To Jope:
Most modern 3.5" Disk Drives are DD and HD. When it comes to the newer drives, there is no such thing as a DD drive or a HD drive. The HD detect switch is used to tell the drive what type of disk is being used. The stepper motor will change its stepping speed accordingly. So, always using DD disks will NOT hurt the drive, it does not care. Just do NOT tape the HD hole on HD disks and then format them as DD disks. This practice WILL cause those disks to fail. If you want to format 880K disks, then ONLY use DD disks. They can still be purchased at some stores, on eBay, and on the internet. If you only use true DD disks, the Teac FD-235HF disk drive will outlast the original Chinon drive. The Chinon drive had a lot of plastic in it, but the Teac FD-235HF is all metal. It is a much higher quality disk drive. I need to find out where the RY and DC jumper pads are on the TEAC FD-235HF. Can one of you guys help me, please? :-D