Something is wrong ? In this moment it isn't matter for some help. Help Czech This is a short Czech translate of documentation of FDFORMAT. The translate is saved in FDFORMAT.CZH file. Help English The documentation of program FDFORMAT. This documentati- on is saved in FDFORMAT.DOC file. It contains precise des- cription of all parameters for FDFORMAT utilities. - See: Short Czech translate documentation Drive Drive ... : Select a drive which will be used for formatting. Capacity ..... Select a capacity of the diskette. The following table shows which format can be used for each drive. Form t 360KB-Mech.720KB-Mech.1.2MB-Mech.1.44M-Mech. --------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- 160 kByte Disk yes FDREAD yes FDREAD 180 kByte Disk yes FDREAD yes FDREAD 200 kByte Disk FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD 205 kByte Disk FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD 320 kByte Disk yes FDREAD yes FDREAD 360 kByte Disk yes FDREAD yes FDREAD 400 kByte Disk FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD 410 kByte Disk FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD 720 kByte Disk no ano FDREAD yes 800 kByte Disk no FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD 820 kByte Disk no FDREAD FDREAD FDREAD 1.2 MByte Disk no no yes yes 1.44 MByte Disk no no FDREAD yes 1.48 MByte Disk no no FDREAD yes 1.6 MByte Disk no no no FDREAD 1.64 MByte Disk no no no FDREAD 1.68 MByte Disk no no no FDREAD 1.72 MByte Disk no no no FDREAD FDREAD in the above table means, that this format will work only, if FDREAD (or FDR88) is installed. You may find out, that this table will not be valid for your table and that you can use certain diskette formats without FDREAD (or FDR88), that are listed to work with FDREAD (or FDR88) only. Options Volume label ... This option writes volume label to your diskette after successful formatting. You must write your label (max. 11 chars). Options System floppy disk ? You can specify whether System-disk will be created after succesfull formatting or no. Setup Registration ... If you are registered user and if you know registration code, then you specify necessary information. If you write right code, then program won't write appeal for registration of program FDF at next run. See: Registration information Setup Registration information Info about registration of program FDF. If you want known more information about FDF, run program FDF_INFO.EXE with /A options. See: Registration Setup Sound ? Program FDF reports end of formating with sound signal. If you want turn off this sound, use NO option. Default is YES option. Copy FDREAD to the diskette Manual copy Copy FDR88 to the diskette Manual copy You can copy FDREAD or FDR88 to the diskette which is in select drive. Copy FDREAD to the diskette Auto-copy after format? You can let to copy FDREAD to the diskette after each suc- cessful forrrmatting. If you want do this copying after each formatting, use YES option. Default is NO option. See: Copy FDR88 diskette Copy FDR88 to the diskette Auto-copy after format? You can let to copy FDR88 to the diskette after each suc- cessful formatting. If you want do this copying after each formatting, use YES option. Default is NO option. See: Copy FDREAD diskette View of the diskette Drive ...: Do you want format the diskette? Are you sure that on the diskette isn't some important file? Select drive and you can see root directory on the diskette. 6 If you want look over all diskette, use DOS shell. Exit Yes No DOS shell Options: Yes ......... End of program. No .......... You can continue in using of program FDF. DOS shell ... Temporary exit to DOS. Escape is pos- sible, if you write EXIT command. Options Copy FDREAD to the diskette Copy FDR88 to the diskette Some format needs FDREAD or FDR88. You can copy these short programs to the diskette. If you get message "Sector not found.", run FDREAD or FDR88. 2 See: Manual FDREAD FDR88 diskette / Auto-copy FDREAD or FDR88 to the diskette Setup Setup ... Select, please, actual paths for FDFORMAT utilities. Prog- ram FDF uses these paths for starting FDFORMAT, FDREAD, FDR88. Options Own options... You can enter own options for formatting with this opti- on. I can recommend you read up FDFORMAT documentation before use this option. Options Install FDREAD (AT-computers) Install FDR88 (XT-computers) To make full use of FDFORMAT, you have to make a small TSR resident in memory. There are two different TSRs for XT-computers and AT-computers. 80386/80486 machines are treated as AT computers here. The TSR for AT computers is FDREAD.EXE and for XT computers it is FDR88.EXE. Both TSRs use less than 200 Bytes resident memory. = If you have a memory-manager installed, that supports UMB (like QEMM, QRAM, mov'em or 386-Max), do not load FDREAD (or FDR88) high. The TSR automatically detects the memory mana- ger and will load high itself. = FDREAD will also automatically load high on computers with a 286(!!!) processor and up, if DOS 5 or higher is used. You must have HIMEM.SYS (or another XMS-Driver) in- stalled and put DOS=HIGH in your CONFIG.SYS file. = If you get the error "Too much memory available". You must load FDREAD twice to avoid this error. = The TSR is required to support diskette formats, which are non-standard under DOS. If you intend to use FDFORMAT only with DOS-standard-diskette-formats, you do not need FDREAD (or FDR88). Format type DOS format Beginning with version 1.8. FDFORMAT formats disks the same way as DOS-FORMAT of DOS Version 5. FDFORMAT checks, if the diskette is already formatted in the format you have choosen. If this is true, FDFORMAT only verifies the disk and rewrites the System-Area. If the disk is formatted in another format, a real low-level formatting is performed. See: Quick format Reformat without Format type Quick format This option specifies a quick format. FDFORMAT tries to determine the current diskette format and then only rewrites the system area. All options to specify a different format are ignored, if you specify this option. FDFORMAT will also skip verifying, if the this option is selected. If this op- tion is selected and FDFORMAT cannot find a valid boot sec- tor, the diskette will be low-level formatted with the for- mat you specified. See: DOS format Reformat without Format type Reformat without data loss This option is used to reformat a diskette. This is use- ful, when you have diskette, that is still readable, but on- ly with several retries. This is often the case, if you try to read a 360 kB Diskette in a 360 kB drive, that was writ- ten in an 1.2 MB drive. = If you choose this option, no modifications are made to diskette. If you e.g. specify a different format or volume label, these options are ignored. The diskette will be read in track by track. Then the track will be reformatted and the data is written back to the diskette. = It is safe to press Ctrl-Break during format without era- se, because the exit-request is notified, when you press Ctrl-Break, but performed, when the current track is comple- tely written. Viz. tak : DOS Rychl "Low-level" Format type "Low-level" format If you specify this option, the diskette will be "low-level" formatted in any case. See: DOS format 2 Quick format Reformat without Options System floppy disk ? This option lets you format a system disk. It copies boot-sector, DOS-System-file and COMMAND.COM to your disk. FDFORMAT does not do these task by itself, but calls the DOS-Command SYS to do so. Thus you must make sure, that SYS.COM or SYS.EXE is in a directory, which is included in your PATH Environment Variable. The call to SYS is made to ensure compatibility with any DOS Version. Note: = You cannot create a system disk, which cannot be read without FDREAD. Help Info ... Info about author of FDF and FDFORMAT. Help Info ... About FDF 3.5 If you can known more information about FDF, run program FDF_INFO.EXE with /A option. Help Info ... About FDFORM T and FDREAD LICENSE This program is a public-domain product for private and educational use. You may freely copy and use it without any charge. = This program must not be sold for profit. An adaequate fee may be requested for copying, shipping and handling when redistributing this program. = You may modify and improve this program, but the execu- table program must show a message that your version has been modified. = If you find, that this program is worth contributing for it, do not hesitate to send cash, check, 3 "-diskettes or something else. % THANKS Special thanks to the following people: Jochen Roderburg: = For suggestions and improvements to support compatibility with several BIOS-Versions. Michael Ho: ) For an improvement in sector sliding. Joel Armengaud: = For supporting automatic detection of 720 kByte diskettes in FDREAD. rg-Stefan Sell: = For supporting an interface routine to less compatible XT computers. Michael D. Lawler: + For lots of suggestions of improvemnts. Peter Summers: & For an improvement in FDREAD/FDR88 FEATURES OF FDFORMAT FDFORMAT is a replacement for the DOS-Format program, which has the following advantages: > 1) Supporting 3 "-1.44 MB drives with any BIOS-Versions in ] ATs and Clones. This saves you a lot of money, you would need for a new BIOS-Version. 2) Formatting and using of 720/820 kByte disks in AT G "-1.2 MByte Drives using cheap double-density (DD) disks. 3) Increasing the capacity of your disks up to 300 kByte ad- ditional storage. 4) Supporting 3 "-360 kByte format. This is useful, when you I want to make copies of 5 "-disks to 3 "-Disks using DISKCOPY 5) Enhance speed of your diskette I/O up to 100% with sector sliding. This is a method of physical ordering sectors in a way, that your drive is ready to read the next logical sector, when your head advances one track. 6) Improved BOOT-Sector, which automatically boots from harddisk, if the diskette in drive A: is not a system disk. This allows you to leave the diskette in drive A:, when you reboot the system. Setup Search FDFORMAT utilities You can let to search FDFORMAT utilities on all available disks. The searching begins in actual directory. When you want break searching, press ESC key. Setup Values for sector sliding User defined ... Default (FDFORMAT) None (DOS) You have chance select sector sliding here: User defined .... write your optimal values Default ......... values which are advised in FDFORMAT docu- mentation None ............ the DOS-format program always format with $ sector sliding 0. Setup Values for sector sliding These options can be used to enhance the performance of your disk up to 100%. This is a bit difficult to explain. Imagine a standard 360 kB disk. It has 9 sectors on each track numbered 1 to 9. Normally the sectors on all tracks ordered "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9". With sector sliding of 1 you order "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9" on track 0, "9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8" on track 1, "8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7" of track 2 and so on. = You can easily imagine, that it takes a little time, when your diskette drive head steps from one track to another. But your diskette continues rotating. Without sector sliding your diskette is positioned to sector 2 or 3 on the next track, when the stepping is done. It needs nearly a full re- volution until sector 1 of the next track can be read. With sector sliding of 1 or 2 your diskette is positioned exactly on sector 1, when it starts reading again. > Xn ... slides n sectors, when you change the head, but not the track. Ym ... slides m sectors, when you change the track. Format Begin format The title says all. This option begins to format the diskette in select drive.