On 15/03/2012 07:04, Dilwyn Jones wrote:
Ralf Reköndt wrote:
as it is not possible to format a QL DD or HD disk under
QPC2/Windows XP:
Does anyone know a QL program, which writes a suitable map on a PC
formatted disk, so that it is usable as a QL disk?
Dave Walker's QXLformat program should be able to do this (on my
site at
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/files/index.html) , although I thought QPC2
could
format disks on XP. I know DD disks can be impossible on some
versions of
Windows (e.g. Windows 7).
Thank you. I have tried it under XP with a 3,5" USB drive, but
whithout success. I also do not know (not tried) if it is ever
possible to format a DD disk under XP...? Maybe just HD?
Ah, a USB floppy disk drive. I too have had problems with this (my old
PC was an XP one, not tried it with the Win 7 64-bit one yet).
It was unreliable - sometimes it would work and sometimes not. I don't
know if it might help - try using the *H and *D qualifiers to force it
to format to a given density in case it is having difficulty detecting
the disk type.
FORMAT "flp1_name*D" to force it to try double density
FORMAT "flp1_name*H" to force it to try high density
Is the PC able to format reliably from Windows XP? Perhaps format it
under Windows first then try a "reformat" in QPC2.
Also, this is a silly question to ask, but have you checked the USB
floppy disk appears as drive a: in Windows? (so QPC is trying to use
the right drive). It should if no other floppy disk drive on the system.
The following is a quote from an email by Norman Dunbar last September
where he reported he'd been able to format from the DOS command line
box (hope he wasn't referring to a Windows box on a Linux system):
<quote>
Ok, formatting a blank disc fails in Windows Explorer because there are
no options in any of the drop down lists for capacity, volume name etc.
The OK button works (as does Cancel) warns me that formatting will
destroy all data on the disc, then OK just ignores me and does nothing.
Format a: /FS:FAT in a dos box works perfectly.
Once DOS formated, QPC can read it as a DOS formatted floppy. So far so
good.
In SBasic, the format flp1_TEST command works. (At least, using a 720 KB
disc it does.) However, it formats to 1.44 Mb rather than 720 KB and
it's noisy. There are no HD holes in the floppy - so maybe the drive is
lying to QPC/Windows?
A completely blank unformatted disc also formats under QPC - but this
time correctly to 720 Kb. This time the format is as quiet as I remember
QL formats to be. :-)
Reformatting the first one again using SBasic or QPAC2 results in a
noise 1.44MB Format.
</quote>
Dilwyn
Re: floppy drive letters, my Vista laptop has three USB ports. It has
decided that one will call a USB floppy "a" and the other "b", even when
a single drive is plugged in. I run PC XCHANGE in DosBox and have to
remember to plug into the "a" USB.
Bryan H
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