Thinking back ten to twenty-five years...
1. The 800K drives use a stronger magnetic flux (if that is the correct term) than the 1440KB drives used to write information (I think...., this may seem counter-intuitive, but I think the explanation is something like to store more information on a 1440KB disk, compared to an 800KB disk, the information : flux changes between magnetic domains : needs to be stored closer together - as in "packed tighter" - which in turn requires a weaker signal per domain on the 1440KB diskettes so that the neighbouring domains do not interfere with each other).
2. When the nylon gears in the eject mechanism get old the teeth can become brittle, and once one tooth breaks off a gear the drive cannot reliably load or eject diskettes. I have an 800KB drive (External Unidisk 3.5, for Apple II systems) with this ailment, regrettably.
3. In some cases, you can recover information / files off a dying 800KB diskette with a native 800KB drive, even though you cannot recover the information on the same 800KB disk using a 1440KB drive.
There was a 2880KB 3.5" format of IBM / PC Compatible drive, but I do not know what happened to them (nor am I sure what happened to the IBM PS 2 OS/2 ?)
1. The 800K drives use a stronger magnetic flux (if that is the correct term) than the 1440KB drives used to write information (I think...., this may seem counter-intuitive, but I think the explanation is something like to store more information on a 1440KB disk, compared to an 800KB disk, the information : flux changes between magnetic domains : needs to be stored closer together - as in "packed tighter" - which in turn requires a weaker signal per domain on the 1440KB diskettes so that the neighbouring domains do not interfere with each other).
2. When the nylon gears in the eject mechanism get old the teeth can become brittle, and once one tooth breaks off a gear the drive cannot reliably load or eject diskettes. I have an 800KB drive (External Unidisk 3.5, for Apple II systems) with this ailment, regrettably.
3. In some cases, you can recover information / files off a dying 800KB diskette with a native 800KB drive, even though you cannot recover the information on the same 800KB disk using a 1440KB drive.
There was a 2880KB 3.5" format of IBM / PC Compatible drive, but I do not know what happened to them (nor am I sure what happened to the IBM PS 2 OS/2 ?)