So I'm looking at a music demo this morning using Parados and see that it contains 187K of files, Parados itself can format 3" discs to give 203K per side
Now Amstrad set the standard at 178K - is that because it is the best option for efficient drive use/drive life?
And could continuous use of extended formats possibly damage the drive or discs?
Amsdos format is 40 tracks, with 9 x 512 bytes sectors per track, which is 180kb.
I can't see any problem with using more sectors per track, because the drive is still reading in the whole track, it just changes the gaps.
However, I read at https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/programming/2h-a-homemade-208k-3'-disc-format-tool/ that disk formats with more than 41 tracks could cause problems with the drive alignment, as the head is moving out of its normal range.