On 14/06/2010 16:34, Dilwyn Jones wrote:
probably has something to do with Windows 7: The Microsoft guys have
removed native support for 720k formatting from all Windows 7 stuff (If
you try to format a floppy with the built-in tools, it will only offer
1440k, not 720k like XP/Vista did).
My windows 7 box can't do that either (be it from inside QPC or
outside), while it works perfectly on XP and Vista.
I help myself with a pack of pre-formatted disks I created on an XP box.
Regards
Tobias
Seems the most obvious explanation under Windows 7!
Looks like Rich has been micro-shafted by M$.
Some time ago I reviewed a USB floppy drive for Quanta and it worked
brilliantly (albeit under XP) at first. Then mysteriously it started
being awkward with DD disks, sometimes it would format correctly,
sometimes it wouldn't. (whether using *D or *H)
I tried formatting the disks on the Aurora and QL, then reformatting
them on the USB drive to see what happened. Reliability improved, but
was not perfect, sometimes it would format the disk as a HD even
though the disk was DD, probably down to what Rich suggested with the
drive sensor (or lack of).
The same disks would usually format perfectly on the built in floppy
drive on this PC (also XP)!
If you manage to find a solution, can you post it here? Would be
useful information as more and more people use QL emulators on Windows
7 machines.
Dilwyn Jones
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Well, I've lurked on the list for a while since I hung up the QBranch
boots in the closet but recent posts deserve some comment I suppose. I
will start with the floppy issue. Way back when I was doing lots of
shows I decided that you could not format DD disks under QPC2 on any of
my PCs. In fact I brought a QL / Aurora and monitor to many shows just
to format disks. Firstly it was far too slow and secondly it failed too
often. I was not typing it in at the command line because that was too
slow at a show. Formatting was haphazard and took ages. I mentioned it
on several occasions and got the usual 'does not happen here' response.
Understandably hard to pin down. I did, however, find that formatting
the disks using Disk Mate 5 usually worked fine - on all of the systems
- so I hazard the guess that it is not a problem with Microsoft but
something else. I have have not tried under Windows 7 on this sytem but
then it is hardly surprising that the ability to format a 20+ year old
disk has been removed from a new system. This is like complaining that
your CD player won't play 78s.No one uses floppy disks any more.
Which brings me onto the 'future of the QL' debate. Nothing has a future
if it does not move. All the while I was writing 'Byts of Wood' I was up
against the fact that there was nothing to write about. Nothing new. No
point in being a trader for a static community if all you are
advertising is the same stuff that everyone already owns. Then, when you
come up with a great system to make things better, no one buys it (QDT
of course). There may well be 500+ users on Rich's database but what are
they doing with the QL? What has he sold them? The odd keyboard
membrane, disk expansion,? How many repeat sales? Data is only of use if
it has a context.
In all the time I was a trader there were very few ground breakers and
they gradually fell by the wayside through lack of support and sales.
This has been the most active conversation on this list for ages and a
while back there were people talking about how to print - a subject that
has been round the track more times than a sprinter with Alzheimers.
When the QL community was thriving it was moving forward with ideas
flowing. These last years it has been inward looking and characterised
by infighting and lack of inspiration. I have not seen QL Today since I
stopped distributing it but I am still a member of Quanta and I see
nothing new there.
If you want it to continue then you have to stop complaining and
waffling on this list and write programs, have ideas and innovate. No
point in magazines and user groups if there is nothing new to say or do.
(BTW the Sussex group stopped meeting years back because there was
nothing new to do and the only reason it says that we no longer have a
venue is that Quanta was too lazy to contact us and just printed the
same message every time.)
This may all seem a bit harsh but, like a jolt to the heart in teh case
case of cardiac arrest, sometimes you need a defibrilator to restore a
pulse. The paddles are in your hands - don't wait for the flat line.
--
Roy Wood
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