available for this purpose: Link
The top, right-hand corner contained a little plastic switch that could open or close another hole, but this hole was used to write-protect the disk.
