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The Original Shareware 1.1
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The Original Shareware (WeMake CDs)(Volume 1.1)(CDs, Inc)(1993).iso
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dvformat.zip
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DVFORMAT.DOC
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1991-07-01
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July 1, 1991
Awhile back a small shareware package appeared containing DVFORMAT, or
some such. It enabled Desqview users to format floppies without bringing
the rest of the machine to a grinding halt while doing the formatting. It
had a few other features, like a gas-gauge showing progress, and a no-retry
policy for bad sectors. But its most desirable characteristic was its
coexistence with DV.
Now DOS5 is here, and it's got some nice stuff. Like a format command that
doesn't rewrite the whole disk each time. And when it does, it will
display how far along it is. But wait, DV is smart enough to use that
screen update to slice the task. We don't need a special program to do
formatting anymore. All we need is a batch file, and a couple of PIFs.
And here they are. DVFORMAT.BAT gets called out of the PIFs. DVFORMAT.INP
is the keystrokes that the format command will be looking for when creating
an unlabelled diskette. The open keys are FA for Format A and FB for Format B.
If the format ends successfully, the window will close itself down. (Warning:
successfully includes skipping bad sectors, so do a chkdsk before using the
diskette.) Unsuccessfully, the window stays open until you switch to it
and do an exit, at which time you'll see a failure-related message.
Unzip the whole thing into your C:\DV directory and add-a-program the PIFs.
Couldn't be simpler, and it doesn't cost a dime (once you've done a DOS5
upgrade).
Happy multitasking!
Russ Herman
Rose Media BBS / ...!lsuc!ontmoh!rwh
Toronto, Ontario, Canada