FAT12 format tool needed

[buletov]

Hi, i tried a lot of googling for this but not manged to succeed.

Does anyone know ANY universal format tool?

(I need it to format a 128MB USB stick with FAT12)

[XtremeMaC]

mine also works with fat12 but when u install the driver it also installs a small program for it

i've creative muvo 128mb.

[Famer]

http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/14928.html

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hp...load/20306.html

hope this helps

[prathapml]

Won't PartitionMagic do it?

[jaclaz]

Actually you need to FDISK the drive as FAT12 Before FORMATTING IT.

http://fdisk.radified.com/

http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/index.htm

You might want to try these tools:

www.ranish.com/part

http://www.zeleps.com/

http://diskman.dyndns.org/

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/...rmat/format.lsm

This page is an interesting overview/comparison of FAT12 vs. FAT16

http://www.pscience5.net/CompactFlash.htm

jaclaz

[00buck]

You can open a dos window and format it.

[prathapml]

jaclaz, are fdisk and ranish able to see the USB mem stick?

@00buck

I doubt that CMD windows can in anyway access the mem-stick, and even if they did, format.exe *CANNOT* do FAT12.

[jaclaz]

fdisk and ranish able to see the USB mem stick?

Not directly of course.

You must make a dos/win9x floppy or installation with USB support.

Even then, not ALL computers (due to the poor implementation of the USB standard in some bios) can access it properly.

Here are some possible resources:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10215

http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/

http://www.datoptic.com/Drivers/DAT.exe

The "Moto Hairu" Panasonic driver di1000dd.sys is reported to be working:

http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/15210.html

Another "possible" approach would be to create an empty "RAW" virtual drive file formatted as FAT12, then DD it to the stick.

Finally one could try to use the DOS 3.3 format utility, which had only FAT12 support, if I recall correctly.

jaclaz

[jaclaz]

UPDATE:

This "could" work:

http://www.mager.org/mkdosfs/

it is a WinNT port of linux command mkdosfs:

NAME

    mkdosfs - create an MS-DOS file system under Linux

SYNOPSIS

    mkdosfs  [  -A ][ -b sector-of-backup ] [ -c ] [ -l file-

    name ] [ -C ] [ -f number-of-FATs ] [ -F FAT-size ]  [  -i

    volume-id  ] [ -I ] [ -m message-file ] [ -n volume-name ]

    [ -r root-dir-entries ] [ -R number-of-reserved-sectors  ]

    [ -s sectors-per-cluster ] [ -S logical-sector-size ] [ -v

    ] device [ block-count ]

DESCRIPTION

    mkdosfs is used to create  an  MS-DOS  file  system  under

    Linux  on  a device (usually a disk partition).  device is

    the  special  file  corresponding  to  the device (e.g

    /dev/hdXX). block-count  is  the number of blocks on the

    device.  If omitted, mkdosfs automatically determiness the

    file system size.

....

    -F FAT-size

              Specifies the type of file allocation  tables  used

              (12,  16  or  32  bit). If  nothing is specified,

              mkdosfs will automatically select between 12 and 16

              bit,  whatever fits better for the filesystem size.

              32 bit FAT (FAT32 format) must (still) be  selected

              explicitly if you want it.

jaclaz