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Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Solved.

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On 01/15/2017 04:36 PM, Martin McCormick wrote:
> I must first say a big thank you to everybody who helped.
>
> 	I got it working and here is what happened and how to
> format a totally blank diskette.
>
> 	The man page for setfdprm should have had at least one
> example of how to use it since syntax, especially for something
> one doesn't use every day, is not intuitive and can cause hours of prodding and
> head-scratching/banging.
>
> 	In my searching via Google and reading some of the
> articles and discussion group postings, I learned that there is a
> companion to setfdprm which is getfdprm. I put in a good and
> formatted floppy and ran getfdprm on a 1.44 Mb disk. The
> application produced
>
> DS HD sect=18
>
> This occurs after you have spun the disk to mount it or done
> anything else to make the disk turn for reading.
>
> 	If you eject the diskette, the value stored in setfdprm
> vaporizes, assuming that one's floppy drive's disk-change switch
> is working.
>
> 	I figured that this value or
>
> DS DD sect=9
>
> for a 720 K diskette was worth passing to setfdprm so I wrote the
> following shell script:
>
> #!/bin/sh
> #1.44Mb disk Uncomment line below.
> #setfdprm /dev/fd0 DS HD sect=18
> #720K disk Uncomment line below to use it.
> #setfdprm /dev/fd0 DS HD sect=9
> #fdformat /dev/fd0
>
> It will begin by identifying that this is a double-sided disk and
> will start laying down tracks from 0 to 79 and then verify their
> presence.
>
> 	You can skip the verification process in fdformat but I
> don't advise it as I tried some old 720K disks that formatted all
> 80 tracks and then track 0 was dead on all of them.
>
> 	Another warn-out disk formatted and verified until track
> 76 was reached and then it cratered with the same error that
> befell the 720K disks.
>
> 	A new (unused until now) 1.44 Mb disk formatted and
> verified all 80 tracks so the drive appears to have no
> electro mechanical issues on good media.
>
> 	On the disk with a dead track 76, the error caused the
> heads to seek all the way back to track 0 and then forward to 76.
> One could hear it rip-sawing back and forth which was probably
> good exercise for a drive that doesn't get much usage these days.
> After trying to read track 76 many times, the verification
> aborted with a message stating that this track was bad.
>
> 	Anyway, this has been an interesting journey down memory
> lane. Stuff just works a lot better these days than it used to.
>
> Martin McCormick WB5AGZ
>
>
About a year ago, or maybe two, I bought a pack of Radio Shack floppies. 
I think ten or twelve in
the pack. Most of them had errors right off the bat!  I don't know if 
you can trust old floppies!
--doug

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Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening "Martin McCormick" <martin.m@suddenlink.net> - 2017-01-14 22:40 +0100
  Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> - 2017-01-14 23:10 +0100
  Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Mirko Parthey <mirko.parthey@web.de> - 2017-01-14 23:20 +0100
    Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening "Martin McCormick" <martin.m@suddenlink.net> - 2017-01-15 15:20 +0100
      Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> - 2017-01-15 15:50 +0100
        Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-01-15 16:00 +0100
      Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-01-15 19:30 +0100
        Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> - 2017-01-15 20:00 +0100
    Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Solved. "Martin McCormick" <martin.m@suddenlink.net> - 2017-01-15 22:40 +0100
      Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Solved. Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> - 2017-01-15 23:30 +0100
      Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Solved. Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-01-16 00:10 +0100
      Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Solved. Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-01-16 00:30 +0100
        Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Solved. John Darrah <xyllyx@gmail.com> - 2017-01-16 02:40 +0100
          Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Solved. Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-01-16 04:00 +0100
  Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-01-15 16:10 +0100
    Dell BIOS ( was Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening) "Martin McCormick" <martin.m@suddenlink.net> - 2017-01-16 19:00 +0100
      Re: Dell BIOS Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-01-16 19:50 +0100
        Re: Dell BIOS "Martin McCormick" <martin.m@suddenlink.net> - 2017-01-16 22:00 +0100
          Re: Dell BIOS Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2017-01-16 22:40 +0100
            Re: Dell BIOS John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2017-01-16 23:00 +0100
              Re: Dell BIOS Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2017-01-16 23:30 +0100
                Re: Dell BIOS John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2017-01-17 00:30 +0100
      Re: Dell BIOS Mirko Parthey <mirko.parthey@web.de> - 2017-01-17 00:40 +0100
        Re: Dell BIOS Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-01-17 02:10 +0100

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