Some research on the web should clear up a few things about diskettes:

- Both DD (720k) and HD (1.44MB) diskettes are double-sided.  The
difference is in the magnetic 'density' of the media.

- The physical difference is the plastic case.  The DD diskette has
one hole in the upper-right corner (label side is front, metal sliding
cover at the bottom) for making the diskette write-protected.  The HD
diskette has an additional hole in the upper-left corner, which
indicates to the drive in your computer that it is capable of being
formatted at 1.44MB (HD).

- You could possibly fool your drive into thinking the diskette is
a 720k DD diskette by taping over the hole in the upper-left corner,
but it shouldn't be necessary.

- You _might_ have a problem reformatting a pre-formatted 1.44MB
diskette into a 720k diskette, because apparently HD diskette
formatting is difficult to overwrite with the lower 'powered' DD
formatting.  That is why there is no data-safety guarantee with this
option.  If you can find 1.44MB diskettes that have NOT been
pre-formatted, you should be fine.

- You _can_ format a 1.44MB diskette as DD (720k) in your Windows
system, but not by using the standard Windows disk formatter.  Instead,
open a command prompt (a.k.a. "DOS Prompt") by doing "Start", "Run...",
and typing "cmd" in the box, then hit <Enter> or [OK].  At the command
prompt (usually C:\Documents and Settings\User>), type:

  format a: /n:9 /t:80

and hit <Enter>.  Do this when the diskette is in the drive, of course.
I've discovered that this can take a long time, but it does a
comprehensive scan, and will test for bad sectors as it goes.

Also, DD diskettes _do_ still exist, but probably not new ones.  Doing
a quick search on "mfd-2dd diskettes" returns results for some unopened
boxes of DD diskettes.

Bill Mackin
Hiawatha, Iowa