Date   : Fri, 03 Oct 1997 15:38:54 +0000
From   : callow@... (Matt Callow)
Subject: Disk problems

Hi,

I hope someone's out there and can help me...
I've just aquired an old BBC model B with single disk drive.  I have the user 
manual but no info on the drive or DFS and I am having real problems 
formatting any disks.
On bootup the beeb reports
'LVL Dos'      - can anyone tell me what DFS this is?

The disk is a CUMANA which I an guessing is a double sided 40 track, but I 
have no info on it.  I have tried to format the disk in several ways:

Connecting the disk to my PC and using FDC with the following commands
bbc
dd
format
This seems to format the disk OK, but on connection to the beeb, I can only 
write very short files to the disk.
I have also tried FDC to format 1 side only , with the same result.

Looking inside the beeb , 
the DFS ROM is numbered 0.91f
the floppy controller is a 1797 mounted on a separate board (made by Computer 
Village Ltd)

I have also downloaded the FORM40 program from the welcome disk into memory 
(after some mods to always prompt for disk) using xfer.  If i run this I get a 
floopy error returned as soon as it starts formatting.

Any ideas anyone??

Thanks in advance






-- 
Matt