Formatting 160G drive to 120G - comp.sys.acorn.hardware

Message from discussion Formatting 160G drive to 120G
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Subject: Re: Formatting 160G drive to 120G
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn.hardware
From: Dentrassis <g...@dentrassis.com>
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Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:39:51 +0100
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In message <20090624141012.70681...@trite.i.flarn.net.i.flarn.net>
          Rob Kendrick <n...@rjek.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:26:33 +0100
> Dentrassis <g...@dentrassis.com> wrote:

>> How do I format a 160GByte drive to only be recognised as 120Gbyte
>> capacity? This is to be used in an an Iyonix so I don't want to go
>> over 120G size to keep the transfer speeds high.

> I may be wrong, but I suspect you have to replace it with a 120GB one.
> Formatting is a software thing, and transfer speeds are a hardware
> thing; the hardware will still see it as a 160GB device.

I remember reading discussion that if a larger drive was formatted 
down so that it was below 120GB it would still attain the higher 
access speeds, and in fact one of our Iyonix machines here was 
supplied as an 80GB model but had in fact got a 160GB drive fitted (by 
Castle).

I guess that when formatting using !HForm I need to supply figures 
that reduce the overall capacity, but I'm not sure what they should 
be. Maybe if I post here the current settings of number of heads etc. 
that show up as 160GB, someone will be able to help me with what I 
change to reduce the size. I will fit the drive shortly and have a go.