+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | David C Niemi (Reston, VA, USA) niemi at tuxers dot net | +-----------------------------------------------------------+
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 21:45:57 +1100 From: John Floyd jfloyd@bigpond.net.au To: fdutils-owner@tux.org Subject: USB Floppy Formatting.
Hello,
Is this something that you would like to include in fdutils?
I have been looking for quite a while for a solution to this, and just recently found this reference
http://www.geocities.jp/tedi_world/format_usbfdd_e.html
I tried it on a usb floppy that I have access to and it only appeared to format the first track. I have modified the code to specifically format each track and side. It appears to work but some specific testing still needs to confirm this. USB formatting seems to operate under the UFI spec and each drive has an internal list of the floppy formats that it will accept (limiting I realise). So it will not work genetically like superformat does. This appears to be a hardware/firmware implementation limit.
Given the amount of trouble that I have had getting this info - I have been trying to decide on the best way to advertise this - it seems that fdutils is the best IMO.
Let me know please.
John. _______________________________________________ fdutils mailing list fdutils@tux.org http://www.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/fdutils
On Thursday 17 November 2005 17:19, David C Niemi wrote:
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| David C Niemi (Reston, VA, USA) niemi at tuxers dot net |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 21:45:57 +1100 From: John Floyd jfloyd@bigpond.net.au To: fdutils-owner@tux.org Subject: USB Floppy Formatting.
Hello,
Is this something that you would like to include in fdutils?
I have been looking for quite a while for a solution to this, and just recently found this reference
http://www.geocities.jp/tedi_world/format_usbfdd_e.html
I tried it on a usb floppy that I have access to and it only appeared to format the first track. I have modified the code to specifically format each track and side. It appears to work but some specific testing still needs to confirm this.
Thanks for the note.
However, fdutils are utilities which are specifically meant to interoperate with legacy (FDC-based) floppy drives. API-wise, the new USB drives (and also SCSI drives, or "IDE" floppies) are entirely different beasts, even if they happen to read the same plain 1.44MB floppy disks.
USB formatting seems to operate under the UFI spec and each drive has an internal list of the floppy formats that it will accept (limiting I realise). So it will not work genetically like superformat does. This appears to be a hardware/firmware implementation limit.
Indeed. So I'd rather keep the formatting utilities for both types of drives separate.
Given the amount of trouble that I have had getting this info - I have been trying to decide on the best way to advertise this - it seems that fdutils is the best IMO.
I added a link to the fdutils web site pointing to format_usbfdd_e, so it will be easier to find ;-)
Let me know please.
John. _______________________________________________ fdutils mailing list fdutils@tux.org http://www.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/fdutils
Regards,
Alain
_______________________________________________ fdutils mailing list fdutils@tux.org http://www.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/fdutils
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Alain Knaff -
David C Niemi