home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Cream of the Crop 3
/
Cream of the Crop 3.iso
/
utility
/
fmat65.zip
/
FMAT.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-04-16
|
13KB
|
259 lines
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ██████┐ ██┐ ██┐ ████┐ ██████┐ │
│ ██┌───┘ ███┐███│ ██┌─██┐ └─██┌─┘ │
│ ████┐ ███████│ ██████│ ██│ │
│ ██┌─┘ ██┌█┌██│ ██┌─██│ ██│ │
│ ██│ ██│└┘██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ │
│ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ │
│ FMAT V6.5, A Simple Disk Initializer │
│ Copyright (C) 1991-94 by Chris Buijs │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
I had the need for a SMALL and FAST format utility which could be included
in some archives i use for my BBS without increasing the size of the archive
to much, so i created one, after making a couple of versions it is grown to
a very usefull utility with more capability's i first planned....
FMAT is FREEWARE, it may be freely copied as a complete package.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▒▒▒▒ Disclaimer ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
FMAT is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed
or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of
merchantability and of fitness for any purpose.
The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which
may result from the use of FMAT.
Feel free to share FMAT with your friends, but please do not give it away
altered or as part of another system.
In commercial environments FMAT may only be used when the author has
given his explicit permission.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▒▒▒▒ Requires ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
FMAT requires the following: XT or AT computer.
128 KB free memory.
MS/PC-DOS V4.0 or higher.
A standard floppy-drive.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▒▒▒▒ Usage ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
FMAT is simple to use, it uses the same parameters as the DOS format
utility, FMAT only formats DISKETTES, all formats on different drives
or diskettes are allowed, so you can format a 360 kb 3.5-Inch floppy in
a 1.44 MB drive if you want, this can very handy when you have a 1.2 MB
drive and must convert a disk-file to disk, and the disk-file represents
a 720 KB disk.
Syntax: FMAT <Drive> [Parameters]
Parameters: /1 - Format a single side of a disk.
/2 - Format both sides of a disk.
/4 - Format a 5.25-inch 360 KB disk.
/8 - Format 8 sectors per track.
/C:Sects - Specifies the number of sectors per cluster.
/E - Erase disk, all tracks will be cleared.
/F:Size - Specifies the size of the disk to format.
/I:Interl - Specifys sector-interleave.
/M - Multiple disk formatting.
/N:Sects - Specifies the number of sectors per track.
/Q - Perform a quick-format.
/R:Entrys - Specifies the number of entrys in root-directory.
/S - Create a bootable disk.
/T:Tracks - Specifies the number of tracks per side.
/U - Unconditional format (Batch).
/V[:Label] - Specifies the volume label (Max 11 chars).
/W - Write Verify, verify every track after format.
/X[:Sects] - Enable sector-shifting (enables drives to
read the formatted disk faster).
More info about some parameters:
/E - This parameter will erase all tracks on the disk by writing zero's
to it, the boot-sector, fat-tables and root-directory will be
re-initialized.
/I - Specifies the sector-interleave, the number of sectors the leave
between following sectors, FMAT calculates automatically which
interleave is the best to use.
/N - Specifies the number of sector per track, by testing we discovered
that the maximum value of 22 can be used before FMAT gets any errors,
this depends on what kind of disk-drive you use.
/Q - Like DOS 5.0 this will do a initialization of the boot-sector, FATS
and root-directory.
/R - Specifies the number of root-entrys, the maximum setting DOS allowes
is 224 entrys.
/T - Specifies the number of tracks per side, by testing we discovered that
the maximum value of 84 can be used before FMAT gets any errors, this
depends on what kind of disk-drive you use.
/W - Turns on write-verify, when you use this, FMAT will write to the
track that was formatted a test-patern and will read the track in,
FMAT will then compare the data read with the data that was written,
when the data doesn't match, a verify error will be displayed.
/X - Turns on sector-shifting, when you enable this, FMAT will shift the
starting sector each track it formats, this will speed up
read-operations of the formatted disk, some explaination:
When a drive wants to read some tracks, it first wants to find sector
one of the first track, when it is found the track is read in and the
heads are moved to the second track, because the disk is still
spinning, the head is not positioned at sector one of the second
track, but on the third or fourth (depends what kind of drive you
have and how fast it is), so the first sector must be found again.
FMAT can shift the sectors so that when the head is positioned
onto the next track it can find sector one immidiate, this will
speedup disk-reading at the most 50% !!!
By tests we discovered that a sector-shift of 3 or 4 sectors will
speedup the most drives (both 3.5 and 5.25 inch drives), we recommed
to use a sector-shift of 3 for 5.25 inch drives, and a sector-shift
of 4 for 3.5 inch drives.
NOTE: on some drives sector-shifting will SLOW-DOWN your drive, you
are on your own to test this.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▒▒▒▒ FMAT Environment variable ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
You can use the environment variable FMAT to define the default-settings
at startup, for example, is you always format drive A: at 720 KB and want
to do it quick, you can include for example in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
SET FMAT=A: /F:720 /Q
The only thing you'll ever have to do is typing in FMAT followed by an
ENTER and FMAT will format drive A: quickly at 720 KB.
NOTE: The parameters you use at the command-line ALWAYS overrule the
parameters you use in the FMAT environment variable.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▒▒▒▒ NON-Bootable Disks ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
When you create a NON-Bootable disk, FMAT will create a special boot-sector
on it, when you boot from a non-bootable disk created by FMAT, it will
automatically boot from drive C: if possible, when this is not possible,
the standard message is displayed.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▒▒▒▒ Formats ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The following table shows the combination of parameters that can be used
to format diskettes with a higher capacity, not all combinations are shown,
but this ones most certainly work.
FMAT automatically adjust the gap-size between sectors so that all sectors
can fit into a track, the sector values in this table are not the maximum
values but the reliable ones, use the trial/error method to find out your
maximum settings.
Size Tracks Sectors Drive DiskType Parameters
─────── ────── ─────── ───── ──────── ─────────────────────────────
360 KB 40 9 12345 5¼ DS/DD /F:360
369 KB 41 9 12345 5¼ DS/DD /F:369
400 KB 40 10 12345 5¼ DS/DD /F:400
410 KB 41 10 12345 5¼ DS/DD /F:410
720 KB 80 9 .2345 3½ DS/DD /F:720
738 KB 82 9 .2345 3½ DS/DD /F:738
800 KB 80 10 .2345 3½ DS/DD /F:800
820 KB 82 10 .2345 3½ DS/DD /F:820
1200 KB 80 15 ..345 5¼ DS/HD /F:1200
1230 KB 82 15 ..345 5¼ DS/HD /F:1230
1280 KB 80 16 ..345 5¼ DS/HD /F:1280
1312 KB 82 16 ..345 5¼ DS/HD /F:1312
1440 KB 80 18 ...45 3½ DS/HD /F:1440
1476 KB 82 18 ...45 3½ DS/HD /F:1476
1600 KB 80 20 ...45 3½ DS/HD /F:1600
1640 KB 82 20 ...45 3½ DS/HD /F:1640
1680 KB 80 21 ...45 3½ DS/HD /F:1680
1722 KB 82 21 ...45 3½ DS/HD /F:1722
2880 KB 80 36 ....5 3½ DS/EHD /F:2880
Drive: 1 = 360 KB Drive
2 = 720 KB Drive
3 = 1.2 MB Drive
4 = 1.44 MB Drive
5 = 2.88 MB Drive
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▒▒▒▒ Error Codes ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
When FMAT is running, it can happen that FMAT aborts with the message:
==== (Type) ERROR: nnn
This can happen when a bad diskette is used or something like that, the
message wil return a number, following is a list with explaination of
most common diskette-drive codes:
Code Explaination
──── ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 Bad command, FMAT works only on DISKETTE drives.
2 Address mark not found, a bad diskette is used.
3 Diskette is write-protected.
4 Sector not found.
8 DMA Overrun, Check memory manager or cache.
9 DMA Across 64K Boundery, Check memory manager or cache.
13 Unsupported track (strange floppy formats like Amiga, atari etc.).
16 Bad CRC/ECC, bad diskette.
32 Controller failure, something is wrong with your controller.
64 Seek failed, FMAT couldn't verify a track or sector.
128 Time-Out, controller or drive doesn't respond fast enough.
-127 No diskette present in drive.
When an error occurrs, FMAT wil also exit with an errorlevel, the
following list explains the errorlevels:
Code Explaination
──── ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0 No error.
1 Incorrect DOS-Version (4.0 or higher needed).
2 Invalid drive-specification.
3 Drive-Type not supported.
4 Invalid parameter used or wrong syntax.
5 Error on system-files.
6 Error copying system-files.
7 General disk-error.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▒▒▒▒ Support ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
For bug-reports, suggestions or other things concerning FMAT, you can
write me a letter at the followin address:
C.Buijs
De Spil 22
1507 CX Zaandam
Netherlands
Or phone to my BBS:
Action Board Zaandam
Phone: +31-(0)75-704890
Speeds: 1200,2400 HST MNP V42 V42Bis 14.400
Or send me Email, FidoNet : 2:280/407.16
InterNet : 100117.3242@compuserve.com
Compuserve: 100117,3242
Have Fun...