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Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1
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1992-11-07
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What Floppy Format?
Copyright (c) 1992 by Angel Babudro
"Organic Computer Wizardry"
28 Mulberry Street * Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506
(315) 853-6942
I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
THIS SOFTWARE PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION ("WFF") IS PROVIDED "AS
IS" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THOSE CONCERNING MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. BY USING WFF, YOU ARE EXPRESSLY RELEASING ANGEL
BABUDRO FROM ANY LIABILITY RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND
DOCUMENTATION. YOU MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING WFF. YOU ARE
ADVISED TO TEST AND SUPERVISE WFF THOROUGHLY BEFORE RELYING ON IT.
II. LICENSE
1. WFF is being distributed as Freeware. There is no
registration fee and you are licensed to use it for an unlimited time.
The copyright and marketing rights, however, are held by Angel
Babudro.
2. You may keep as many backup copies of WFF as you wish and you
may run WFF simultaneously on as many computers as you like. You are
granted the right to share WFF with others, as long as you distribute
the original files exactly as you received them, with all associated
files included.
3. Under no circumstances may you charge any fee or receive any
other form of consideration for distributing the WFF files without
express written consent from the copyright holder, Angel Babudro,
other than to charge a fee of not more than US$6 (six dollars) for the
media and/or service of distribution.
III. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME)
Thanks for trying my software. Please throw your comments,
suggestions, criticisms, etc. my way. I can be reached via the mail
or BBS. The bulletin boards below will have current versions of my
software and I will get any messages left there for me.
Mail Angel Babudro, "Organic Computer Wizardry",
28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY 13323-1506
BBS Angelo Babudro
West Coast Researcher's BBS, So Cal (805) 949-8151 USR HST DS
East Coast Nite-Air BBS, Central NY (315) 339-8831 USR HST 14.4
Odie's PCBoard, Central NY (315) 339-6713 USR HST DS
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IV. INTRODUCTION
WFF is a menu shell for use with Christophe Hochstatter's
FDFORMAT. WFF is Freeware; it is my contribution back to all the fine
programmers who have donated their labour in the form of public domain
software. Please distribute complete copies of WFF to bulletin boards
and friends -- please shackle any temptations you might have to
eliminate or modify anything -- not nice. :) I am open to donations if
your situation warrants. For the latest version of WFF order my
Sampler Disk (see ORDER.FRM).
Now, let me tell you what it is that I've created.
What Floppy Format? (WFF) is an easy way to quickly format
floppies without remembering commands and option switches for various
disk types using FDFORMAT, a formatting utility written and donated to
the public domain by Christophe Hochst tter (normally found as
FDFRM16A.ZIP or FDFORM18.ZIP on BBS's). FDFORMAT is the best floppy
format utility I've seen, but it's so flexible that there are a
million and one combinations of options. So I wrote WFF to allow me
to set & test certain options, save the options I prefer, and then
format a disks without having to remember any of it. I don't even
need to remember which drive is A: (not that it's a problem...).
I use the extra high-density and off-colour formats provided via
FDFORMAT for my archive disks. FDFORMAT packs 1.48Mb on a 5¼-inch
disk and up to 1.72Mb on a 3½-inch disk, which dramatically reduces
the number of disks I need to off-load large software from my hard
disk. And I've noticed that with a CompatiCard IV the <300-byte TSR
isn't needed for the extended densities. It's the best disk capacity
extender I've seen, and it's public domain, too! Can't beat it.
If you can't find it on your local BBS, FDFORMAT can be
downloaded from the BBSs listed above.
By the way, I don't have any interest in FDFORMAT other than
using it. I'll have to write a letter to the author some day...
WARNING WFF allows you to format disks in drive letters _______
other than A: or B: by assigning drive A: to that
drive. I did this so that I could format my 8"
drive (which is K: on my system) using FDFORMAT.
To illustrate, my 8" drive is K: so WFF does an
"ASSIGN a=k" before issuing the FDFORMAT command.
When FDFORMAT is finished, an "ASSIGN" command is
issued by itself to remove the drive assignment.
BEWARE If you set a hard disk letter as a floppy disk ______
drive I have no idea what will happen (I'm not
going to try it!). So PLEASE PLEASE be careful if
you use something other than drives A: and B: --
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double check that it's a floppy disk letter you're
using!
File List _________
The files that make up What Floppy Format? are as follows:
wff.exe The executable file
wff.txt The documentation (this text) in ASCII format [*]
wff.wp The documentation (this text) in WordPerfect 5
format (so you can format for your printer) [*]
wff.new Late-breaking news [*]
file_id.diz Description file for BBSs [*]
desc.sdi Description file for BBSs [*]
order.frm Order form for all of my Shareware! Please
TYPE ORDER.FRM > PRN
These are the files which make up WFF. When you give copies to
friends, BBSs, etc. please be sure to include all of these files.
Additional files will be created in the same directory as you use the
software. The files marked with [*] can be deleted if disk space is a
premium, but I ask that you please keep ORDER.FRM handy in case you or
someone else you know wants to contact me. Since I am asking for no
money for WFF I hope you will do this for me. Thanks.
Using WFF _________
NOTE: WFF.EXE should reside in a directory in your DOS
PATH. Otherwise you will have to use "cd" to change to
that directory each time. To set your path use the "set
path=" command in your autoexec.bat file.
Just type WFF from the DOS prompt. The first time you use it,
WFF will pop-up its set-up screen for you to fill in. Just tell it
whether you have a monochrome or colour screen, which types of floppy
disk drives you have (up to 4) and the drive letters, and the path to
the FDFORMAT programme. If FDFORMAT resides in a directory which is
in your DOS PATH it will automatically be filled in. (See WARNING
above about floppy drives.) Default values for disk verification and
sector sliding are also presented for you to change. If you aren't
sure what you want to use, just leave the defaults as they are -- the
default sector sliding values should improve the floppy disk's speed
on any computer. See the documentation for FDFORMAT for details about
these.
Directory Command -- While you are formatting disks you can press
F5 between disks to see a directory on the screen. This is the
directory command, and parameters, you like to use. You can use the
DOS "DIR" command, or "NDIR" as I use, or "HDIR" or anything else.
Root Dir Files -- This is the maximum number of files the disk
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may have in its root directory (\). In more technical terms, this
setting determines the size of the FAT (File Allocation Table). See
FDFORMAT docs. Leave "112" for default of 112 or 224, depending on
disk type. You can lower the number to squeeze a few more bytes out
of your disks. This does not affect subdirectories; only the number
of files you can have in the root.
After you've done the set-up, just pick the size of disk you
want from the horizontal menu -- 3½-inch, 5¼-inch, and 8-inch -- and
press RETURN. You'll see a vertical menu of the densities available,
depending on whether you have double-density or high-density drives --
densities which are not valid for your drive(s) cannot be selected.
Highlight your selection and press RETURN. That's all there is to it!
Special Features & Functions ____________________________
Quick Format -- If you have verification turned OFF, FDFORMAT
version 1.8 will re-format a disk in 5-10 seconds by only verifying
already formatted tracks and clearing the FAT.
Continuous Format -- After a disk is formatted you will hear some
tones to tell you the disk is finished (so you don't have to watch the
screen), and a ticking will begin.1 This is to let you know that WFF
is waiting for your response:
1. You can press Esc to stop formatting disks or F5 to see a
directory of another disk.
2. You can remove the disk. This will initiate WFF's Continuous
Format feature -- WFF will wait for you to insert another disk or press
Esc to quit or F5 for a directory.
Before inserting another disk you can press the F5 key to get a
directory of a disk. WFF will prompt for a drive letter at the bottom
of the screen. While it is waiting for the drive letter you can
insert the disk you would like to view.
NOTE Both FDFORMAT and WFF test the disk drive.
Usually this causes no noticable delay, but I
stumbled across a combination of electronics
that took 16-seconds to identify an
unformatted disk. If this is happening to you
there may be a conflict in your system;
experiment with card settings (address, IRQ,
etc.). In my case it was an address conflict.
Drawbacks -- I designed WFF to allow selection of disk drives
based on size rather than drive letter. This avoids confusion where
____________________
1 These sounds are only audible if the Sound option under
"File" is turned ON.
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one 5.25" and one 3.5" disk drive are used since you can't even assume
that the top drive is A: (Tandy broke that rule). But, if you have
two of the same drives (like an old AT or XT with dual 5.25" drives)
there is no way to choose between them. Anyone got a good idea on how
to deal with this??
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