Date   : Tue, 19 Jul 2005 19:40:21 +0100
From   : jgh@... (Jonathan Graham Harston)
Subject: Re: floppy discs

"Colin" <cwhill@...> wrote:
> I have tried various commands (*verify and even the formatting command) and
> the drive just chugs away forever (I can hear it going around).
 
The drive chugs away looking for the "FORMAT" or "VERIFY" command
on the disk... which is unformatted, so will eventually give an
error.
 
You need a FORMAT program to at least format one disk. I've got
one at http://mdfs.net/Software/HADFS/Formatter Of
course, you first need to format a disk to save it on to get it to
the BBC.  There's a text file of the program that you could copy
and type in. That will let you format a disk and save the format
program on to format other disks in future.
 
It's a little large for easy typing in, so I'll put together a
short minimal formatter that can be typed in easily.
 
-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...                - mdfs.net/User/JGH
Sheffield Boundary Review at http://mdfs.net/User/JGH/Docs/Politics/ParlReview