No, basically 1,2 MB drives can write on 360 K disks, but they write them "wrong" since their write head is to small.
Just written by a 360 K drive DD disks get magnetized by a writing head with proper track width.

For writing 5.25" PC disks you need in fact a HD and a DD drive.
For reading, the HD drive is enough.

Reading DD disks in a DD drive may cause problems when those disks were written in a HD drive.

so i must buy a DD 360Kb drive.... every unit is good for writing floppy for the unit installed in the IBM 5150? A floppy controller in a Pentium4 can use it in DOS?

I assume you are in Europe. Look out for broken/faulty Amstrad PC1512/1640 base units. Each one contains one or two DD drives. This is how I obtained mine.

And yes, they work perfectly in Pentium 4 systems with floppy drive controllers. I have one (Sankyo DFE222A10-A ) installed in an ABIT IC7 system. I use this system to create boot disks for my IBM 5160.

Some Pentium 4 controllers claim to support 360K drives, but actually freak out when you connect it. So cross your fingers it works. Pre-P4 mobo controllers seem all fine from my experience. As recommended here, a 360K drive can do things the 1.2MB can't. So I keep both.

Also be aware that Windows XP no longer supports DD drives. (HD still work.) You must use an older OS to access the drive.

i planning to use the drive on a IBM netvista P4 1,7ghz with DOS or win 98, i think it will be enough old

1. Yeah NOS pre-formatted 360k DD or bulk erased/formatted to 360k on a 1.2Mb drive and written on the 1.2Mb, the disks can usually be read ok on some 360k floppy drives but not all.
2. The biggest problem is when you take used 360k floppy disks and using a 1.2MB drive try to format to 360k and write... then you have the issue as disrupter said.
Later model 1/2 height 360k floppy drives usually can read my #1 but those full height 360k drives can not, just not sensitive enough to read the thinner, lower magnetics writing...

People who have options to choose between drive me crazy with envy. I have yet to find a single working 5.25 drive and I NEED one for my 286 build 🙁

appiah4 wrote on 2022-12-09, 06:23:

People who have options to choose between drive me crazy with envy. I have yet to find a single working 5.25 drive and I NEED one for my 286 build 🙁

Which country are you in ?

appiah4 wrote on 2022-12-09, 06:23:

People who have options to choose between drive me crazy with envy. I have yet to find a single working 5.25 drive and I NEED one for my 286 build 🙁

At a price you consider fair and are willing to pay I assume.

konc wrote on 2022-12-09, 10:34:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-12-09, 06:23:

People who have options to choose between drive me crazy with envy. I have yet to find a single working 5.25 drive and I NEED one for my 286 build 🙁

At a price you consider fair and are willing to pay I assume.

To be honest I come across at most one of them locally each year and the asking price is usually around the same price as a complete 386/486 era PC.

have you tried the internet shopping experience? 😜
I see plenty of dicey ~$10 1.2MB untested floppies, one $35 fully tested 1.2MB, and one $56 fully tested 360KB listed in Poland right now.

rasz_pl wrote on 2022-12-09, 21:21:

have you tried the internet shopping experience? 😜
I see plenty of dicey ~$10 1.2MB untested floppies, one $35 fully tested 1.2MB, and one $56 fully tested 360KB listed in Poland right now.

It sometimes makes sense to buy "untested". I buy almost all of my vintage stuff this way and I only got a broken MB once. However I managed to get a good 5.25 floppy disk drive recently very cheaply. I usually look what other things the seller is selling. If he/she has various other non computer goods and says the part is "untested" I'm keen to believe them, but if I see a guy selling a bunch of vintage stuff some tested, some "untested" I usually take this to mean "broken".

Also watch this YouTube video about how to fix few common 5.25 in drive issues https://youtu.be/VZ9xhFkHZ5c