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  Beginning with version 2.0, DOS had the potential to recognize virtually
  any physical disk format. This became possible because DOS versions 2.0
  and later provide the necessary tools to write an installable device
  driver-- a machine-language routine that can configure a disk drive to
  read or write different formats or allow you to hook up a non-IBM disk
  drive to your system. (See Appendix A for more on installable device
  drivers.)

  Fortunately, installable diskette device drivers have not led to a
  proliferation of nonstandard, incompatible diskette formats. Instead,
  software vendors and programmers have relied on the standard DOS formats
  listed in Figure 5-3. On 51/4-inch diskettes, the 360 KB nine-sector
  format is used most frequently, while on 31/2-inch diskettes, the 720 KB
  format is most common. These are not the highest capacity formats, but
  they can be used on machines that aren't equipped with higher-capacity
  diskette drives as well as on those that are.

  If you're interested in creating your own diskette formats, or in
  understanding DOS diskette formats in more detail, be sure to read about
  ROM BIOS disk services in Chapter 10.